Banff Wildlife

We saw so much game that it reminded me of our trip to Africa and all the game drives.  We took the Bow Valley Parkway at every opportunity but we saw game on every road that we took in the area.  I won’t bore you with all the animal photos but I thought I should put in a few with animals that I haven’t sent photos out yet.

The first two are Big Horn sheep.  These were by Lake Minnewanka.  We saw 16 of them in this area.  They were right near the road and they were digging alongside the road and appeared to be eating the dirt.  We figured that there must be minerals or salts in the dirt that they were eating.  A bit later on the same morning, we spotted a group of 17 Big Horn Sheep, so we saw quite a few of these.

Elk were another animal that we saw in abundance.  The one in the third photo was right at the beginning of the Bow Valley Parkway.  We saw elk with bigger racks than this guy but still, I would hate to carry all that weight and rack around on my head. 

We spotted a pair of Osprey over Lake Minnewanka.  We followed them across the lake and in and out of the forest.  We finally got some decent overhead shots of them and I’ve included Andrew’s, which was the best.  I haven’t talked much about birds but we did see lots of birds on the trip as well.

Moraine Lake

We awoke to sunshine and blue sky for a second day in a row on this day.  We visited quite a few places and moved from Banff to Lake Louise.  We drove the whole way on the Bow Valley Parkway.  We checked into the Lake Louise Campground, got settled in, and then went to visit Lake Louise.  But the sun was in front of us and the lake was very crowded with tourists, so we decided to go somewhere else.  We went a short distance to Moraine Lake.  We hiked the Rock Pile Trail and the Lakeshore Trail.  Both trails were fabulous with spectacular views.  The rain caught up with us but we didn’t mind.  We spotted hoary marmots and Pikas along the trails.  Moraine Lake scored pretty high on the WOW factor.

The first two photos are Moraine Lake from the Rock Pile Trail, up near the top of the rock pile.  The teal water, white snow and ice, green forests, snips of blue sky, stratified rock faces, and the craggy mountains and peaks all made for a beautiful place.

The third photo is the other end of the lake from the first two photos and taken from the Lakeshore Trail. 

Most of the time that we were at Moraine Lake, we could hear Pikas because they were quite loud.  We would look around and most of the time, we couldn’t find them.  While they let us know they were there, they didn’t spend much time posing for photos.  Pikas are a small rodent about the size of a guinea pig.  You can see one in the last photo.

Tour Director Challenge

Vicky and I have taken quite a few tours around the world in the last ten years.  We usually travel in small groups with a tour director.  We have learned to chuckle about our tour directors.  They are usually very “driven” to have us do everything, show us everything, feed us everything, etc.  We can’t blame them; they want to please their customers, they want to show us everything worthwhile in their country with only a short amount of time to do it, and of course, they hope to earn a nice tip.

For our current adventure, Andrew was our defacto tour director.  He researched the trip, planned it out, determined each hike and camping place, and so forth.  Unfortunately for Andrew, his parents have learned to “pace” themselves over the years.  We’ve settled down a notch from our youth of a few years back.

I’m including a few photos of Vicky and myself setting our own pace, not necessarily Andrews.

The first photo was the morning at Lake McDonald Lodge.  We were enjoying our coffee and watching the lake…when Andrew said it was time to get moving.

The second photo was on our hike up Johnston Canyon.  The moss must have been six inches deep and a better bed, I have yet to find.  It was heavenly.

The third photo was at Lake Louise, after our long hike to the Plain of Six Glaciers which was over eight hours long at the point of this photo.

The fourth photo was at Mt Edith Cavell, up near Jasper.  We were just enjoying ourselves too much to move along, as were Andrew and April.

Hike to Plain of Six Glaciers (6G)

Today dawned cloudy and cool and we thought it was a perfect day for hiking.  We left from Lake Louise at 8:00am for the Plain of Six Glaciers.  The park hiking brochure said it was about six and two-thirds miles round trip with another just less than a mile round trip further to the Abbot Pass Overlook.  The brochure said the hike to the Plain of Six Glaciers was about 4 hours round trip.  The park service said the trail was in good shape.  They lied. 

We made the hike alright, but in eight and a half hours, counting lunch and lots of picture taking.  It was the highlight of the entire trip for me.  You will see it in 9 posts.  So let’s get started with our hike to “6G” – the Plain of Six Glaciers.

In the first photo, we are standing at the head of Lake Louise.  It’s important to notice that in the background of the middle of the lake is Mount Victoria and the Victoria Glacier.  The two major points of orientation for the photos from this hike will be Lake Louise and Mount Victoria.  Mount Victoria is 11,364 feet high.

The next two photos were taken while we walked along the trail next to Lake Louise.  The second photo was from around the middle of the lake and the third photo was taken near the end of the lake where the glacial melt, loaded with glacial flour, flowed into the lake.

I added the last photo because we saw lots of Hoary Marmots on this trip but we especially saw a lot of them on this section of this hike.  They weren’t nearly as hard to find as the Pikas were.  They even seemed to pose for us on occasion.

To 6G, Past Lake Louise

We were hiking up the trail from the end of Lake Louise when we were passed by three serious women hikers.  You can see two of them in the first photo.  We said polite “Hi’s” when they passed us but we soon caught up to them.  They were sitting besides the trail putting on their ‘gaiters’.  We stopped to chat and I couldn’t figure out where in the heck they were hiking with such huge backpacks, so I asked them.  They told us that they worked at the 6G Tea House and they were hauling up supplies.  They said it was normally done by horses but that the trail was closed to horses.  We asked about the gaiters and they said we would need them as the snow was deep ahead.  We didn’t have any gaiters, but that proved to be the least of our worries.  

You can see in the second photo that only a short ways further, we were in the snow.  What amazed us about this was the color of the snow.  The deep blue color is from glacial ice that has been compacted over long periods of time and the weight has squeezed the air out of the ice.  It seemed out of place to us, but we soon found out why not.

The trail continued to rise sharply and you can see a much better view of the Victoria Glacier in the third photo.

The trail soon became almost all snow and ice as you can see in the last photo.  But of course, we were still smiling and enjoying every minute of the hike.  It was a great day with a great temperature and beautiful views in every direction including Lake Louise down behind us.  What could be better?

Avalanches

We probably should have started to get more concerned as we passed avalanche after avalanche across the trail.  But we didn’t.  We were having a fantastic hike without a care in the world.  Plus, we knew that the three women hikers were ahead of us and one of them was carrying a huge backpack, so what did we have to worry about.

The first three photos are all avalanches that we crossed on our hike.  All three had come across the trail.  You can see the dirt and rocks on the snow and ground and also the trees that were knocked over by the avalanches.  We noticed them but didn’t feel nervous about them.  Of course, when we were driving on the Sun Highway in Glacier National Park, I had seen signs along the highway.  The signs said “Avalanche area, don’t stop your car”.  I interpreted that to mean that while the highway was in an avalanche prone area, if we didn’t stop the car, but drove straight through, the odds were very slight of getting swept away by an avalanche.  Remembering that, you might go back to the first three photos and notice that in each instance, I walked past the avalanche area, then stopped to take these photos of my fellow hikers – standing IN the avalanche areas.

The last photo was another clue that we just stood and enjoyed and marveled at.  It was quite a few tons of ice hanging on the side of a cliff, just above the trail.  We stood and admired it far too long, but the rest of that story will come later – on the way back down the mountain.

The Trail Disappears

I will explain this section of the hike simply by putting in a section out of my Journal for this trip about this part of the hike.  From my journal for June 11, 2011:

“At about two and a half miles up the trail, the trail disappeared, due to an earlier avalanche.  We had been passed along the trail by three young women who were carrying large backpacks.  We asked them where they were heading and they told us that they worked at the Tea House and they were carrying up supplies.  So we knew that the trail went through since they had gone ahead of us.  Andrew found a new trail (photo one) and we followed him upwards.  Andrew’s new route quickly lead us to the top of a knife-edged lateral moraine ridge.  The trail was two to three inches wide in many areas and perhaps as wide as ten inches in the widest areas.  (photos two and three)  The ridge extended for several hundred yards or more.  One mis-step could have caused a tumble to possible death on one side and a tumble to an eventual snow-bank on the other side.  Vicky slipped down once but hung on and Andrew and I had to pull her back up to the ridge top – while keeping our own balance.  About three-fourths of the way along the knife-edged ridge, April determined that we had missed the trail.  We could see the actual trail down below us on the adjoining mountain but I couldn’t see how we could get to it.  April was correct about us being on the wrong trail but Andrew wanted to keep going forward and upwards.  It didn’t look good but we could see that at least we were nearly out of serious danger.  After a lengthy discussion (considering our position), (photo four) Andrew finally asked me what I thought.  I said, “Son, this is your trip.  You researched it, planned it, and put it together.  Your mom and I signed on to go, so if you say ‘Onwards and Upwards’, we are right behind you.  But I do want to point out one thing.  If your mom and I fall off this ridge and die, you are going to have to explain it to your two sisters all by yourself – and your sister Rita gives one heck of a cross examination”.  Andrew said “noted Dad, onwards and upwards”.  We made it across the rest of the ridge, rock hopped up steep loose moraine which alternated with high snow drifts and avalanche fields.  We made it all the way to the Six Glaciers and the Abbot Pass Viewpoint and then back down the mountain to the Plain of Six Glaciers Tea House.  It was one of the most exciting hikes of our lives.  In fact, it was probably number two.  Some snow drifts were four to five feet high and we crossed dozens of avalanches.”

IF the trail doesn’t look very worrisome to you, take a look at the last photo.  I took it from the Plain of Six Glaciers.  It’s looking back at the ridge that we had just hiked (the previous photos).  If you look close, you can see two hikers taking the same trail that we did.  One is on the right side and the other is just to the left of the area of the ridge with snow behind it.  They look very small which gives you more perspective of the size of the mountain and how far down it was if we slipped off the edge.

Abbot Pass Viewpoint

Once we made it off the upper end of the lateral moraine cliff, we thought we had it made.  It was less than a mile to the Abbot Pass Viewpoint and should have been an hour roundtrip.  We were not on the trail, however.  We had to rock hop on loose moraine and then plow our way through some pretty deep snow drifts.  But we were in no hurry and the sun even came out for a short while.  We eventually got there and could look down into the crevasses on Lower Victoria Glacier which you can see in the first photo.  We could also see Abbot Hut which is one of the highest buildings in Canada.  You can see Abbot Hut in the second photo.

Despite the fact that it looks cold, it was actually quite nice temperature wise.  We took time to enjoy the views and then headed back down the mountain.

Back Down to 6G Tea House

We managed to take the actual trail from the Abbot Pass Viewpoint down to the 6G Tea House.  Once we got to the Tea House, we found out that the trail from the Tea House to the Abbot Pass Viewpoint was closed to all hikers.  For us, having just traversed it, we understood why.  Some sections were covered with deep snow.  I led the way down because it made the most sense.  I have my built-in size 15 snow shoes which I wear every time I put on shoes, so I stomped a trail for the others to follow.  I figured that if I could make it through, the others could make it behind me.

It started off pretty easy as you can see in the first photo.  The trail was all snow but not too bad.  But before long, we experienced many areas of snow sitting on top of ice.  When I started to slip and slide on the ice with my size 15 shoes, I knew we were in for trouble.  I would go a little ways ahead and then tell them where the rough or icy spots were.  But even with my experience and advice, we all took our tumbles.  You can see April sliding off the trail in the second photo.  But that turned out not to be the real problem either.  We soon came across a monster avalanche area which you can see in the third photo.  That one took most of the forest with it.  We had trouble just climbing through the clutter while trying to follow the trail.  The avalanches and the potential for more at any moment was why the trail was closed.  And for deep snow, you can see Andrew in the last photo, trudging his way through the snow.

6G Tea House

We reached the Plain of Six Glaciers Tea House at 1:30pm and ordered some lunch.  The 6G Tea House was built in 1924.  In the early days of developing back-country tourism in this area, the Canadian Parks department imported some Swiss guides to help them.  The Swiss guides encouraged the Canadians to put in some back country Swiss chalet buildings for the back-country tourists, much like they have in Switzerland.  The Tea House was one of these buildings, as was the Abbot Pass Hut.

You can see the 6G Tea House in the first photo and you can see Andrew, Vicky and myself on the upper outside area.  We would have much preferred to be inside, but all the seats inside were taken.  But by then, we were happy to have any seats and to get something to eat.  In the second photo, you can see Vicky with some homemade hummus, chips, and a mocha.  And in the third photo, you know you trained your children right when you see them drinking their tea with their pinkie fingers extended.  Always with class.

And then the Rains came

While we were eating lunch at the 6G Tea House, it started to rain.  But we were prepared and wanted to get back down the mountain, so we geared up and took off.  It was raining steady but not particularly hard and it was still not very cold.  We still had to deal with some snowy and icy trails but the rains didn’t make things much worse.  We asked the Tea House women who had passed us earlier where the trail started and this time, we took the real trail, and not our cross-country trail, down the mountain.  You can see us heading down the mountain in the first two photos.

Eventually, we got back to where we had lost the trail and found out why.  There was actually red tape across the trail that we took, but another avalanche had buried it and we hadn’t noticed it.  But we finally got back to the trail where we had come up in the morning.  Not long after that, we again passed the large ice chunks hanging from the side of the mountain, just above the trail.  You can see this again in the third photo.  We again marveled that it was just hanging there.  We thought it must have been there a long time since the ice was so blue.  We eventually walked on but about two minutes later, we heard a thunderous clap and loud sequence of noise and turned to see all the ice in the third photo go tumbling down and sweep across the trail where we had just passed.  You can see this in the fourth photo.  Some chunks from that big ice fall were the size of trucks and must have weighed hundreds of pounds.  No one got hit but it made everyone’s pulse beat a little quicker.  You can see a couple in the bottom left center of the photo, each with an umbrella.  They were a little bit apart on the trail and the avalanche went right between them.

Back to Lake Louise

We made it back to Lake Louise.  When we reached Lake Louise, it was still raining, but before we reached the other end, the sun was back out.  The whole hike had taken us about eight and a half hours and we probably hiked a little over nine miles.  It was a daring hike of a lifetime, never to be forgotten.  The kids were laughing at me because I kept making comments that started with, “When I was hiking here back in ’72…”   But I told them that many years from now, they will be telling people, “When we were hiking up in the Canadian Rockies back in 2011…”

I included four photos, not that I needed to or because they tell a great story; I just can’t pass up putting in some more great photos of Lake Louise.

And when we got back to our RV, you would think that we would have gone straight back to camp and poured ourselves a drink.  But not on Andrew’s trip.  We went for a drive on the Bow Valley Parkway to look for game.

Q & A ON THE 6G HIKE

I had quite a few questions and comments on our hike to the Plain of Six Glaciers.  I’ll respond to some of the questions with this post.

Q.  Did you and Vicky wear those tie-dyed shirts so you would be easier to find in an avalanche?

A.  That would have been pretty smart but we had no idea we would be hiking through avalanches, so no we didn’t.

Q.  Was that the same tie-dyed shirt you wore when you hitchhiked up there back in 1972?

A.  No.  I didn’t own a tie-dyed shirt until my mother-in-law gave me this one for Christmas 2008.  She purchased them in Pinecrest on the way to Yosemite at a small store called “Tie-Dye and Jerky” (as in beef jerky).

Q.  Are you crazy?  (for doing that hike)

A.  Do you mean as in – “still crazy after all these years”? 

Q.  Why didn’t you turn back and go home?

A.  We were having too much fun.

Q.  If you were off by yourselves, how come you had trouble finding a place to sit at the Tea House?

A.  Not that many people hiked up to the tea house, but that was everyone’s destination.  It was normally an easy hike.  And we left before all of them, but they managed to keep on the trail.  By the time we took our side-trip adventure out to the Abbot Pass Viewpoint and back, everyone else had already arrived at the tea house.

Q.  If your hike to 6G was the second most exciting hike of your life, what was the first?

A.  Back in late October 1974, Vicky and I made a back-packing trip to the Sierra.  We hiked the Rae Lakes loop trail which is in Kings Canyon National Park.  It’s a 46 mile loop through granite-walled canyons and along cascading creeks and rivers and past beautiful high mountain lakes.  Part of the trail is the John Muir Trail and part of it is the Pacific Crest Trail which goes from Canada to Mexico.  The trail is rated “difficult” by the park service.  It starts at around 5,000 feet elevation and gains almost 7,000 feet when you pass over Glen Pass which is 11,978 feet high.  It’s also an active “bear” area.

     We went in October with a big storm coming in.  We were advised to not go into the area by the park service.  But we had been in drought conditions for three years and we were skeptical about the storm.  The park service told us that only 11 people had signed up to enter the area, including us.  They said that if we got into trouble, there wouldn’t be many people around to help us.  We went on the hike anyway.  My pack was 55 pounds and Vicky’s pack was 35 pounds.  My pack stayed at 55 pounds for the trip while miraculously, Vicky’s got lighter every day.

     We got to Rae Lakes late the day we arrived.  Upper Rae Lakes is a bit over 10,500 feet elevation.  I was pulling 6-7 inch rainbow trout out of the lake with every cast.  It was the best fishing trip I ever had.  And standing near where Upper Rae Lake empties into Lower Rae Lake was the best spot that I ever fished.  Anyway, we went to bed at Rae Lakes and woke up to find our tent just off our noses.  I thought I must have done a poor job putting up the tent the night before.  But it had snowed and the tent was weighed down by the snow. 

     Rae Lake is at the 27 mile mark of the 46 miles – in the direction that we were hiking.  Vicky wanted to go back the way we came, but I wanted to go over Glen Pass since it was the shortest way back.  From Ray Lakes to Glen Pass is one very steep switchback trail.  The trail was covered with snow so that we couldn’t tell where it started to switch back and the cliff was steep if we went too far.  It started to snow heavily soon after we started up the trail.  About one third of the way up, I noticed two guys coming up behind us.  They caught up to us a little over half-way up the mountain.  I told them I had broke the trail so far, it was their turn.  These two guys were hiking the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada and were in shape and well prepared.  They had gaiters and all the things that we didn’t have.  Anyway, they took the lead to Glenn Pass.

     From Glen Pass, someone said we could see some 40 lakes.  We could only see about four feet.  It was white-out blizzard conditions.  The two hikers asked us to take their picture, so we, in turn, asked them to take our picture.  That was the toughest and most exciting hike I ever took.  It’s normally a 5 day hike and we had planned on seven days to allow for plenty of fishing.  We ended up taking eight days and created some great memories.

Lake Louise Campground

Here’s another little glimpse of camp life.  Most of the campgrounds where we stayed had warnings posted for Grizzly Bears, Mountain Lions, and way up north in Lake Louise, also for Elk, due to calving season.  But at Lake Louise, they were really serious about the Grizzlies.  The entire campground was fenced off with an electrified fence which you can see in the first photo.  They even had a cattle guard gate to drive over which had electrical wires strung between the pipes.  I walked over the electrified cattle gate with my sandals on and the rangers had a fit.  I told them there was no chance of me hitting the wires with my size 15 sandals but I promised not to do it again.

The next photo is a food photo.  Vicky is a gourmet around the camp with concoctions that I doubt most anyone else has thought about.  You can see one of our before dinner snacks that she brought along for this trip.  It was a simple one of crackers with homemade pickles and canned crab.  But the story continued the next night after we got back to camp.

From my journal:

     We went to take showers but the showers on our side of the campground and river were closed, due to electrical problems.  So we had to drive across the river to the RV campground section and use their showers.  I suggested that we all go together since the RV was also our kitchen, etc.  I had checked out the showers and they were individual ones spread around a large room.  I asked and we didn’t have bars of soap for all of us.  Andrew had brought along some ecologically sound, concentrated, peppermint, liquid camp soap.  But we couldn’t share it, so I looked for a container to put a few squirts into for myself.  From our trash, I found last night’s crab can which I thought would work perfectly.  By a vote of 3 to 1, it was decided that my taking a shower with a peppermint crab soap mixture was not acceptable, considering our close quarters.  I was disappointed but Andrew put a few squirts into a plastic bag and away we went.  It worked fine, but I’m still curious about that peppermint crab combination.

We went for walks around our campgrounds at night, looking for wildlife.  On this night, we didn’t see any bears but we did see some elk, deer, and smaller animals.  My big find for the night’s hiking was a partial set of elk horns as you can see in the third photo.  They were heavy enough that I’d hate to carry them around on my own head.

The last photo is another food photo.  April had done much of the shopping for this trip.  She dutifully purchased a brand new bottle of mustard, thinking it sufficient for our trip.  She soon learned that Andrew and I prefer to each have our own dedicated bottle of mustard.  We made our purchase of extra mustard bottles, much to her surprise, but not to Vicky’s.

Yoho National Park

The day after our exciting hike to the Plain of Six Glaciers, we decided to try for a more relaxing day.  The day was supposed to be sunny but it was overcast with periods of rain.  We spent most of the day driving and stopping to take in all the sights.  We started by driving west on Highway 1.  We soon entered Yoho National Park.  One of the first sights that we saw was Mount Bosworth, high above Kicking Horse Pass.  We made too many stops to talk about them all and show all the pictures, so this will just be a few highlights of our trip through Yoho National Park.

The first photo is Hamilton Falls.  It was a short hike (in periods of heavy rain) above Emerald Lake.  It was quite interesting in that the falls were framed and inside of the rock of the mountain.  I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a falls quite like that. 

The next photo is Emerald Lake which was a beautiful colored lake.  If you look at the first picture of Emerald Lake (2nd photo), you can see the huge avalanche right across the lake.  We thought that it was a relatively old avalanche, perhaps a year or more ago.  We were wrong.  The trees from the slide were still floating in the lake which you can see in the third photo.  The avalanches up in this part of the world were abundant and dramatic.

Another stop, near the edge of Yoho National Park, was Wapta Falls.  It required another hike and was well worth it.  Wapta Falls, which you can see in the last photo, reminded me of Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.  In both cases, the falls hits the bottom and the water is blocked by other rock and the mist is forced to rise.  Wapta Falls had lots of water flowing over it and the spray shot high in the air.  There were many more falls along the river but this was the big one.

Yoho NP Hike and Goats

We also took a number of other hikes in Yoho National Park that were not that dramatic as in the prior post.  The first photo was one such hike but I put in one photo because I’m not sure that I ever remember taking such long hikes where almost the entire time, we were hiking across roots above the ground.  We hiked some long hikes on trails such as this one.  It made it hard to look around and enjoy the scenery because we always had to be watching our steps.

Our major animal sightings in Yoho National Park were Elk, Deer, and Mountain Goats.  I’m including three photos here of Mountain Goats.  We saw quite a few of these on our trip but this was the closest we got to them.  They were on a cliff right next to the highway.

Kootenay National Park

We left Yoho National Park and went into Kootenay National Park.  We drove Highway 93 north to Highway 1.  It was a nice drive but there were far fewer places to stop in Kootenay.  This will be my only Kootenay post.  We were still encountering periods of rain, fog, sun, clouds, and back to rain.  The view in the first photo was somewhat common on this drive. 

We stopped at a place called the Paint Pots.  I was disappointed by their lack of color.  It may be due to so much water runoff early in the year, but I don’t know for sure.  You can see two paint pots in the second photo, the large one in front and the small one in the back.  But the walk to the Paint Pots was along and, in part, through the Ochre River.  You can see part of the Ochre River in the third photo.

We stopped at Numa Falls but it was very late in the day.  We hiked for several miles there.  There were falls but the real draw is that the water has scored the canyon very deeply.  We saw at least a handful of places similar to this place on our trip.  The last photo is from our Numa Falls hike.  The colors were brilliant from the water to the rock to the mosses and lichens to the trees and shrubs and sky.

We got back to camp at 10:00pm – so much for our ‘relaxing’ day.

Hike to Lake Agnes

After a day spent driving around Yoho and Kootenay National Parks, we were back to hiking.  Today was another day predicted to be sunny – that wasn’t.  We started early, once again from Lake Louise, on the same trail that we took to the Plain of Six Glaciers.  But the trails diverge early and we started up towards the Big Beehive.  Our first big stop was at Mirror Lake.  You can see it in the first photo with the Big Beehive in the background.  I’m not sure why, but Mirror Lake was indeed very green in color.

The next stop on the way to the Big Beehive was Lake Agnes.  You can see Lake Agnes in the second photo.  The day before, we stopped at the Lake Louise Visitor Center.  They told us that the trail to the Big Beehive was dangerous and we shouldn’t try to hike it.  Andrew asked why the trail to 6G was rated good and they said it was due to the privately owned 6G Tea House wanting business.  So we decided to see what the Big Beehive trail looked like for ourselves.  The trail to the Big Beehive went around Lake Agnes and up the mountain on the other side.  When we got to Lake Agnes, it started to rain.  I spotted a person who was working at the Lake Agnes Tea House and he said the trail was really bad.  He said that they had a big avalanche yesterday and he pointed it out to me.  We decided to hike around the lake to see the avalanche closer up.

If you look at the third photo, the Big Beehive is to the upper left of the top of the photo.  If you look just above Andrew, you might barely be able to make out the trail to the Big Beehive.  And if you look just to the left of Andrew, you can see yesterday’s avalanche that wiped out the trail to the Big Beehive.  The tea house worker told me that the trail to the Little Beehive was just as difficult, also had great views, but did not have any avalanche danger.  We made the adult decision to hike to the Little Beehive instead of the Big Beehive.  Vicky said that if not for her and April, she had no doubt that Andrew and I would have been heading for the Big Beehive.

You can see Andrew heading back towards the end of Lake Agnes, on our way to the Little Beehive, in the last photo.  It was that kind of trail.

Hike to Little Beehive

We hiked up to the Little Beehive and as the fellow told us, it was difficult hiking in some big snow drifts.  The trail was indeed hard to follow in places and we did a lot of slipping and sliding.  But of course, we made it.  There really wasn’t much to photograph of the Little Beehive.  The beauty of the Little Beehive was the views, which we did photograph.

I really like the first photo because you can see Lake Louise (blue) at the bottom, Mirror Lake (green) a little higher up, and Lake Agnes (white) on the right side, tucked behind the Big Beehive.

I kept thinking about where we were, relative to Lake Louise as we walked the trail.  At one point, I wandered off the trail towards the edge of the mountain, hoping for a better view than we had from the designated viewpoint.  I found it and you can see three photos taken from that spot.

In the second photo, you can see Vicky in what must be the ‘fashion statement photo of the Decade’.  Vicky’s tie-dyed shirt includes a blue that exactly matches the color of Lake Louise.  Who knew that I was married to a fashion maven?

If you look up the Bow Valley on the left in the fourth photo, you can see a storm heading our way.  It caught up to us.  We took a break at the Lake Agnes Tea House and had some hot chocolate and snacks while waiting out the worst of the storm.  You can see that in the last photo.  We eventually headed back to Lake Louise in the rain.

Lake Louise Gondola

After our hike to Lake Agnes and the Little Beehive, we had some lunch.  After lunch, we took the Lake Louise Gondola up to the top of the mountain – in the rain.  We were told that there was a chance of seeing Grizzly bears from the gondola.  The gondola had both enclosed cars and ski chairs.  We took the ski chairs so that we could get better photos in case we saw a Grizzly bear.  You can see Vicky and I taking off in the rain on our gondola ride in the first photo.  Vicky looks like she thinks it was a bad decision.

We visited their excellent visitor center up at the top of the mountain and of course, took more photos.  You can see Andrew hard at work in the rain in the second photo.  We eventually headed back down the gondola, again in the ski chairs.  You can see Andrew and April in the third photo with Lake Louise and our hike to 6G in the background.

So did we get to see a grizzly?  Yes we did – on the way down the mountain.  I’ve included two photos of the bear.  It was great because we were floating over the animals in the gondola chairs, so they didn’t pay any attention to us, and we got some great photos.  It’s a great way to see these types of animals and put ski lifts to use in the off season.