A Beautiful Day for a Paddle

A small group of us did one of our favorite paddles today, putting in at Floodwood, paddling down Fish Creek, through Follensby Clear, then portaging to Polliwog and taking out there where we had spotted a car.  It was a beautiful day.

Canadian Rockies Day 13

We woke to rain this morning so decided to just drive to Calgary since we didn't feel like hiking in the rain.  It really stormed in Calgary and we drove through a hail storm on the way to the hotel.  Tomorrow we fly back to the Adirondacks.

Canadian Rockies Day 12 - Lake Louise

We had an abbreviated hike today, only 2.5 miles along the paved path around Lake Louise.  The weather was cloudy so we didn't get the iconic photo of the blue-green lake with the glacier-covered mountains in the background and blue sky above.  We weren't sure we were up to the hike up the valley of six glaciers and when it started raining we decided to turn back.




Lake Louise is the only stop on the trip where I wish I had a "remove Japanese tourist" button on my photoshop software.  The place was really crowded.  But you didn't have to go very far up the trail to lose most of the people.  Still, we've decided that if we come to the Canadian Rockies again, we will probably skip Lake Louise.  If we want to hike there, we can drive over from Moraine Lake, as long as we are there by 9 AM so there is still parking available.

Canadian Rockies Day 11 - Consolation Lakes

We woke to cool and cloudy weather today with a forecast for rain.  We had hoped to hike the Valley of Six Glaciers trail from Lake Louise, but didn't want to be caught out in the rain.  So instead we drove back to Moraine Lake to walk the trail to Consolation Lakes.  The trail is mostly through the trees so we figured we wouldn't get as wet.  Plus, it is only 4 miles round trip instead of about 8.


The lakes are hemmed in by a large moraine that I didn't feel like climbing.  So I didn't really get much of a view of the lake.




This is the view back down the valley.

Canadian Rockies Day 10 - Drive to Lake Louise

We left Jasper this morning to drive back down the Icefields Parkway to Lake Louise.  We were sorry to leave and could have used another couple of days in Jasper.

We stopped at more waterfalls on the way.  Unfortunately, it was cloudy all day so the photos aren't great.
Athabasca Falls, including a walk along a channel that the river no longer uses.






Sunwapta Falls


Tangle Falls, right next to the road.


We are spending the next 3 nights in Paradise Bungalows.

Canadian Rockies Day 9 - Mount Edith Cavell

We had another wonderful hike today, walking about 5 ½ miles and climbing over 1600 feet.

We drove up a winding mountain road to the start of the hike up Mount Edith Cavell, with gorgeous views of Angel Glacier.  We stopped along the road to get a neat valley view.

This is a map of the trail.

We took the trail over the moraine to get a neat view of the glacier and lake.

During the hike we heard and saw many small avalanches.

Then we started up the trail to Cavell Meadows.  We got more great views of the glacier and lake.

There was lots of heather in bloom beside the trail.

The meadow was neat with many patches of snow.

We finally decided to turn around instead of taking the loop trail, due to the large amount of slippery snow on the path, which made for very slow going.

On the walk back past the moraine we saw several marmots, including a couple of cute little ones. 

Canadian Rockies Day 8 - Maligne Canyon

After early morning rain we drove to Maligne Canyon.  We started the hike at bridge #5 and walked up the path closest to the canyon.

Water from Medicine Lake drains through an underground cave system and appears as springs along the walls of the canyon.

It was getting close to lunchtime so we only walked as far as bridge #3, then turned back following a higher trail with a great view.  This photo looks downstream to bridge #5.

We found neat lilies along the trail.

After we returned to the cabin it rained again, and then we saw this beautiful rainbow out the window.