Hiking: Tower Lake and Rockbound Lake

On Sunday we decided to tackle a slightly longer hike in Banff National Park – Tower Lake and Rockbound Lake.The first 4.5 km is a good climb on on a wide path through the trees.  Every once in awhile you get a fleeting glimpse of the mountains through a break in the trees, but otherwise it looks like this for the first half of the hike.As you keep going you start to see some neat improvements that have been made to the trail in some of the wet spots. Eventually the pathway narrows.The trees give way to meadows and views of the mountains.And wildflowers are in bloom.Finally 2.5 hours in at 7.4 km (4.6 mi) we reach destination #1 – Tower Lake!At this point we were ready for lunch!  We picked a comfy spot with a good view and spread out our picnic.  We had my father-in-law over for dinner the night before and we brought some leftovers for lunch: grilled beef tenderloin, fresh buns, roasted eggplant dip, pita chips and some sliced red peppers.

With fuller bellies it was time to continue on to Rockbound Lake!  Only 1 km left to go!Check out the view of Tower Lake on the trail up to Rockbound Lake.The trail definitely gets more difficult on this final stretch.  In fact, just after this point I said that Rockbound Lake better be beautiful because it was certainly tough work getting up there.Finally, we finished climbing, entered a meadow and Rockbound Lake came into view.It was well worth it!  It was such a beautiful clear day and it was so stunning.We couldn’t stay too long as we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to make it back to the car.  All in all, it was a stunning and amazing hike on a beautiful day in September!

Tower Lake and Rockbound Lake in Banff National Park, AB
11.69 mi (Round Trip)
3,956 feet of elevation gain
2.5 hours to Tower Lake, 3 hours to Rockbound Lake, 5 hours 20 minutes round trip (not including our lunch break)

Hiking: Sulphur Mountain

On Saturday morning the Husband and I decided to tackle a relatively short hike right in Banff, the hike up Sulphur Mountain.  You can hike up and down, or you can decide to take the gondola down from the top instead.  You have to buy your ticket down from the base.  This was our lucky day, the ride down from the top was free (normally $15 I think).  There is a short walk through the parking lot for the gondola before you reach the trail.There were some great views from the parking lot!  The trail goes through the trees, following a bunch of switchbacks up the mountain.  Every once in awhile the trees clear and you can see the gondolas passing overhead.The trail is a pretty popular one and there were a couple of groups ignoring the “please keep on the trail” signs.  This miffed the Husband and I a little…Finally, we made it to the top!Thank goodness for the snack shop at the top – those salt and vinegar chips tasted amazing!!!Check out the views from the top!Shall we catch the gondola down??

Sulphur Mountain in Banff National Park, AB
3.56 mi trail (one way)
2,400 feet elevation gain
1 hour, 45 min (one way)

Hiking: C-Level Cirque

Just because running isn’t that easy right now doesn’t mean that there aren’t other ways to get my fitness back, right?  The Husband and I were out in Banff for part of the long weekend for a friend’s wedding and we figured this would be a great opportunity to get in a hike or two.  We didn’t have much time so we couldn’t venture too far so we opted to revisit a hike we had done before – C-Level Cirque.

We first hiked this in September 2007.  It was actually the first hike we ever went on together.

Us, way back in 2007Us, in 2011

Back then the trail was covered in snow, today it was beautiful and clear.  It was also a lot steeper than I remembered it.  Funny how those things tend to happen?  When did this trail get harder??

As you hike up you pass these old abandoned mine shafts, plus the old building you can see in the picture above.  Just past the old building there is a short trail off to the side that gets you to an amazing lookout.

You are otherwise in the trees the entire way up and it isn’t until you reach the very end of the trail that you get another glimpse of some amazing views.  Here is the actual cirque (an amphitheatre-like valley head, formed at the head of a valley glacier by erosion – courtesy of Wikipedia).The views were so different this time, compared to when we were there in 2007.It felt so much bigger and impressive since we could actually see the top of it this time.  All in all, a great hike!

C-Level Cirque in Banff National Park, AB
2.28 mi trail (~4.6 mi round trip)
1937 feet elevation gain
2 hours, 15 min

Grassi Lakes

Sunday brought another opportunity to get out to the mountains to enjoy a fantastic spring day.  The destination for today was Grassi Lakes, just outside of Canmore.  Grassi Lakes is another one of those popular hiking trails, so this is a great time to get out there for a bit of extra solitude.  There are two routes to hike Grassi Lakes, an easy route that follows a fire road, or a more difficult route with better opportunities for views.

Which way to go?

As the trail along the more difficult route looked to be fairly well worn in the snow we headed off that way.  The route continued through the trees, but then all of a sudden they broke and the views were amazing.There were tiny rivers that were starting to flow down the mountain side. The water started to roar louder and louder, and soon we saw why.  A waterfall!Unfortunately at this point the trail wasn’t quite so easy to see.  The slope increased and there was quite a bit more ice out there.  At that point we decided we’d be better off returning to the split in the trail to tackle the easy route to get to the falls.  You can see in the picture below, the hard route is on the right side.  We were pretty close to the lakes (on the bottom left of the picture)…who knew?!The easy route was a good uphill walk in the snow, made easy with some Yak Trax.  It wasn’t too long…and then we were at the lakes!  The water was an amazing colour.  Unfortunately my pictures didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped given the somewhat overcast sky on the snow, but you get the idea.On the way back down we saw several people hiking up in Converse All Star sneakers…dress shoes…you name it!  It isn’t nearly as icy out at Grassi Lakes as it was at the Ink Pots, but it still baffles me that people head out to hike the Rocky Mountains in March without proper footwear!

Total Distance: 4.19 mi (to hike almost all the difficult route and all the easy route)
Time: ~2 hours
Elevation Gain: 1650 feet

Johnston Canyon and the Ink Pots

A few of us had kicked around the idea of going cross country skiing on Sunday.  That was a good idea…until we had warm temperatures almost every day here for two weeks straight!  The snow for cross country skiing is not great at the moment.  Couple that with a forecasted high of 13C (55F) and there you go.  No cross country skiing!

But there was no way we were wasting this amazing day though!  A few of us opted to drive out to Banff National Park to hike through Johnston Canyon and on to the Ink Pots.  This is probably one of the most popular trails inside the park for hikers, so this is actually a great time of year to go out there.  One advantage of this being a busy trail is that you are less likely to encounter wildlife, but I’m not a huge fan of super crowded trails.

The roads out to Banff are perfectly clear, but as soon as you pull into the parking lot there is snow all over the ground.  The safest way to hike there right now is with traction – Yak Trax, MICROspikes or STABILicers.  The trail is covered with packed snow and ice the entire way.It isn’t a very far hike to the lower and upper falls.  The frozen falls are absolutely amazing!  We spent quite a bit of time at the upper falls goofing off and taking pictures.(at the lower falls) (at the upper falls)

Along the way we also saw some other amazing sights, including a set of falls that we were convinced we could see Cookie Monster in.  Can you spot him? Eventually the catwalk and trails around the falls end and you continue up and up through the trees on packed snow to the ink pots.All of a sudden it opens up and you are in a meadow by the ink pots, surrounded by mountains.  Amazing!The ink pots are pools of mineral water that stay at a constant 4C year round with quick sand at the bottom of the pool.  I found that my pictures weren’t able to fully depict the amazing colours of the pools, but I tried! My friend even grabbed a photo of me…taking a photo of my shoes! We hung out around the ink pots, eating lunch and taking a ton of pictures.  We were the only ones there the entire time we were up there!On the way down it was a lot busier around the falls!  There were a lot of people out there without traction on their shoes and I have no idea how they were doing it.  We even saw a couple of people crawling on all fours to make it up a slope, so I had no idea how they were going to make it!  These are the Rocky Mountains and it is early March and there are still winter conditions out there.

That being said, this was a fantastic hike!  I don’t know if I’d want to tackle the crowds out here in the summer.  The extra bit of solitude and the amazing winter scenery made for an incredible experience.  Combine that with sharing the day with a couple of amazing girls and it was a day that will be tough to beat!

7.64 mi with 4,035 feet of elevation gain
~4 hours with plenty of picture taking stops, but not including lunch at the ink pots