Light Hiking With My Buddie

Today I got to see what hides under all that snow during the winter months up on the Sunshine Ski Hill near Banff. My friend R and I planned for this day a long time back. It would be a leisurely meander through the meadow taking time to stop and smell the flowers. This would not be about racking up the distance, bagging peaks or reaching new elevation levels. We even had minivan service to take us up the long and winding road to the mountain village where the trailhead is. This was my second time hiking in this neck of the mountains. I love that we have different seasons! Same place! Different time! This looks amazing through my eyes!

Our first real vista was up on Standish Viewpoint. It almost looks like a painting! It's hard to beleive this is underneath snow in the winter.

Sunshine Meadows is all about flowers and it lived up to that as you can see below. This is a sampling of the wildflowers that bloom here.

Like my blog header says "on top of the world" any chance I get to be up there, I go for it! I scrambled onto this big rock so I could get a summit shot of today's light hike with my buddie. Standing on top at the Standish Viewpoint, the scene was off Rock Isle Lake. See that little rock island in the middle of the lake? It's looks little, it's not! I even got to stand on the Continental Divide.
Often on my hikes, odd little things catch my attention. There is a reason for the title of this blog post. Along the way of this light hike with my buddie, we stopped for a bud light! A bud light lime! Green my favourite color! My friend R made a friend in this little ground squirrel. He joined us while we dined. Not only did we cross back and forth between Alberta and British Columbia on our hike but we also split our time on either side of the Continental Divide.
We had perfect weather for our day on Sunshine! It was filled with sunshine!