September in the Rockies

It’s been a while since we’ve been away.. spring break ski vacation did not quite happen, Whistler closed the day we arrived and then COVID-19 became our focus at work for the next little while. We were also busy at home as we moved to another place, albeit 75m around the corner but still just as much work to make it feel like home.

Now that things have more or less settled, Jeff and I decided to take a short trip.. too bad for the kids, they are back at school.
We started our vacation at Mount Revelstoke National Park at the brand new campground called Snowforest. Since the weather was still not too bad, we decided to backpack to Eva Lake for the night. When we arrived at Eva Lake, a snowshow hare greeted us. The weather that day was a mix bag of sun, rain and clouds but with that we were rewarded with a rainbow across the lake. Our plan was to hike to Jade Lake to spend the 2nd night but that changed as we had the most uncomfortable night – the highly rated uberlight sleeping mattress was noisy as heck. Think of the amplified sound of a bag of chips, each time either one of us moved it made such a loud sound that would wake the other up. Not wanting to spend another night in the tent and also not wanting to miss seeing Miller Lake and Jade Lake, we made a detour to see the lakes before heading back to the start of the trail. So glad we made the detour as it was a beautiful hike and both Miller and Jade Lakes were spetacular. We saw pikas scurrying among the rocks and even a hoary marmot.

Since Revelstoke was expecting heavy rain the next few days, we decided to cut short our stay and headed off to Banff. We hiked up Tunnel Mountain the next day – it is the most climbed mountain in Banff. After a heart-pounding 2.4km incline we were rewarded with a 360 degree view of Banff.
Today we went to Lake Louise to hike up to the Lake Agnes teahouse and Little Beehive. Lake Louise is as beautiful as ever and it’s nice to arrive before the crowds. At 8am we set off on the trail and overtook 3 other groups to arrive at the teahouse in an hour. That’s 3.5km with a 400m elevation gain.. pretty much uphill all the way. We stopped at the teahouse and had the company of a Whisky Jack (aka as Canada Jay, grey jay, camp robber) that was very interested in our chocolate chip cookie. After our break we hiked to Little Beehive and it was a very scenic – it is peak season for the fall colours and the Golden Larch trees did not disappoint.
Tomorrow we are off to Jasper National Park.. maybe it won’t be as windy there..