[simage=2773,200,n,left,]Summer holiday time rolled around and we decided to head off to the Canadian Rockies for a week of camping and hiking, with the main event being to heading into Lake O’Hara for a few days. We set off from Vancouver on Saturday morning, clutching our new Canadian Citizen Access Passes that promised to give us free access to all of Canada’s National Parks.
First stop was Glacier National Park. We’d stayed at the Illecillewaet Campsite here before, but hadn’t had time for a hike, so this time we’d planned to make a trip up to see the Illecillewaet Glacier. The campground is in an interesting location as this is where the Canadian Pacific Railway’s Transcontinental Line, originally ran in 1886. The railways was plagued by closures due to avalanches and rock slides and eventually the route was moved when advances in engineering allowed longer tunnels to be built. The foundations of the huge railway hotel can still be seen near the campsite. We hiked up the to the glacier in the morning, which was very spectacular. We could see bad weather swirling all around us so we didn’t stay too long but headed back down to the car, and moved on to Kicking Horse Campground in Yoho National Park so we’d be ready for our early start into Lake O’Hara the next morning. Arriving at Kicking Horse, we heard that there had been huge hailstorms, thunder and lightening all afternoon so we felt lucky to have escaped that while up at the glacier!
The next morning we were up early and off to catch the bus into Lake O’Hara. To limit the number of people accessing the fragile alpine here you are not allowed to take your own car in and have to book on a shuttle bus that then takes you the 10km up to the campground. The campground os well set up with cooking shelters, a fire pit and purified water for drinking. There is also an expensive lodge and a coffee shop selling drinks and great home baking, so it is rather “wilderness with the edges sanded off”.
In the parking lot as we boarded the rain started to fall. By the time we reached the campsite, it was snowing hard. We hadn’t really planned on snow, but were happy to be testing out our 4 season tent in winter weather for the first time. Putting it up in the snow was a bit of a trial (cold hands!) and we spent much of the afternoon hanging out in the cooking shelter. The weather was a little stormy so we didn’t venture further than the coffee shop for some cake and for a short stroll around Lake O’Hara.
The next day we headed out on a hike in the snow to McArthur Lake. We decided to attempt some of the alpine circuit on the way back as the weather didn’t seem too bad, and so we took the trail up to All Souls. It was a little icy to be climbing up a steep rocky trail for me, but we made it to the top in rather windy conditions. It was great being up there in the slightly wild weather. We headed back down via Opabin Lakes, and made it back in time to eat a great dinner of Indomie instant noodles, reminding us of all the great hiking we’d done in Indonesia.
Day 3 saw us off up Wiwaxy Gap, then along the Huber Ledges, dropping down to Lake Oesa, along Yukness Ledges and back again to Opabin Lakes. This was just an amazing hike, surrounded by high peaks and blue glacial lakes all the way. The trails are incredibly well maintained by the Lake O’Hara Trails Club. When standing by Lake O’Hara down in the valley, you cannot imagine that there can be an easy trail contouring around what look like shear cliff faces, but once you get up there the hiking is surprisingly easy, great news for an acrophobe like me!
On our final day we took a quick run up the Odaray-Highline trail towards Odaray Mountain. On the way up we met a couple who happened to be friends with a guy we know from Java Lava, our hiking club in Indonesia! It’s a small world indeed! We got some great views from Odaray Grandview and then it was time to turn round and get the bus back down to the parking lot.
We headed into Lake Louise after this, and stayed in the large campsite there, with hot showers and cold beers but lacking the charm of Lake O’Hara. The next day we did the Sentinel Pass hike, having found a couple of random people who also wanted to hike, and to keep to the rules about minimum parties of 4 in bear country. Sadly they did not want to do the one-way trip that takes you our via Paradise Valley so we returned the same way. Although it was beautiful up there it was a shock to be with so many busloads of tourists after the relative solitude and like-minded people at Lake O’Hara. We stayed a second night at the campground, but decided to leave early and go back to Yoho National Park for a last hike rather than doing another overly busy hike with the hordes around Lake Louise.
We did a fantastic hike up to the Iceline Trail, starting at Takakkaw Falls. The hike takes you up through forest to start, looking over the valley to Takakkaw Falls, and then cuts in front of the Emerald Glacier. It was amazing to see the scrapings on the rocks from previous glacier activity as we walked across the plateau. We ended on a rise near Celeste Lake for our lunch break, and then it was time to head back.
We had considered stopping overnight in Kamloops but there isn’t any good tent camping as round there as far we we knew, so we decided to just head right back to Vancouver in an epic driving marathon. We got back at 10 pm, which wasn’t bad going, and were able to get a good night’s sleep (in a bed!) and enjoy a good brunch out on Sunday morning. Lake O’Hara is one of the best places we’re been in the Rockies to date and so we recommend this trip highly!
Glacier National Park
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Lake O’Hara
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Sentinel Pass
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Iceline
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