The drives….
This drive was amazing! You begin to see the mountains rising and the road passing through huge, well built snow sheds and realize the engineering of bridges, tunnels, trainrail, etc..that went into creating this highway. We stopped at the top of the summit, Roger’s Pass, and got our Glacier and Revelstoke National Park stamps (who knew collecting national park stamps could be so satisfying??) and bought the Canada Discovery pass. Similar to our American national park it’s a deal and necessary to get into any of the parks along the route.
We landed at Whispering Spruce campground in Golden BC and hit the trail to Wapta Falls which is the widest waterfall in Canada, originating from Wapta Lake and running into the Kicking Horse River. There are a lot of “Kickinghorse” places here near Golden. The river was given its name by James Hector, the doctor in the Palliser expedition in 1858; the group trying to find a way for the train rail. One morning James’ horse got untied and ran into the nearby swift water river. When James went to retrieve him, the horse kicked him in the chest and he was unconscious for several days. When he finally woke up, he named the river Kicking Horse ( instead of the usual naming for your mom, or child!!) The river does have a kick, at least right now, with all the glacier/snow runoff and has spawned many other namesakes…
The next day was rainy but we hiked nonetheless and found some great little walks right in Golden and stumbled on beautiful Cedar Lakecampground near Kicking Horse Mountain Resort.
Yoho means “awe” in the Cree language….aptly named.
Months ago when we were planning this crazy route, I thought the idea of a nice hotel now and then sounded lovely. There have been several lodges and hotels along the way that we considered, but I had heard so much about Emerald Lake, I booked a night there. We left early and drove to the Yoho Visitor Center to get our stamp ( first things first) and then drove up to the Natural Bridge which I wasn’t that interested in but soon saw why it’s a thing…and then checked in early to the Emerald Lake Lodge. The crowds were thick and it was wonderful to be able to park in guest parking and get a shuttle to the lodge without having to fight parking…I am fully aware of how old that makes me sound. Then we hiked around the lake. UNBELIEVABLE. It seriously is one of the most spectacular places I’ve seen and even though it was crowded in the lots, the hike was peaceful and simply beautiful. I took a ton of pics trying to capture the color and reflections in the water, and the iconic red canoes gliding through….they won’t do it justice but here’s a glimpse of our stay.
We had a post hike cocktail at the lodge’s Cilantro on the Lake bistro (heaven) and then checked into our cabin. We had an amazing dinner (elk and buffalo) at the Mt. Burgess dining room, and then I hit the hot tub and on the way ran into a bride and groom who had been married earlier that day and then walked around the lake. VERY COOL….I’m sure they thought this women in the hotel robe wanting their picture was a wackadoodle, but they were also beaming and in the fog of wedding joy! Sat in the hot tub by myself for 20 minutes….pinch. Ended the evening by sitting by the fire that Tim built while I was in the hottub, taking in our good fortune. The credits should be rolling there for a beautiful Hallmark movie, but the reality was that the smoke alarm went off 2 hours later with smoke flooding into our room from the neighbor below who obviously didn’t read the fire making instructions….Needless to say, neither of us slept well but it makes for a good story, and you can always take a nap~
The next morning we woke up at 5:30 and drove to Takakkaw Falls and the Spiral Tunnels to check them out. The word on the street during this busy long weekend (Canada Day is July 1st…who knew??) was to get to places early to avoid the crowds. Even though we were tired, we hit it early and there were only a few folks there so we had it to ourselves. We bagged the hike to Laughing Falls so we could go back and take a nap, but the BIG news was that driving that early gets you front row seats to animals….kinda hard to capture by pic but spotted two black bears on the way to Takakkaw Falls…LOVED IT!!!
ParksCanada has planted two red Adirondack chairs at places throughout Yoho and Banff National parks, and we found one of the pairs at Takakkaw…nice idea!
