Tag Archives: Banff National Park

Helen Lake on the Icefields Parkway

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This Saturday we drove around 30km north on the Icefields Parkway (Hwy. 93) toward Jasper to the Helen Lake trailhead. The trail heads around the mountain up into an alpine meadow to Helen Lake. We continued on up over the ridge to get a view of Katherine Lake & Dolomite Pass; however, as we made it to the top of the ridge a storm blew in causing us to turn back earlier than planned.

Before I put away my camera, we saw several Marmots, some of whom were doing what looked to be wrestling: They stood up on their hind legs, did some sparring, then they would pull some form of shoulder throw before rolling around some more. They were very entertaining.

Here are some photos from the hike:

Backpacking to Mount Assiniboine

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For the August long weekend, our family and the Kent’s embarked on a five day hike to explore the area surrounding Mount Assiniboine. Our route started at Sunshine in Banff National Park, led us through into Assiniboine Provincial Park to Lake Magog, then we trekked through Wonder Pass down into the Kananaskis & Spray Lakes Provincial Park. We finished at Mount Shark, covering a distance of approximately 55km.

More details to follow; however here are the photos:

Thanksgiving Weekend in the Mountains

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This Thanksgiving weekend, we took a drive into the mountains to enjoy the crisp mountain air, and breath-taking scenery blanketed in the first snow of the fall.

We drove through Banff National Park up the Icefields Parkway toward Bow Glacier, Bow Summit and Peyto Lake. There was a black bear just off the highway between Bow Glacier and the Peyto Lake turn-off, but we didn’t catch any photos of it before it decided to retire into the forest once again.

Finally, we drove back along the Bow Valley Parkway to catch a glimpse of Castle Mountain. Enjoy!