Paradise Valley

The previous post in this series is here..

After taking in the beauty of Lake Louise and Lake Moraine, we had an hour. So we decided to hike the Paradise valley trail. 

This trail goes to a beautiful vista point after an approximately 3 mile hike and eventually connects at a fork to Lake Louise or Lake Moraine. The hike towards Moraine goes to an amazing ledge viewpoint after a few more miles. We did not have time to go there.. but we will definitely on a future trip. 

This trail was lush green along a boistrous creek.  Every now and then there is a path that goes to the rivers edge. We hiked up to the bridge, admired the river and walked back. 

The sun was just starting to come out..one side was bright and that made for interesting views..

Now we were late on our schedule, but at this point, San decided to go with a flexible approach.. "we see what we can see" was the new motto.

A short video of the creek and our drive back.. they have beautiful animal crossing bridges on this freeway to avoid animals and people losing their lives.. these overpasses have trees on them and the animals cross over safely.. hope the US also adopts this in places like Yosemite..

We had not had anything to eat till this point. So we decided to eat some snacks while driving slowly towards the next stop.. Johnston canyon. 

Johnston canyon gets us practically back to Banff town. We had covered the farther points and that meant not much driving left..just a lot of hiking!

Mt. El Sombroso

I am taking a brief detour from the Banff posts to cover a local hike we did today. This is supposed to be one of the toughest hikes in the local bay area. 

The Kennedy trail to Mount El Sombroso, a series of hills that come in waves. It is very different from a go up and come down formula.. you keep going up and down for the last 3 miles.. so that makes it 6 miles of up and down on a ~14 mile hike. 

We left early enough but had to park across and walk. We were up in the clouds and fog fairly early but slowed down steadily over the next two hours. The views were amazing in spite of the sun because we were above the clouds for the most part. 

there were no benches on this trail...not much shade either!

Two photos from this vista point that made my day.. (thanks to the two ladies who clicked these!)

As usual, we had chai at the top..

You can see Mt. Umunhum in the background. we were thinking that if it wasnt for the building on the top of that, this would be the tallest point in the range. we felt we were looking down on that mountain at one point!

The landscapes were amazing.. till the sun came out.. then there was a bluish tinge on everything.. maybe the fire in Yosemite is causing this?

you can see downtown San Jose under the cloud cover!

A video of the hike.. 

As a prep hike for Yosemite, this one comes close.. definitely more challenging than Mission peak! 

Strongly recommend this hike, if you can leave early enough and avoid the sun beating down on you relentlessly.. take enough water. We underestimated how much water we needed today and slowed down the last few miles because of that!

The trail is slippery in the gravel areas and pretty steep at places. They call it a tough hike for a reason!

All is well that ends well. I am tired but have a sense of accomplishment! Hope this trend continues...

Two lakes and a waterfall

The previous post on this series is here..

The bus stopped at a waterfall that flows into a river (where they Freeway goes between the two). This was followed by two more stops at Bow lake and Waterfowl lakes. 

Both these lakes looked similar except for the extent of the "lake beaches" and the picnicing crowds. The scenery was just amazing!

This photograph is thanks to the Belgian professor.. his daughter was telling to him take some vertical and horizontal.. he goes "will even take some diagonal.. how about that?". Turned out great!

We met a large punjabi family of 30+ people with picnic blankets and food spread out in one of the little coves around the lake. We were given half an hour at the stop and everyone in the bus interested in taking photos at the lake had to walk through one of many trails to get to the shore and take pictures. We thought we were going to a quiet spot.. turned out not to be. so we went back around to find a quiet spot to take photos. 

Both these lakes are beautiful. Turqoise waters, clear enough for you to see the bottom pebbles for quite a distance, snow and ice covered mountains in the background..

San's candid shot of me at Waterfowl lakes

Surprisingly, she took a lot of photos of me on this trip and they were all good! Not out of focus, not contrasty, over or under exposed.. just right! That was a big bonus for me on this trip!

if you are not going by the bus tour, stop by both these lakes! There is enough parking in the parking lot at bow lake. For Waterfowl lake, you just stop at the vista point and walk down. 

A video of the stops 

The day wasn't over. We still had lot to do after being dropped off..

The ice field Skywalk

The previous post in this series is here..

After the visit to the glacier and back, we were told that the ticket includes a ride to the skywalk and back. So we went in a larger bus to the skywalk bus stop. From this stop it is a half mile walk to the Skywalk.

San actually did a great job taking that picture given the crowd! I am a very proud photographer hubby..

This is an engineering marvel !! A U shaped piece of projecting steel and glass above the abyss. You are walking on glass and it is scary to walk on. The thing still shakes a bit in the heavy winds and that scared me a little more. 

We saw a family of mountain sheep under the bridge. These sheep were amazing movers on near vertical surfaces! The baby was extremely cute!!

We read through the engineering details of the bridge, quickly walked through it (it was way too crowded) and got back on the next bus. 

This is a must visit place. I think this will be even more beautiful when the mountains facing the skywalk have snow on them. Right now the river and the waterfalls are beautiful but not obviously visible.

A video of the Skywalk..

When you see a place like this.. you are proud to be an engineer. Heard a kid walk before me and say "this is just engineers showing off. They really didn't need to build something like this.. but they went and did it anyways!"  I walked behind laughing. 

What is more amazing is the engineering that is there in those sheeps soft padded feet that can grip any shape of rock as they go up on those vertical rock faces.. 

On the return to Banff, we stopped by a waterfall first and headed to stop by two lakes.

Will post that next..

The Athabasca Glacier

The previous post in this series is here..

We had been in Alberta for less than a day and we had already spent the morning at some amazing places. Once we drove to the Columbia Icefield and the lodge for the employees who do the tours.. we were asked to wait for 15 minutes while our 20 year old bus driver and guide gave us the tickets to the glacier. 

That picture is going in a frame.. I have not seen her happier in any other landscape recently. Being cooped up in the house or going on local hikes is not enough for this girl. So in a way I am happy we went on this trip!

We had to wait another 15 minutes to get on an another bus that took us further up. There we transferred to one of these monster trucks (think this is the largest tyres I have seen in my life) and another guide took us to the Glaciers edge. 

Once there, we were allowed to walk as a group to the farthest safe point for folks wearing normal shoes. There was another group that went farther up, but with snow shoes. Given our schedules and the extra effort involved, we were happy with the tour we did. 

We got to drink glacial melt water and walk a third of a mile or so into it and back. 

Jasper National park, where the Athabasca glacier is located, had its own lakes and falls and sights on the Alberta top 10 list. However that will need a separate trip to Jasper and possibly accomodations close to Jasper than Banff. Someday we will visit Jasper is what we told ourselves on the return!

Just those pictures and walking on the Glacier was a highlight..

The tickets also included a bus ride to and from the Skywalk.. will post that later.

Once back after the skywalk, we had 30 minutes to grab something from the gift shop. There is a Starbucks but with a line  a mile long. The eating place in the second floor had self serve hot cocoa, which ended up being the right choice. We got to sip a hot drink sitting on the patio with a view of the glacier(s). 

A video of the glacier adventure!

We had three stops on the way back to Banff.. two of those three were 30 minute stops and one was a five minute stop to take photos of a falls (which in winter is called the Weeping wall.. where the falls are frozen on the wide mountain side.. in summer they were not that impressive). 

More on the two stops later..