Yoho – ho??I certainly didn’t have a bottle of rum on this trip, although if the two grizzlies had come much closer, I might have needed it!
This trip took me to the wonderful Yoho National Park, which lies to the west side of Banff National Park, just on the BC side of the Alberta-BC border. The Trans-Canada Highway (TCH) runs through the middle of the Park, but there are some superb hiking trails and remote mountain destinations, including a few locations of abandoned fire lookouts.
Although I did not achieve all my goals on this trip, it was still another wonderful adventure in the Canadian Rockies, which this time included gigantic waterfalls, frozen lakes, and spectacular scenery – to say nothing of the wildlife, and the trains!
I had to be in the office first thing in the morning, so was not on the road until almost 10 a.m., but the traffic was not too busy, and I negotiated the roadworks between Castle Junction and the Icefields Parkway at a slow speed, but in light traffic. Dropping down into BC, down the “big hill” (as this section of the Canadian Pacific railway line was called, before the spiral tunnels were built), and just before reaching the railway village of Field, I turned right onto the Yoho Valley road. Here were two campsites. The nicer site, Kicking Horse, was not yet open, but the winter campground of Monarch, next door, was open, and almost empty. So I pitched my tent in the trees, under a gigantic cliff, just before a short rain shower swept through the valley. I then proceeded west on the TCH.
My first destination was Mt. Hunter Lookout. The trailhead lies on the TCH, a few kilometers east of the Park boundary. Here the Wapta Falls road branches off to the left, and it was here that I parked the car. But to reach the Mt. Hunter trail, one has to negotiate a crossing of the highway, which could be tricky in the busy summer months. A large proportion of the traffic consists of huge semi-trailers, racing at top speed round a bend as you try to pick the right time to scuttle across the road and down the bank on the other side.
This narrow hiking trail soon comes to the next point of excitement – a crossing of the CPR line. Hoping for a train, I was out of luck. The trail winds its way up the forested hillside onto a forested ridge (lots of trees in BC), which climbs at a reasonable angle towards a cliff, on top of which sits the lookout tower.
Someone had been up this trail very recently with a chainsaw, clearing away several quite large trees which had fallen across the trail over the past winter. This is a always a good sign to the hiker that one is on a solid route! Soon I had some nice views of the highway running through the valley below me, and tall peaks all round. The trail winds around the back of the cliff, then after a steep section, reaches a junction. One could continue up the ridge for another 1000 vertical feet or so to the site of the upper lookout, now removed. But I had decided that the lower lookout would be sufficient today, given the late start and slightly unsettled weather. Turning left at the junction, I soon reached the cliff top. Here stood a perfectly good fire lookout tower on a tall steel structure, with a little wooden cabin sitting below it, close to the edge of the cliff.
This cabin was not locked. Inside it was empty, but in perfect condition. There was a table and bench in the right-hand corner, and a small cupboard in the far corner, with small candles and matches for emergency use. The floor was neatly swept, with a broom resting in the corner. This would be a more than adequate shelter for anyone stuck up here in a storm.
A couple of odd reflector devices shared the cliff-top with the cabin.
Views were of course excellent, and would be even better from the top of the tower. I might have shinned up the ladder, but it would have involved some climbing up the steelwork to reach the ladder cage. Given the cloud build-up, I thought there was a chance of a thundershower, so I resisted the temptation and stayed on the ground! This lookout has been unused since 1976, a full 34 years ago, so its state of repair was a surprise to me.
A quick return down the mostly dry trail, with more sunshine coming out. I soon reached the railway line again, and (of course!) settled down to wait for a train. When it came, it was sudden. The road and rail take a sharp bend just to the east of here, so there was little warning of the approaching train, before it burst into view, blowing its horn to warn me to stand back.
I exchanged a friendly wave with the engineer, while trying (impossibly of course) to take still and video pictures at the same time with my little camera. The train took what seemed like several minutes to rattle past, at quite a rate, being downhill on it way westwards.
Now back at the car, I immediately proceeded down the Wapta Falls road to my next hike.
Fri. 14 May: Wapta Falls
For the unaware, do not confuse Wapta Falls and Wapta Lake. They are a good 40+ kilometers apart and not related - except by being linked by the Kickinghorse River.
The Wapta Falls road takes you about 2 km through the trees to a parking area. From hereon, it is another pleasant 2 km stroll to a vantage point above the Falls. The first part of the trail is on a nice flat pathway, along a clearing which was at one time intended to be a continuation of the driving road.
After a while, the trail becomes rougher as it contours up a slight hillside and soon afterwards arrives at a nice viewpoint directly above the Falls.
Apparently in times of high water, the falls can be heard a long way off. Even today, it was quite noisy from up here. A chain link fence had been erected to stop silly tourists from getting too close to the edge and slipping away to an awful end. From here, the falls certainly looked spectacular, about 100 ft high and quite wide, with the river smooth and quiet above the falls, and a small rock formation immediately below the falls.
But to really appreciate Wapta Falls, one has to walk right down to the river level below the falls. This is easily accomplished thanks to the nice zig-zag path through the wet forest, leading down to the shoreline. Now it became impressive. Spray was flying and the waters roared over the lip of the falls, with mountains high above.
I put on my rain jacket and carefully clambered up the wet, slippery shaly rock pile, until I was directly facing the waters as they thundered down into a turbulent pool. This would not be a good place for a timid person to stand. I carefully made my way down off the slippery slopes, and walked a little further downstream to take some more pictures as the sun came out.
A father and son walked across my field of view at the perfect time to give some foreground scale to my photo. They were on an evening fishing trip to the pools below the waterfall.
Wapta Falls is certainly a grand sight. They would be even more spectacular when the river was in full spate – worth a return trip one day.
I had met one hiker on his way up Mt. Hunter, and a small handful of people along the Wapta Falls trail, which on a summer weekend would be a busy place, I feel sure. But today was a good choice for the seeker of solitude. It took no time at all to get back to the car. I turned east onto the Trans-Canada Highway (TCH) and retraced my route back to my campsite just east of Field.
On the way, I carried out a recce for a future trip to Tocher Lookout. Turning left just before Field, I followed the Emerald Lake road for a short distance to the Natural Bridge parking area. This is a popular tourist spot, where one can walk across a short bridge for good views of the river eating its way through the rock, causing a “natural bridge” of rock. Here is the start of a long forestry/lookout road bike and hike to Tocher Peak, which I plan to do later this year. It looks like a long but do-able single day trip.
A quick drive into Field – after the train finally cleared the crossing – where everything was closed! I then drove a little way up the Yoho Valley road, to a spiral tunnel viewpoint, before turning around at the winter gate – beyond this point is avalanche country.
The evening turned out to be quite an experience. I was using my new binoculars – an awesome present from L – taking a look up at the railway tunnels across the valley from the campsite, when I spotted a very large grizzly bear on the open slopes just below the railway line. I saw a couple of campers (turned out they were German tourists) also with binoculars, and so pointed out the bear to them, which they were thrilled to see. But then a second large grizzly joined the first one, and we watched in fascination as they both ambled down the steep scree slopes towards the TCH, full of speeding traffic, just a few hundred yards from where we were standing. After reaching the underside of the highway bridge, instead of coming into the campsite, they turned around and ambled off towards Field. They were both large, powerful bears, but looking very much like they were on a casual evening stroll, and not interested in eating any tourists – although a couple of campers got a little too close, and one of the bears stopped to look at them before turning away. Rather foolhardy!
I was lucky that there only seemed to be one mosquito in the campsite as I had forgotten my spray – from now one they will multiply rapidly. I was glad that I was pretty tired as I might otherwise have had a very disturbed night. As it was, I mostly slept through a combination of traffic whooshing by on the TCH, and trains at maximum power crawling up the “big hill” towards the spiral tunnels and the Alberta border. The echo of engines at full power, pulling incredibly long and heavy trains up the pass was deafening. There seemed to be trains going by in both directions all night. But mostly I slept through it all.
This cabin was not locked. Inside it was empty, but in perfect condition. There was a table and bench in the right-hand corner, and a small cupboard in the far corner, with small candles and matches for emergency use. The floor was neatly swept, with a broom resting in the corner. This would be a more than adequate shelter for anyone stuck up here in a storm.
A couple of odd reflector devices shared the cliff-top with the cabin.
Views were of course excellent, and would be even better from the top of the tower. I might have shinned up the ladder, but it would have involved some climbing up the steelwork to reach the ladder cage. Given the cloud build-up, I thought there was a chance of a thundershower, so I resisted the temptation and stayed on the ground! This lookout has been unused since 1976, a full 34 years ago, so its state of repair was a surprise to me.
A quick return down the mostly dry trail, with more sunshine coming out. I soon reached the railway line again, and (of course!) settled down to wait for a train. When it came, it was sudden. The road and rail take a sharp bend just to the east of here, so there was little warning of the approaching train, before it burst into view, blowing its horn to warn me to stand back.
I exchanged a friendly wave with the engineer, while trying (impossibly of course) to take still and video pictures at the same time with my little camera. The train took what seemed like several minutes to rattle past, at quite a rate, being downhill on it way westwards.
Now back at the car, I immediately proceeded down the Wapta Falls road to my next hike.
Fri. 14 May: Wapta Falls
For the unaware, do not confuse Wapta Falls and Wapta Lake. They are a good 40+ kilometers apart and not related - except by being linked by the Kickinghorse River.The Wapta Falls road takes you about 2 km through the trees to a parking area. From hereon, it is another pleasant 2 km stroll to a vantage point above the Falls. The first part of the trail is on a nice flat pathway, along a clearing which was at one time intended to be a continuation of the driving road.
After a while, the trail becomes rougher as it contours up a slight hillside and soon afterwards arrives at a nice viewpoint directly above the Falls.
Apparently in times of high water, the falls can be heard a long way off. Even today, it was quite noisy from up here. A chain link fence had been erected to stop silly tourists from getting too close to the edge and slipping away to an awful end. From here, the falls certainly looked spectacular, about 100 ft high and quite wide, with the river smooth and quiet above the falls, and a small rock formation immediately below the falls.
But to really appreciate Wapta Falls, one has to walk right down to the river level below the falls. This is easily accomplished thanks to the nice zig-zag path through the wet forest, leading down to the shoreline. Now it became impressive. Spray was flying and the waters roared over the lip of the falls, with mountains high above.
I put on my rain jacket and carefully clambered up the wet, slippery shaly rock pile, until I was directly facing the waters as they thundered down into a turbulent pool. This would not be a good place for a timid person to stand. I carefully made my way down off the slippery slopes, and walked a little further downstream to take some more pictures as the sun came out.
A father and son walked across my field of view at the perfect time to give some foreground scale to my photo. They were on an evening fishing trip to the pools below the waterfall.
Wapta Falls is certainly a grand sight. They would be even more spectacular when the river was in full spate – worth a return trip one day.
I had met one hiker on his way up Mt. Hunter, and a small handful of people along the Wapta Falls trail, which on a summer weekend would be a busy place, I feel sure. But today was a good choice for the seeker of solitude. It took no time at all to get back to the car. I turned east onto the Trans-Canada Highway (TCH) and retraced my route back to my campsite just east of Field.
On the way, I carried out a recce for a future trip to Tocher Lookout. Turning left just before Field, I followed the Emerald Lake road for a short distance to the Natural Bridge parking area. This is a popular tourist spot, where one can walk across a short bridge for good views of the river eating its way through the rock, causing a “natural bridge” of rock. Here is the start of a long forestry/lookout road bike and hike to Tocher Peak, which I plan to do later this year. It looks like a long but do-able single day trip.
A quick drive into Field – after the train finally cleared the crossing – where everything was closed! I then drove a little way up the Yoho Valley road, to a spiral tunnel viewpoint, before turning around at the winter gate – beyond this point is avalanche country.
The evening turned out to be quite an experience. I was using my new binoculars – an awesome present from L – taking a look up at the railway tunnels across the valley from the campsite, when I spotted a very large grizzly bear on the open slopes just below the railway line. I saw a couple of campers (turned out they were German tourists) also with binoculars, and so pointed out the bear to them, which they were thrilled to see. But then a second large grizzly joined the first one, and we watched in fascination as they both ambled down the steep scree slopes towards the TCH, full of speeding traffic, just a few hundred yards from where we were standing. After reaching the underside of the highway bridge, instead of coming into the campsite, they turned around and ambled off towards Field. They were both large, powerful bears, but looking very much like they were on a casual evening stroll, and not interested in eating any tourists – although a couple of campers got a little too close, and one of the bears stopped to look at them before turning away. Rather foolhardy!
I was lucky that there only seemed to be one mosquito in the campsite as I had forgotten my spray – from now one they will multiply rapidly. I was glad that I was pretty tired as I might otherwise have had a very disturbed night. As it was, I mostly slept through a combination of traffic whooshing by on the TCH, and trains at maximum power crawling up the “big hill” towards the spiral tunnels and the Alberta border. The echo of engines at full power, pulling incredibly long and heavy trains up the pass was deafening. There seemed to be trains going by in both directions all night. But mostly I slept through it all.
Sat. 15 May: Sherbrooke Lake
Having enjoyed the all-night music of a thousand railway trains grinding up the big hill, I was up and ready for breakfast before 7 a.m. this morning. It was a cloudless, cool morning, and the scenery surrounding my tent was breathtaking: soaring cliffs, snowy jagged mountainsides.Today I returned eastwards a little way towards the Alberta border. The rather run-down looking West Louise Lodge, beside Wapta Lake, was the starting point for my final hike on this visit to Yoho.
At the back of the hotel, by an old gas station, and half hidden in the trees, is the trailhead for two spectacular Yoho destinations: Sherbrooke Lake and Paget fire lookout, both of which I hoped to reach today.
But fifty yards up the trail I realized this was going to be a tough hike. In fact, if I wanted to get anywhere at all, it would need to be on snow shoes. Even here, there was drifted snow on the trail, and soft enough that it would not reliably take the weight of a boot. As usual, some hiker had been up this trail a few days ago, and had somehow plodded through the drifts, often sinking into the snow. I have no idea how they had the energy to do that. So I strapped on my snowshoes and slowly made my way up the narrow trail.
The sound of the traffic on the Trans-Canada Highway below me gradually faded away as I progressed up the hillside. With the snowshoes, it was still tricky at times, making progress up this narrow, snow covered trail. In places it was quite steep, and even with the ‘shoes, one would often sink down into the softer snow where it had not been packed down.
After a couple of kilometers I reached the important junction where the Paget lookout trail branched off to the right, and the Sherbrooke Lake trail continued up the hillside. Nobody had attempted the Paget trail, as a result of which there was no obvious route to follow. The lookout lay over two kilometers away, up the steep forested hillside, and the hidden trail was somewhere under a covering of soft snow, where even with snow shoes it was hard going.
Learning from my Aylmer lookout experience, I decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and after a few hundred yards, turned around and returned to the junction sign. Even the Sherbrooke Lake trail, which I now followed, was snow-covered, but there were signs of previous travelers, and so the snow held my weight better. And the trail was fairly flat, with one section where it climbed up the hillside for a short distance.
The trees started to thin out, and then finally I came up to the shoreline of a magnificent lake – still firmly frozen over, and surrounded by spectacular peaks. I walked out onto the ice and strode up the surface of the lake, following the path made by skiers coming down from the glaciers way off to the north beyond the far end of the lake. This is the route M had taken on an adventure earlier this year, and I was duly impressed with her journey on skis, down off the icefields.
It was a perfect morning, and the scenery was breathtaking. The far end of the lake is dominated by the peak of Mt. Niles, 9,734 ft., beyond which lie the glaciers. I sat by the side of the lake on a handy exposed rock to relax for a while. This was a worthy destination on its own, and I would return later this year to deal with the lookout trail!
The return journey was quicker, but still quite tricky in places, as I sank to my knees a few times, even wearing my ‘shoes. To my amazement, lower down the trail, I met a group of five young people, two guys and three girls, plodding up through the snow wearing a combination of shorts and sneakers. I politely greeted them, knowing that they would certainly be turning back before too much further. How they had even made it the first half kilometer was a bit of a mystery.
Back down at the hotel, I changed into some dry socks and shoes, and was soon on my way back home. I enjoyed a longish stop at the classic railway viewpoint on the scenic highway 1A to snap a long train curving around the edge of the Bow River, below the towering peaks.
There were quite a few tourists and buses and cyclists enjoying the first really warm weekend of the year.
Now who said something about rum earlier?
Statistics
Total for 3 Trips
Fri. 14/Sat. 15 May
Total Dist. 18.8 km
Height Gain 2079 ft.
Max. Elev. 5919 ft.
Time on Trail 6 hr. 26 mins.
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