Johnston Canyon trail to Ink pots - Banff highlight

The previous post in this series is here..

After visiting Lake Louise, Lake Moraine and doing the Paradise valley hike, we drove to Johnston Canyon. We knew what we had to do..

Hike to lower falls, then upper falls and depending on how we were doing at that time, go all the way to Ink pots. Given we had already hiked 6+ miles by then, this was going to be another 8 miles. Our decision was to go at a steady pace.

Lower falls came and went,

we cross the river and then go along it on a catwalk

There is a small tunnel you go through (there is a line) and you get to see the falls up close and personal..

Then we start towards upper falls. It is a decent, easy to moderate hike to Upper falls.  At this point the crowd has already thinned down and most people turn back..Upper falls is beautiful.. 

tried a few long exposure shots..

we walk to the top of the falls and then deviate from the river to go up the mountain range..

Ink pots deserves a blog post of its own, but given the rate at which I am able to blog, just going to write this as one long post..

you walk past Upper falls through a meadow with flowers that has an amazing vista!

Maybe 10% of folks go past Upper falls to Inkpots, as it is considered a hard hike. We had to go.. San for one actually offered to turn back, but I refused. It is not everyday I am coming to Banff, so off we went. 

The scenery that awaits you once you reach is worth it.. there are 5 to 6 pools of different depths which have different shades of blue and green because of the sediment and the depth of the pools.. the reflections of the mountains in the pools makes for amazing pictures.. I composed this shot and asked a college kid to take this picture.. my camera was on the floor at one end of the pool.. once she saw the end result, she requested me to take the same shot on her phone.. before you know it, there was a line for that!  San was impressed by my photo composing skills for once!

some more shots at this beautiful location..(you can see it in the video also)

we were really happy we did this hike! 

A video of the hike..

It was a hard hike only because it goes up and straight down to a valley to Ink pots. That means you climb up, climb down and up again on the way back. That saps you mentally. 

Fortunately for us, we met an amazing local couple who were senior to us, but do this hike regularly. We started talking to them and while San and Mr. Local started walking faster, I really hit it off with Mrs. Local and we just kept talking and walking. The last 4 miles was a breeze.. before we knew it, we were down and almost 30 minutes ahead of when we thought we will get down. Sometimes, a great conversationalist is all that is required to get me moving fast again! I didnt take a single photo on the way back. Just walked and talked. 

We really enjoyed their company and had lunch with them. We had packed parathas from Indian Curry house and they had their packed lunch. We decided to stay in touch and started driving back towards Banff. Our plan (which they thought was going to be luck driven, given parking and ticket availability) was to go to the Gondola and go up Sulfur mountain! 

More on that later.. 

This is a must see place in Banff.. the Ink pots is a hard hike, but don't miss it. Take enough water and pace yourself and go.. 

We made friends for life on this trip and that made it all the more special!