The bus stopped at a waterfall that flows into a river (where they Freeway goes between the two). This was followed by two more stops at Bow lake and Waterfowl lakes.
Both these lakes looked similar except for the extent of the "lake beaches" and the picnicing crowds. The scenery was just amazing!
This photograph is thanks to the Belgian professor.. his daughter was telling to him take some vertical and horizontal.. he goes "will even take some diagonal.. how about that?". Turned out great!
We met a large punjabi family of 30+ people with picnic blankets and food spread out in one of the little coves around the lake. We were given half an hour at the stop and everyone in the bus interested in taking photos at the lake had to walk through one of many trails to get to the shore and take pictures. We thought we were going to a quiet spot.. turned out not to be. so we went back around to find a quiet spot to take photos.
Both these lakes are beautiful. Turqoise waters, clear enough for you to see the bottom pebbles for quite a distance, snow and ice covered mountains in the background..
San's candid shot of me at Waterfowl lakes
Surprisingly, she took a lot of photos of me on this trip and they were all good! Not out of focus, not contrasty, over or under exposed.. just right! That was a big bonus for me on this trip!
if you are not going by the bus tour, stop by both these lakes! There is enough parking in the parking lot at bow lake. For Waterfowl lake, you just stop at the vista point and walk down.
A video of the stops
The day wasn't over. We still had lot to do after being dropped off..
After the visit to the glacier and back, we were told that the ticket includes a ride to the skywalk and back. So we went in a larger bus to the skywalk bus stop. From this stop it is a half mile walk to the Skywalk.
San actually did a great job taking that picture given the crowd! I am a very proud photographer hubby..
This is an engineering marvel !! A U shaped piece of projecting steel and glass above the abyss. You are walking on glass and it is scary to walk on. The thing still shakes a bit in the heavy winds and that scared me a little more.
We saw a family of mountain sheep under the bridge. These sheep were amazing movers on near vertical surfaces! The baby was extremely cute!!
We read through the engineering details of the bridge, quickly walked through it (it was way too crowded) and got back on the next bus.
This is a must visit place. I think this will be even more beautiful when the mountains facing the skywalk have snow on them. Right now the river and the waterfalls are beautiful but not obviously visible.
A video of the Skywalk..
When you see a place like this.. you are proud to be an engineer. Heard a kid walk before me and say "this is just engineers showing off. They really didn't need to build something like this.. but they went and did it anyways!" I walked behind laughing.
What is more amazing is the engineering that is there in those sheeps soft padded feet that can grip any shape of rock as they go up on those vertical rock faces..
On the return to Banff, we stopped by a waterfall first and headed to stop by two lakes.
We had been in Alberta for less than a day and we had already spent the morning at some amazing places. Once we drove to the Columbia Icefield and the lodge for the employees who do the tours.. we were asked to wait for 15 minutes while our 20 year old bus driver and guide gave us the tickets to the glacier.
That picture is going in a frame.. I have not seen her happier in any other landscape recently. Being cooped up in the house or going on local hikes is not enough for this girl. So in a way I am happy we went on this trip!
We had to wait another 15 minutes to get on an another bus that took us further up. There we transferred to one of these monster trucks (think this is the largest tyres I have seen in my life) and another guide took us to the Glaciers edge.
Once there, we were allowed to walk as a group to the farthest safe point for folks wearing normal shoes. There was another group that went farther up, but with snow shoes. Given our schedules and the extra effort involved, we were happy with the tour we did.
We got to drink glacial melt water and walk a third of a mile or so into it and back.
Jasper National park, where the Athabasca glacier is located, had its own lakes and falls and sights on the Alberta top 10 list. However that will need a separate trip to Jasper and possibly accomodations close to Jasper than Banff. Someday we will visit Jasper is what we told ourselves on the return!
Just those pictures and walking on the Glacier was a highlight..
The tickets also included a bus ride to and from the Skywalk.. will post that later.
Once back after the skywalk, we had 30 minutes to grab something from the gift shop. There is a Starbucks but with a line a mile long. The eating place in the second floor had self serve hot cocoa, which ended up being the right choice. We got to sip a hot drink sitting on the patio with a view of the glacier(s).
A video of the glacier adventure!
We had three stops on the way back to Banff.. two of those three were 30 minute stops and one was a five minute stop to take photos of a falls (which in winter is called the Weeping wall.. where the falls are frozen on the wide mountain side.. in summer they were not that impressive).
on a wonderful weekend trip to the Canadian Rockies. She was sick and tired of not being able to go on a vacation. She had tried everything to beg the kids to come so all four of us could go somewhere for a few days, to no avail. Finally she snapped and said "We are going somewhere for two days. You give a choice from this list!". That was it. I picked Banff National park based on photos we had seen from friends and family who had visited from 4 years ago!
It was a last minute plan. We could not find cheap tickets for 4th of July weekend but found decent ones for last weekend. So took Friday and Monday off, flew into Calgary Friday, rented a car and drove to Banff. Monday afternoon to evening was the return back to SFO. We got a night , two full days and a morning to spend.
San did everything. All I had to do was go with the flow and walk as fast as I could when prodded.
Home to hotel was 7 1/2 hours! We were treated to amazing views on the drive there and I got to take a few photos and videos while she drove around exits that came rather abruptly while simultaneously getting used to speed limits in kmph!
A few photos from the drive.
It kept reminding us of our trip to Swiss Alps.. the only thing missing was the cows and their bells! and the cottages with the spires in the middle of the fields!
This was a great Ad we saw on the way!
As soon as we checked into the hotel, we went to find dinner. As usual, when I am hungry or worse case Hangry, we get to eat at an Indian restaurant. There were three options in the town of Banff all within a few minutes drive. The first two were full or had some server attitude problems. The third one was the charm.
After the dinner, the owner told us that sunset was post 10PM and we have a good two hours left. He suggested that we hike up to see "surprise point" and then come back down and do the "bow falls" trail. This was going to be a good 3+ miles of hiking after a travel day but we were up for it. The heavy food had to be put to use.. so off we went..
Here is a video of the beautiful drive to Banff!
The post on Bow falls and a separate restaurant review to follow..
ps. It is unlike me to wait for days to post things after a trip like this, but sadly got sick a day after getting back. Just recovering today. Till yesterday the headache would not allow me to stare at a screen at all.. keeping this blog short.. to be continued..
It is good to be back on the keyboard and sift though photos and videos. Right now 30 minutes seems to be the limit for staring at a screen before the eyes start watering!
This blog has not seen an entry for more than two months. A lot has happened since. A quick trip to India to combine work with family, a return to the US followed by heavy jet lag, getting way too busy at work to catch up on blogging, singing etc.
However, every alternate week, there has been a hiking trip and I will get to those blogs soon enough. The highlight of all those recent hikes, is the one to Cloulds rest, in Yosemite the past weekend.
It is the best hike to date since we started hiking during COVID shutdown. An unforgettable experience. Wife is part of a hiking group where they get permits and call for folks to take up open spots. She informed me two weeks ago that we are going to do a overnight camp and a hike.
The original plan was to:
start Saturday morning, reach Yosemite by 9AM, take a break at the gate after getting the permit paperwork, meet the rest of the group (no cell signals there!) and then drive to the starting point of the Cathedral lakes trailhead, hike with the backpack to a halfway point, camp at 9000 feet overnight, then hike up to Clouds rest Sunday morning and be back Sunday afternoon, drive back.
We made it to the trail head on Saturday as planned. We were just starting the hike on Saturday when there was a thunder storm with heavy hail! There was ice and slush everywhere.
We had to come back and find a camp site in short notice. We were lucky enough to find two spots in Tioga lake. The ground was dry here already!
That also meant, we had to do all the 15+ miles of hiking on Sunday.
My shoes and clothes were all wet walking from parking lot to the place where rest of the group were waiting. That made it very difficult to walk the rest of the day and the following day. We tried to dry the shoes by putting it near a half assed fire.. and trying to keep it inside the tent! It was hilarious. I did walk the next day in damp shoes and got blisters on four of my toes.
We spent a beautiful evening around Tioga lake and enjoyed chatting, had masala chai and did a 3 mile walk around the lake. It was just beautiful and serene, with Mount Dana in the background.
What is a hike without a "chaifie"?!
Every 100 feet, my macro mode in the iPhone was put to good use to zoom in on small flowers. The rest of the group were amused by my love for the macro shots.. (most of these next photos are of flowers the size of my thumbnail or smaller!)
We ate what we had packed and went to sleep at 8:30 when it was still light outside. We had to get up at 4:30 AM to pack up the tents etc. That was a challenge without gloves, especially when the dew outside the tent has condensed.. having the right gear makes all the difference!
We drove to the trailhead after the quick packup on Sunday morning, and did the hike to Cloud's rest and back as a day hike! The weather report said 42 F lows but it ended up being below 30F in the night. Given the lack of proper sleep from the cold on Saturday night, our group split into two. The folks who couldn't sleep well hiked up to Sunrise lakes which was a 7 mile round trip and the other three went up!
Yosemite trails are not like the local trails. At most places, you have to eenie meenie miney mo to decide which path is the trail and which is not.. it is a bunch of rocks thrown together with some kind souls trying to mark the path with same rocks..
The views were amazing and we were mostly smiling and laughing all the way to the top.. left to my wife, I would have had to do this in half the time, but thankfully I had company and we went at a steady pace! This also made sure that she was in pictures with me!!
At 10,000 feet the air is thin and breathing gets to be hard, but we had fun doing this hike. On the way up, we went at a steady pace of 1.5 miles an hour.
The last 0.3 miles of this hike is a real challenge. There is a knife edge around 3-4 feet wide made of oblong rocks thrown on top of one another.. You have to put down your backpacks and walk the edge to go to the top and get a breathtaking view of the entire valley below!
At one point there is a two to three feet gap on the rocks and you either have to jump down and climb back up, or do an Indiana Jones "leap of faith" step across the rocks! Taking a photo of that would put the photographer at even more risk.. and San refused to do it. She came down and went back up and we missed a chance to capture Sangiana Jones! Maybe another time.. if there is one!
You get a 360 degree panorama of the entire thing from this point!
No photographs do justice to what we saw.. a video at the end of this post captures the knife edge a lot better.
While coming down we were much faster but the direct sun and mosquitos made it very difficult for me. Got nausea in the last three miles down. It was also a non stop descent. So took a 3-5 minute break every half a mile and made it back. After a 5 minute stop in the parking lot, started driving back right away!
We were treated to more amazing views on the way down.. but you stop walking, the insects start having you for lunch!
Made another 10 minute stop at the Pizza Factory in Groveland to grab a lemonade and kept driving. At some point we started smelling burning stuff inside the car. Kind of freaked out and drove the last 100 miles at 55 mph with minimal breaking! Turns out the brake pads and rotor were burnt and we were lucky to make it back.. The tire treads also wore out completely! The car has had an expensive makeover now after this trip as an unwanted side effect.
All said and done, we had quite an adventure and were glad to make this trip. While waiting for the hail storm to subside, met a lady who had just come back after climbing Cathedral peak (ropes and all) who told me "there is no such thing as bad weather in Yosemite, only bad gear! you should have bought water proof shoes and dri-fit clothes and better equipment to camp even on ice! but looking at you now, you don't stand a chance of going up now and camping". We were lucky to find those spots overnight and also lucky to make it a day hike!
Clouds rest is not an easy hike and would not recommend it for kids. Get right shoes, blister free socks, right backpacks which don't hug your back, floppy hats with mosquito nets instead of baseball caps, insect proof clothing, beanies to cover ears during night, gloves that are rated for sub zero temperatures, etc. before trying these hikes. Looks like daddy is going to go shopping soon...
One other thiing.. all the local hikes did not train me for this. There is no clear trail in most places.. we end up scrambling on rocks, sometimes a foot and a half tall. So it takes a toll on the knees. The only training for hiking in Yosemite is to hike in Yosemite!
A video that captures our weekend..
One more item ticked off the list..
We were very fortunate to have lovely company on this trip. Our fellow hikers were truly amazing and we loved the overnight camping and chatting and getting to know the group!
Next dream, Half Dome!
Wife thinks I won't be able to do it.. I am hopeful. Let's see what happens..
Saturday, July 23, 2022 at 3:37PM ;)
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