Day 95 - Lake Louise

The crown jewel of the Canadian Rockies, Lake Louise feels extra-planetary with her cobalt blue waters and in-your-face Victoria glacier in the background. A Chateau sits at her front and tourists abound by the shore and in canoes. The lake color comes alive when viewed from a higher point... See pic 2.

Mount Fairview sits 3300 feet above the lake and benefits from a well-trodden trail to nearby Saddleback Pass and then steeply to Fairview summit. The climb up was grueling but the views started within thirty minutes and kept getting better as I climbed. There were six of us at the summit, making it a party!

Despite the rainy and overcast weather, I proceeded on, after descending from Mount Fairview, to Morraine Lake, another cobalt blue lake with fortress mountains on high alert.

Finally, I drove north on the Icefields Parkway, the 150 mile long highway connecting Banff and Jasper parks, and home to the largest Icefields south of the arctic. I stopped at a campground near the Wapta Icefield and Cirque Peak, the mountain I planned to scramble up tomorrow. The sunset view nearby made me excited for the panorama vistas to come.

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Day 161 - JMT Purple Lake and Tully Hole

We got our first glimpse of smoke far across the valley as we climbed higher. Up on a ridge after a morning climb, we followed a side trail to an open viewpoint beyond the trees. Selfie:) The smoke, while visible, seemed to give the mountains a blue glow-- like a highlighter to a sketch. You could still see the edges of the mountain ridges, the story of their creation. We could hike in this. But the smoke looked worse farther south. Or it was getting worse as time rolled incessantly forward. On day two we had ran into a northbound hiker we nicknamed Speedy Steve. Speedy Steve had hiked 18 miles a day through eight consecutive smoke-filled days, including atleast three "very bad days" when he couldn't see the surrounding mountains, the sun glowed a haunting orange and ash accumulated overnight. On the way to Purple Lake we ran into three dirty, beat up, tired north-bound hikers with a similar story. They had to spend one night in an emergency hut at Muir Pass to avoid the...

Day 48 - Canyonlands Island in the Sky Pt 2

Mountain biking the 100-mile 4x4 White Rim Road is said to be a great American adventure. But without any water, you need a follow truck to carry your water and gear, and reservations must be made three months in advance. So I just decided to hike down 1500 feet to the white rim and hike the road a bit. Steep, steep, steep was the descent down the Goosberry trail, but I reached the rim level in only 45 minutes! I hiked further down to the white rim road and then past to the very edge. Looking around for a possible path down to the river bottom 1000 feet below was a fun task, but a hard one as the "white rim rock" has a solid sheer 50-150 feet dropoff. I found one possible path down but a lone Nalgene bottle left down below the white rocks indicated an aborted attempt down. I continued to walk the rim for a few hours, finally climbing a small Mesa edge to enjoy the high view of the other side. After a brief respite, I walked back an hour along the Jeep 4x4 road to the G...

Day 41 - Escalante Coyote Gulch

This one or two night Coyote Gulch hike was an easy test of my newly learned navigation skills. Anxious to get started I awoke at 545 just as the sun was rising. I followed an obvious landmark, a tall thin spire called Chimney Rock, northwest to Hurricane Wash (a drainage running into Coyote Gulch). After a couple of hours of walking up over and around slick rock, I entered the famous Coyote Gulch. The walls around me raised up, darkened and th water flow increased--like nature hinting at the scenic beauty ahead. The normally crowded Coyote Gulch was fairly empty on this early Thursday morning, giving the canyon a very peaceful and quiet feeling-- fragile almost. Down steam, I ran into the famous Jacob Hamilton Arch and then thirty minutes further-- the Coyote Natural Birdge. Both were beautiful due to their see through the wall character, but both would be overshadowed in my memory by the Stevens Arch tomorrow. Pics. By 1pm, I had hiked for six hours...

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