To The Mountains I Go

Monday, August 4, 2014

Banff Adventure Part 2: Johnston's Canyon & Ink Pots

Johnston Canyon

Distance : 4.8 km return

Elevation Gain : 120 m

Time Required : 1.5 hours

Difficulty : Easy

Trailhead : Johnston Canyon Parking Lot

This interpretive walkway follows the edge of Johnston Canyon – at times clinging to the walls of the canyon itself (handrails are included) – and leads excited hikers to the stunning, cascading waters of the Lower and Upper Falls. This hike is open in winter as well (look for ice climbers on the frozen waterfalls!), but may require the use of ice cleats, available for rental in Banff.

Ink Pots

Distance : 5.4 km one way

Elevation Gain : 215 m

Time Required : 4 hour

Difficulty : Moderate

Trailhead : Johnson Canyon parking lot

After experiencing the waterfalls along the Johnston Canyon trail, continue beyond its Upper Falls to reach a set of brilliantly coloured pools.

Access: Take Trans Can (hwy 1) onto Bow Valley Trail and there is lots of signs to follow.

Experience:

So part 2! The sisters really wanted to see the falls, and never been to the ink pots so we hurried off! We were hustling because we wanted to be back by 7pm. The place was PACKED! There was so many people! We just passed them and stopped only to take pictures of the main waterfalls. It was beautiful as usual! We then made our way to the Ink Pots and it was harder than I imagined it would be. Maybe it was because I already did one hike and this was the second one. Lets just say it felt longer than it should have.

Sister Clegg and I made nicknames for each other and Sister Maynes. I'm Sweaty, Sister Clegg is Smurfy, and Sister Maynes is Bubbles. We even made our own song that will be in the top 10 hits one day. Its called Sweaty Head. Hahaha!

We made it to the ink pots and we took some nice pics. I ran out of water to I filled it in the neighboring river, and I am not dead so it was a very good decision on my part. The pots are a bright green/blue color, and they were bubbly! It was cool.

The sky began to look nasty and we heard some thunder so we started to head back. It rained a bit on us, but nothing to terrible. I went forward with Sister Nelson because I was so excited to get back to the car. I don't know what kept me moving but I honestly think it was because I had a beat going over and over again in my head that made my legs move at a nice pace. We made it to the car and my butt is sore. I figured we did about 7.5hours of hiking in one day. That's a pretty long day. We all did so well and all had a blast!

The beautiful Delphine

The Lower Falls

The Troopers

The Upper Falls

Upper Falls from up high

Had to take a selfie

Sweaty and Smurfy

The Pot.

Love these peeps!

Banff Adventure Part 1: Moraine & Consolation Lakes

Hike Information: See pictures.

Access: Take Trans Can and take the Lake Louise Dr. Then a left onto Moraine Lake Rd. Get there early because when it is busy they close off the road.

Experience:

I have been to Moraine lake before and the water was pretty as usual. We walked around and took a few pictures, then we started our hike up to Consolation Lakes. It was nothing to difficult and it helped that I had such wonderful company to keep my mind distracted. On the way up I found myself telling the Sister Missionaries and Delphine about the difference between spruce, pine, and larch trees. I also told them the name of some of the wild flowers. It was interesting because my dad is usually the one who does that and now I'm doing it! Crazy! We made up to the lake in good time and we had fun jumping over all the rocks on the lake. We took many great photos! It was so much fun! We left fast though because we wanted to fit in the next part of our adventure!

Moraine Lake

Group Photo

The Sisters

You know you are going the right way when you see all of this.

Purple Daises

Fireweed

Consolation Lake

Sister Nelson in the mermaid pose.

Sister Maynes

Sister Clegg

Delphine and Sister Clegg

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Indefatigable

Day Hike
Distance: 4.5km (one way)
Height Gain: 762m
High Point: 2225m
Time: 3.5-4 hours
Difficulty: Hard

Access:
Take Kananaskis Trail (hwy 40) from Trans Can hwy, and follow it down. Turn right onto Kananaskis Lakes Trail hwy. Follow that road till the very end and park there. Mount Indefatigable is the mountain right in between the two Kananaskis Lakes. Walk across till you see a big sign about bears and go past it and head up the mountain.

Experience:
I haven't done a big steep hike in a while so this was a very good choice to make because it was quite steep for more than half the hike. There was a ranger type lady warning people about the large number of bears in this area and to keep our bear spray ready. That was a little startling but we went anyways! Bishop Swiheart had done this hike a few times so I wasn't afraid of anything bad happening to us.

We trudged along up the mountain, and it was steeper than I imagined. Because of this we did get to a nice view pretty fast. We stopped at a little nub and snacked and took pictures of the two big lakes. It was beautiful! We continued up the path and it got less steep! I was really happy about that because I had a hard time keeping up to the Swiheart's and their dog Charlie.

Just before we made it to the lake there was fields full of flowers!!!! My favorite! I could have stayed there for a while taking pictures of every single flower but I just took a few. There was also a little stream just below us so I went down there and got a picture of this stream coming straight from the ground! We then continued on after taking many pictures to the little hidden lake. Everywhere we turned in that area our eyes were only filled with the beauty of the Earth. It was gorgeous.

This hike is one of my top 3 hikes of this summer so far. The hike down was a little difficult because there was lots of places to slip and fall, but we all made it down safely in the end.