Lake Louise and Lake Moraine

The previous post in this series is here..

Finally getting started on day 3 of our Banff trip posts. 

We had a rental car and this was our full day of planned activiteis where we were going to be on our own. The idea of having an entire days agenda under San's control, where I tag along without saying "No" to anything (part of the agreed terms of the trip) was scary. 

My idea of visiting a lot of places in one day, involves going to the Patel points, getting pictures and moving to next place. San has changed. She plans a 2 to 3 mile hike in every place from the parking lot to some place within the park at every one of these locations. Now that I got that out of my system, it is actually a good idea if I can keep up. The pictures are better, as is the experience (I am saying this on my own... she is not looking over my shoulder! really!)

We got up at 5 AM, drank some Wagh Bakri instant tea (we have started to like this tea on travels now) and started driving towards Lake Louise and Lake Moraine. Our plan was to go to the farthest point first which was Moraine. We drove all the way up to see a cop divert us. The parking was full apparently at 6:30 AM when we reached the place. "Lake Lousie still has some parking left.. if you go there you will make it".. is what he said and we zipped there.

We were in a long line at the vending machine. There were folks who were sending back people to go get the license plates of the rental cars as the machine asks you to enter it. I stopped a few of them and said "please look at your key from rental car.. usually the license number is written on it". This saved some time as the people were blocking the machine waiting for a person to come back with info!! American tourists understandably get a bad name in Banff.

We walked to the trailhead towards the lake and were just dazed by the view of the lake. It was just so serene and beautiful.

There were already groups of folks taking pictures at the lake front. We walked around the lake to a less crowded place and got some pictures.

After walking around the lake and looking at the giant hotel in front of the lake, we decided to head back towards Banff.

On the way back, surprisingly the cop said "we have two spots open. you can go to Lake Moraine!". It was our lucky day. So we drove from the main freeway to Lake Moraine parking which is a good 15-20 minute drive. Once there, the parking lot incharge says "we made a miscalculation. we let two extra folks in by mistake". We told him "we are here to go see the lake, take pictures and leave. Need 20 mins tops!". So he relented and let us park for 20 mins in the loading zone and said "I am going to stand here near your car. So please be back!". 

We ran in towards the lake, saw similar crowd, started walking around lake to the farthest point we could in 6 minutes and got some photos and ran back. While this lake is very similar to the Lake Louise in the way it looks, it has a more rocky feel to it. It is also a lot quieter. 

There are many trails that take you to the high points in the local mountains around.. so you get a birds eye view of the lake. We did not have time to do such a hike here. Going to Banff for just a weekend, limited us timewise. This was more of a sampler trip!

We kept our promise and started driving back.

Both these lakes are absolutely breathtaking. Plan to spend a few hours at each lake, go on a trail, do a little picnic around the place if possible!

Our next was supposed to be Johnston canyon and a long hike there.. but we were early. On the way out of Moraine lake, there is a hike in Paradise valley. We decided to hike this trail. 

will post that next..

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...

Hiking to a summit in Banff

The previous post in this series is here..

Right before entering Banff on the return bus journey from the Glacier, our driver/guide mentions that there is still a few hours for sunset and points to teh local mountain..

"there is a trail from the trail head parking lot that takes you straight to the top of tunnel mountain. it is the highest point in Banff on this side of the river" it is a 4 mile hike and you can do it in a little over 2 hours if you are healthy! it is all a bunch of switch backs that pretty much goes straight up!" 

We googled it and found that this was like going up the last part of Rhus ridge. . after a long day, it was a toss.. but it was only 6:30PM and so we (nay, she..) decided that we will try to summit Tunnel mountain and be back down by 8:30 and have a late dinner before heading back to the hotel. 

The agreement was "no pictures till we reach the summit. That way we can go to the top while we still have energy. On the way back there can be pictures!" . Our entire hiking is group is aware of how I feel about going up without stops. This was the one part of the trip that I did not like signing up for.. hiking alone with San, where she gets all demanding and starts to insult my lack of pace etc.. I like my 20 second standing Shavasanas after every 10 minutes of hiking. This was one straight up hike with no gaps. Kept my mouth shut and kept going as fast as I could. Eventually we made it to the top and were lucky to find a dad and his toddler up there. We got pictures (so did he) and we made the walk back down.. this time I was allowed to take a few pictures. 

This worked out well because the sun was in our face at 6:30 and had gone down by the time we walked back. So the photos came out better than they would have two hours earlier. 

Another one of San's great clicks on this trip.. It is strange for me to hand my camera to her now to take pictures instead of trying to find someone in the crowd who knows how to handle a camera. All good.. (lateaa vandhaalum latestaa vandhirukkaa)

How Banff looks from the top of Tunnel Mountain summit!

We made it back in an hour and 45 minutes and were at the Indian Curry house for a nice hot masala Chai and a delicous dinner! 

We were on our way out and checking out the souvenir shops when it started pouring. We ran to our car and realized there was a parking ticket on the car! we should have used a pickup from our hotel in the morning. 

The road signs in Banff are very bad. I wanted to contest the ticket as there was no sign in the place I parked, but they don't have a way to contest. Apparently the town of Banff is starting to try and improve their parking ticket revenue in recent months. It was not this bad pre COVID per some other tourists and locals we talked to. 

We were happy after all the nature and adventure for the day.. so we just folded the ticket and planned to deal with it later and moved on! 

Here is a tip. Just park in a paid parking lot in the four blocks that comprise Banff downtown.. you are better off that way. 

Here is another tip. Hike tunnel mountain to the summit right around sunset. You get beautiful views on the way back of the entire Banff town and surrounding hills. 

Ending this post with a picture of us.. face showing this time.. from the nice red chairs almost at the summit.. Banff has these two matching red chairs in a lot of highlight places. Loved them!

Finally finished blogs of day 2!  Day 3 had a lot more stops. We had hiked 12 miles on day 2 and we did 16+ on day 3. We hiked a toal of 38 miles between Friday night 8PM to Monday 11AM.The bar keeps going up as we travel these days.

Day 3 posts, starting tomorrow.

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..