Today we had an early start to fit in all the hiking we had planned to make up for yesterday’s lack of excitement. After eating about three times a normal breakfast (for Audrey at least,) we headed out to Wapta Falls, just inside Yoho National Park. It was about 5 degrees C when we stated, and the chill felt nice with our fleeces on while walking through some beautiful forests. It was a fairly short and level walk out to the viewing point for the falls. The falls were so fierce, that the spray they put off was quite impressive. The sun was still coming up over the mountains – the peaks are so tall that even when it’s light outside, it still takes quite a while for sunlight to make its way over the peaks. We had the falls mostly to ourselves, which was really a neat feeling. I was worried that with it being Labor Day weekend and all that the parks would be mobbed, but my goodness, Canadian Parks don’t even compare to US National Parks. (Sorry America). There is no traffic, no hoardes of people, no idiots feeding the wildlife that they’re supposed to be keeping wild. Don’t get me wrong, we have some awesome parks back home, and the minute you go on anything longer than a 5-minute “hike” you can escape the crowds, but it’s just such a breath of fresh air to feel like you’re the only people in the worth soaking in the natural beauty. But I digress…
Second stop of the day was the visitor center to pick up a handy park map (we are doing all this sans cell phone – it’s quite liberating!!!) and some friendly Parks Canada Ranger advice. We were thinking of doing the Iceline Trail, but since we had just hiking Plain of the Six Glaciers two days prior, the Ranger recommended heading towards Burgess Pass instead for some “wide open” views. Sounds great – the only catch is that Yoho NP is home of some serious elevation changes (thank you glaciers!), so we were in for a dousy no matter which hike we chose. We parked near the Whiskey Jack Hostel at the foot of thundering Takakkaw Falls and quickly became familiar with elevation gain. The first initial climb was probably no less than 500+ meters. The switchbacks were rough, but thankfully, after the initial climbing hell was over, the trail leveled out nicely.
We passed through some nice forests and meadows before arriving at Yoho lake. We decided to have lunch while taking in the towering mountains and brilliantly-colored waters. We then headed off to Burgess Pass (or at least as far as we could get by 4pm, at which point, we’d need to take our vista pictures and turn around to head back down to ensure we’d be back to our car before dark. I must say, the climbing was worth the reward – the vistas of soaring mountains topped with glaciers that fed into waterfalls, and Emerald Lake glistening below were sights to behold! The hike was mostly exposed at this point, and it was a tough balance between minding where you put your feet on the narrow, rocky path that drops of precipitously on on side and wanting to look all around to soak it all in. JD made some really awesome stitched panoramas that were our best effort of capturing the “wow” factor of this hike.
The hike back down was pleasant as the sun was setting on the mountains beside us. This hike definitely leaves one feeling with a pretty awesome sense of accomplishment and a good dose of motivation to continue to hike (although our mountains back home aren’t quite as grand =( as well as stay in shape so hikes like this are even an option. Hikes like this one are DEFINITELY worth taking a vacation for!
On the way home, we saw some mountain goats just chilling on the side of the road, but it wasn’t safe to stop, seeing as we were barreling downhill coming out of the mountain pass that is Yoho NP. We hope to catch some more glimpses of the mountain goats as we make our way up into Jasper NP tomorrow!
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