Iceline Trail & Yoho Lake July 22, 2020 Lake Louise Camping

What are the chances?

What are the chances that a grizzly bear would get inside the electrified fence that protects the tent-only camping section of the Lake Louise Campground?  That's what faced us this morning about 6:45 am or so while we are in the midst of having breakfast.  We hear "bear" and look and there it comes along the path between my campsite and my friend's campsite.  That's it in the middle of the photo, the head on the left of the tree, the rump on the right with the hump behind the tree. It looked at my friend and then carried on, it looked at me and then carried on.  We jumped in our vehicles and waited a bit. While waiting I shared the transpiring event with my friends on social media.  Figuring it was gone and safe now, we went about our business.  In about 20 minutes we hear a very loud voice yelling "IF YOU HEAR MY VOICE GET INTO YOUR VEHICLES IMMEDIATELY!" which we did and in a second I saw two Park Wardens pass in front of my car carrying large tranquilizer guns and the grizzly bear jumping through the bushes on the other side of them.  Once again we waited a bit and then got out and finished the unfinished business.  

We had a later start than planned for our Iceline Trail adventure 30 minutes west in Yoho National Park.  We parked, geared up,  and hit the trail. This is the view of Takakkaw Falls as we were getting ready.

looking back as we worked out way to where we would begin the climb

You can see in the middle of the photo what creates the waterfalls.  

This is a land of glaciers!

As we reached higher elevation levels the views opened up where we could see Daly Glacier.

feeling like I am at eye level with the mountain peaks and glaciers

There is still snow in spots up here.  I have been along the Iceline Trail a few times but there has never been so much water running as there was today.  We had lots of water crossings and even in spots where there are not normally water crossings.  Along this route I feel like I am so far out there or I should say so far back there, in the days of stone age and ice age!

incredible colours in this tarn

just being one with the rocks here while enjoying another lunch break

We picked a turn around spot and then decided to carry on with a loop around Yoho Lake.  

We had this view for a good long stretch.

eventually we would enter the forest at the far end of this traverse

We entered the forest then after hiking  a couple of kilometers we came out to Yoho Lake.  Oh the colours!  It was quiet here and a good place for another short lunch before the misquotes took control which they eventually did.  We chatted with two people who were working in the area that day.  They are with the division of Parks Canada that is responsible for clearing the trails of fallen trees.  Thank You for what you do!  They just came from the direction we were now headed and had just cleared the fallen trees from that trail.  What are the chances?

On the way in we noticed the trail sign listed a short hike into Hidden Lake.  Curious as to what it might look like, we veered off and came upon it quite quickly.  How does a lake get to be this green in colour, it was so pretty!  It is not a lake with access to enjoy a close up experience so we admired it and then continued on with the descent back to the trail head.

This day turned out being not quite what we had planned, we received a little more in some aspects and a little less in others.  In our world today I am working at living a life, finding enjoyment, being open to change, accepting what needs to be and that played a big part in my day today.