Vancouver and the Rockies July/August 2018 - Day 13 - Natural Bridge, Emerald Lake & Takkakaw Falls

[jocat]

Index is here.

Day 13 - Saturday 4th August 2018 - YOHO National Park - Natural Bridge, Emerald Lake and Takkakaw Falls

We woke at about 8:20 am this morning and after having quick showers, headed for breakfast. I had cereal, fruit and toast and Martin had granola, followed by sausage, egg, hash browns and a slice of toast. The food here is certainly getting a thumbs-up from us.

The weather forecast for Banff was for rain between 11 am and 11 pm, so we decided to go a bit further afield and visit Yoho National Park today, which looked to be a little better. We packed up the cool bag with frozen water, liquid water, plus the chicken wrap and fruit salad we bought yesterday then set off. It was about 10:40 am before we left though. Our first stop was to fill up with fuel again to make sure we had plenty - $32.40.

As we got outside of Banff, we saw patches of blue sky. Fingers crossed that it stays like that for us.

We had switched the GyPSy app on again as we travelled, and heard a story about the purpose of these bridges we kept passing. They were built to allow animals to cross the highway safely. Afterwards, motion sensor cameras were placed there to check whether animals would use them, because if they didn’t it would end up being a very expensive experiment.

Within a short time of the overpass being completed, grizzly bears, wolves and a variety of other wildlife were captured on the cameras using them. Because of this success, more animal crossings were built, and these along with fencing at the side of the highway, have significantly reduced highway accidents with animals.

During the journey we passed Castle Mountain, which I love. I can’t believe how many photos I must have taken of this over our few days in the area. Every time we passed it, I tried taking more, always trying to get that perfect shot. I never seemed to get one with a blue sky behind it though.

After a while, we passed the border showing we were in Yoho National Park and soon arrived at Kicking Horse Pass/Lower Spiral Tunnel viewpoint. The temperature said it was only 13 degrees but the sun felt like it was burning my neck. There were quite a few people here, as there were a couple of big tour buses, but all of us left disappointed when we didn’t spot any trains coming through the tunnel. It’s a good job there was model there explaining what happens, as I was really struggling to get my head around it.

We decided to drive on towards Emerald Lake, calling at Natural Bridge first. It’s a lovely little spot, but then another bus load of tourists turned up and there’s not a huge amount of space to absorb a lot of people at once. Especially when some of them get their friends to take about 20 photos, they then look at them and decide they’re not ok, then start all over again! Outwardly we waited patiently, I promise, without even tutting! But inside my head, was a different story.

We drove on towards the lake and people were parking for a mile down the road approaching it. We drove to the car park, turned round and managed to park on the edge of the roadside about a quarter of a mile away.

We walked towards the lake, had a few photos on the bridge over it, then walked up towards the lodges, stopping for an ice lolly on the way.

We decided to walk around the lake. We’d read it was a fairly flat and easy trail. I think we walked round it the more unusual way, as we passed a lot of people coming the other way and only one group of people passed us going the same way as we did – we definitely weren’t walking at a quick pace! I’m glad we started where we did though. It was a little bit uphill to begin with, followed by lots of paths full of tree roots. It then got quite wet and muddy in places. But when we were over half way round the lake, the path got a lot better. I’d rather have the easier part of the trail at the end, than the beginning!

A close up of where an avalanche had happened. You can also spot it in the background of a few more of our lake photos.

However there’s definitely something wrong with the signs around the lake, particularly the one that said ‘You have reached the end of the lake - nearly the half way point of the trail.’ We had set off on our walk at 1:30 pm and reached that sign at 2:53 pm. By 3:20 pm we’d finished the trail. If we’d walked the other way round and saw that sign less than half an hour after setting off, I’d be very disappointed if it took me nearly three times as long to complete the ‘second half’ of the trail. I was pleasantly surprised when we finished to find that we’d walked 5.3km - I’d only expected it to be about half that. We did stop a few times to take photos though, and give way to others on the narrower parts of the trail.

We got back to the car and drove the short distance to the town of Field, where there is an information centre and modern toilets. We then had our lunch there, (a little late at 3:45 pm), sharing the wrap we’d brought with us. Before we left the town, we had a little drive round and saw some quaint buildings. We ended up spending a little more time there than planned thought, when the longest, slowest train in the world started crossing, blocking our exit. It then stopped completely for a couple of minutes and we wondered if we’d ever be able to continue our drive.

When we finally got going again, we made our way towards Takkakaw Falls, with the app telling us to make a brief stop at the ‘Meeting of the Waters.’ This is the place where the Yoho River joins with the Kicking Horse River. The waters are different colours - the Yoho River is quite milky, which is caused by glacial silt. The water in the Kicking Horse River still comes from glaciers, but the silt has had more time to settle in a series of lakes upstream, which leaves much clearer water. It’s quite strange to see the new river a mixture of colours, although I'm not sure I really captured it in my photos.

We continued on to Takkakaw Falls. It’s quite a winding road, with a couple of really tight switchbacks. Goodness knows how the tour buses manage to manoeuvre their way round them - it’s tricky enough in a car! You get a decent view of the falls on the approach road, and also from the car park. But an easy 10 minute walk will take you across the bridge to the base of the falls themselves.

Photos just don’t show the force of the flow of water, nor the height they’re falling from. We walked back to the car and began our drive back to Banff. The rain started about 20 minutes outside of the town, but had actually stopped by the time we got back at just after 6:30 pm.

We decided not to sit down in the hotel room, despite our aching legs. If we had, we’d have never gone back out. I had a quick look online to see if I could make reservations for dinner anywhere, and booked us a 7:30 pm table at Melissa’s Missteak, which has decent reviews and quite a varied menu. We were quite quick in getting ready and left the hotel at 7:15 pm for the 10 minute stroll.

We were seated immediately in a room that looks like a giant log cabin. We ordered a beer and a large glass of wine while we chose what to eat. All of the entrees come with sourdough bread and garlic butter, plus a salad. We’d have never managed a starter too, nor a dessert. For main courses we both plumped for filet mignon - Martin had an 8 oz steak with peppercorn sauce and I had a 5 oz one with a red wine jus, both with mash and vegetables. We declined dessert, but Martin ordered a second beer as I still had some wine to finish. The bill came to $127 plus tip.

We walked back to our hotel along Banff Avenue, calling into a few shops on the way. One of them was a sweet shop where we looked for gifts for home. We left empty handed though, but not before noticing the price of Cadbury’s chocolate in there - a Curly Wurly was $2.99, a Flake was $3.49 and some Galaxy Counters were $7.49. Who would pay that?

We made it back to the hotel just in time before the heavens opened and we could hear the rain for a while. We sat planning our day for tomorrow, but decided to completely ditch what we’d planned. We decided we were both in need of an easier day, so would have a few hours exploring Banff town instead and see what we fancied doing later. There’s no point in us sticking to the plan rigidly if we don’t feel like it and then risk not enjoying it - we like to be fairly flexible when we’re away and adapt accordingly when we need to. Today’s adaptations had worked really well for us, and we only had a few spots of rain all day while we were out and about.

[Melbatb]

Phew - you avoided the rain!

Again, lots of stunning scenery! Shame you didn’t see a train! I am not sure I get the concept of it even looking at the model

Dinner looks amazing too!

[jocat]

Originally Posted by Melbatb

Phew - you avoided the rain!

Again, lots of stunning scenery! Shame you didn’t see a train! I am not sure I get the concept of it even looking at the model

Dinner looks amazing too!

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It was definitely the right decision for us to head to Yoho today.

I couldn’t see where Upper Tunnel was from our viewpoint and thought that the sight of a train would help make it clear. However it then turned out that you can’t actially see both sets of tunnels from the same place, so that confused me even more as to why it was a tourist destination.

Dinner was good too - I’m glad we made the effort to go out.

[Princess Alison]

Lovely photos - with two young kids, I couldn’t persuade them to get to yoho! It looks lovely- a reason to go back for me I’m sure!

[MarionG]

We got stuck at a level crossing in Calgary, I thought we were never going to get going again. Their trains sure are long...
Banff was our favourite place so looking forward to more of this lovely town.

[Gunna]

Reading your post had been great reminding me of what we saw but also showing me lots of places (and reasons) to revisit.

We really just scratched the surface and could easily fill a few weeks between both Banff and Jasper.

Great photos again Jo.

[parisdisneyfan]

We didn't get as far as Natural Bridge but did like Field, would like to stay at the Truffle Pig! Both of us agreed the Field toilets were the nicest we had come across (nicer even than the Fairmont Lake Louise)

[WileyCoyote]

More fabulous scenery, it’s just gorgeous. Irritating about the big tour groups invading your space though !
Dinner sounded nice and not surprised you need a chill day... all this walking !

[Goldia]

I'd spotted that so in the trees in your photos but hadn't realised it was from an avalanche, I'm glad you explained it for ludites like me! The steak looked delicious, wow the Cadbury chocolate was expensive.