Heather's Adventures 2016 Yoho

Yoho Loop

July 4th - 16th    2016

Castle Mtn. Campground

Field BC

Emerald Lake

Lake OHara

 Our favorite spots.

The Beautiful Lake OHara..

                               Sometimes you just find a gem. If your smart you will recognize the good it does for your soul and you hold on dearly.......A little over dramatic? No, that's what Lk Ohara does for me....

That meant I got up extra early back in April and I think I was the first one onto the reservation line to book our ride up the hill with Ian on the bus.....July 12/2016
Reservations are quite difficult to come by,  I hear through the grapevine the years quota sells out within 30 min.! and you must have reservation prior to coming or you walk the 12 K up the hill on a gravel road.....and then down again...!

Perfect shot for our title page for the blog....OK OK Ruth and I are not fully technical geeks...but an hour at the end of the lake with Ian and our phones showed me I could do a panorama shot!!!!! Good thing there was no one that could see us laughing our heads off running around the bench to get into the other end of the shot......How much fun...Thanks Ian......

and of course Ian deserves some attention...he has made our visits much fun, our own personal tour guide.....Ian is also touched by this lake, he thinks it is his!

Never a bad day when you get some giggles.....


And again, I start my blog off out of order.....give me a great photo and I start blithering....
So I am going back to the beginning.....

You must start in the wee places and keeping your eyes open.....I saved this fellow's life!

My cold morning trip to the biffy I came so close to stepping on him in my rush...He probably was huddled inside to escape the cold and was flat on floor, I thought at first he was gone....but picked him up, (after I piddled and yelling at Ruth not to step on him) I placed him outside on a bush with a raindrop so he could get a drink. He said thank you, spread his wings to show his finery and gratitude for my photo......

See how my mind works?????

We stopped at Castle Mtn. campground for the first time, just to see. There are some hikes we are not familiar with in the area.....just off The Banff Parkway (the old highway 1 A ..)  It was not to be, July 4th/16 was cold! It was raining when we arrived, windy also but we were in the trees thank goodness...

Look at this, a neighbor took our photo just after setup and there is a sunbeam, shadows! I don't remember that!

It didn't last and the following morning it was only +4  very damp and cold....Much to Ruth's disappointment, Heather is scared to use furnace overnight...

Because of that we made an executive decision and left . Headed off to Golden with promise of warmer weather on the other side of the pass.

Exploring the hikes will have to come on a warmer time....Early July is not ideal....

Castle Mtn. is usually very imposing, takes up all the landscape, Not today! Ruth got the best shot available....

Willow is in the distance...

Indian Paintbrush

We just may have been going into withdrawl because we had unable to 

take any photos other than moths so we stopped on the 1A highway and got some photos of flowers....That always works.

I love Ruth's perspecive on this beauty....

I think it is

Large Pink flowered
Wintergreen

for now...

Golden, BC

July 5th.2016

Golden Municipal Campground, Kicking Horse River

Our typical evg. position, with our Ipad's, tablets, books. knitting etc.
It must be chilly if I have a jacket on.
I download books from the library onto tablet, IPAD etc. but always have the real thing handy just in case.




Normally we spend our evg. downloading our photo efforts from the day, cropping etc and of course sharing the best ones...

Ruth is always attracted to her Daisy's, they remind her of Tony.

Golden Municipal Campground is quite nice....showers WiFi (better close to office, shelter) power....Mind you we are usually in non peak times, I have felt crowded when it's busy. It has a nice walkway berm between campers and river. Dispute with CPR for river access so right now your not seeing the rafters, hopefully they work it out.
It's a nice stopover on our way.....

It's amazing how relaxing it is watching the trains pass by by the river.....
and there are a lot of trains...

Golden Hoodoos. across Kicking Horse

Beautiful striation in sandstone?

Kicking Horse River Pedestrian Wooden Bridge. Spirit Square Golden BC
Longest freestanding timber frame bridge in Canada.
Beautiful gardens all around.

We Enjoy our little campsite #5 At Golden Minicipal Campground.

Probably snowing back at Castle Campground!!!!

We never get tired of pics of Dryads. 

We met the most unique lady at an evg. band concert in Spirit Square...She approached us and informed us this was "her " bench and low and behold it was hers, dedicated to her by the Town of Golden and her family. "To honor Laura Snider, Columbia V alley Pioneer.
and longtime Golden resident. May 7. 1920"   96 yrs old, we were shocked. We spent the next couple of hours visiting, laughing with her stories. and enjoying the music. 
A place to rest, relax and renew your spirit.  A pleasure to meet Laura.

Confluence of the Kicking Horse and Columbia Rivers.

We took a short walk along the river on a hot afternoon, wasn't what we thoroughly enjoyed, hot, dry, mosquito ridden.. but we still manage some pics!

I have to look these two up....I'm sure we have seen them but they can completely change their look as they bloom.

Another  Beach......!

Death Camas (of course highly poisonous) 

Just a great shot and yes it's Ruth's 

I will have to get around to looking up these names.....but lots to do on blog first.!!!!!



These photos are our evg. entertainment.....Sitting on berm in front of van by the River. Every evg the CPR pulls all this equipment along the tracks and does maintenance actually quite late into the evg. The noise reflects off the hill across to us....Did manage to sleep.

The flowers in the mtns. are varied....I always thought I was up on the names.....NOT

I have seen these minus the blooms at Burnt Stick Lake and was amazed the bloom grows out of centre of leaf...
Have also seen them at Nakusp town gardens, also beautiful....It's a Clematis vine of some sort..

I especially love the shades in this photo.....beautiful.....
Delphinium 

Golden was fun, always seems to be important to get off the highway and park! See the town and the people....We enjoyed, its a great "on the way, " place to stop...
We should have rented the bikes for rent and really explored the town....Didn't get photos of them....

On to Field and Kicking Horse Campground in the Kicking Horse Pass.....(Lake OHara and the Great Divide!)

Field B.C.

Kicking Horse Campground

July 10th 2016

 Our favorite Kicking Horse site...so far.... We had
reservations booked for the bus on July 12th so we spent
a few days exploring..Lots of flowers blooming in the area
So we thought Emerald Lake might just be perfect..
The cold experienced in Castle Mtn. area had disappeared
on this side of mtns. but the rain persisted.....Doesn't stop us
though, just have to dress for the weather.







Our little resident welcomed us again this year looking for
his pumpkin seeds...(I'm sure he is the same fellow as last time)

Emerald Lake North side.  July 11th

The rain creates all sorts of interest, I remember Ruth and I trying to get our reflection in the drops...and we managed kinda...

You can see the camera lens......neat

..

If I remember right, Ruth was having better luck with her camera focus (macro) than I was that day....We seem to at least take turns so one of us is successful....
Most of these photos are Ruth's but sometimes it's hard to tell.....

I love the perspective on this one.....

I honestly have no idea what the flower names are in this bunch. I will have to run through flower books later......!



Finally I recognize one!   Alberta wild rose.....

Is not nature just amazing?

This is the beginning of the next two photos.....

Ruth's Version

and mine............

Quite a few trips we make are repeats! We find spots we love and try to go back perhaps at a different time. Creates a whole different picture, you have to be in the right place at the right time.....
Perfect example this year was a visit from the loons on emerald lake.....We have seen them before but they always kept their distance and as usual were quite elusive..

This year we were alone which in itself is very unusual.....It was quiet, a mist in the air, quite magical. Ruth noticed them first, a mother with her chick feeding along the side, very close to the edge.....Father wasn't far, he was diving and bringing back wee little fish and feeding them to baby.....

We just very happily snapped photos for well over 30 min...only disturbed once by a fellow in a canoe, but even he just drifted slowly by recognizing how important it was to leave them be.....

They were so close to the shore, even to a bench, the water so calm with a mist. We have been there so often and never this opportunity.

Stretching her legs....

Perfect!!!! I was so excited

Almost missed this one....















Just as Ruth just about missed the chick....Like Mom like son...?

Dad feeding little one....Mom approves..

Honestly I could overdose on Loon photos for the blog......I just so remember the excitement. Ruth and I both were trying to whisper back and forth so not to disturb and ruin our opportunity.....How fun.....


One or two more....have to get this one as Mom was diving...you can just see her underwater....

Perfect! water drop and all...

Just a fuzzball

Diving

Back at Kicking Horse Campground.

Another little treasure right in the campground...Buttercup meadow.....

Mt. Stephen

Cathedral Craigs

Lake OHara

July 12th. 2016

And a great day it was despite as last year it rained.....This year it was sunny and warmer in the morning (10 AM bus) and the downpour and I mean downpour did not happen until about 1 pm. We actually gave up and took the bus home about 3 if I remember correctly.

We decided to head around the lake again. I was thinking the cliff would not be as bad the 2nd year!!!!!! Not...

I was disappointed in my photos this year......and this beautiful shot was an example. Beautiful colors and reflections but the sky is completely washed out.....

John is teaching me more about depth of field, aperture etc. have a lot to learn....so appreciate him.

If I cut out the sky, I'm happier with the reflections....

Someday a cabin it will be....

My Heather

Last year our trip was on July 29th/15 . I remember more variety of flowers....This year a little earlier (July 12/16) there didn't seem to be as much....And this year has been a warmer spring and summer at least downhill! The Heather's were in abundance which I love to see....and more flowers on the sunny side against the warmer rocks...
The Yoho Valley certainly is a rain belt.....The tourist info site even mentioned the Yoho Blow.....!

View across the lake at the "cliff" and the Pink Quartz wall...

This is a photo of the pink granite wall across the lake, looks pretty tame....but this is the beginning part of the toughest part of the hike for me.....Its steep with large boulders...beautiful, but I can't relax.....not tough for others but for me!!!

These photos are the actual path, route.

Ian and his Intria umbrella....;-)

The path runs just at the base of the pink granite wall....

About here, just past the wall...I'm getting stiff....I know the tough part is around the bend..

Now see how steep and narrow this path is? 

I can't relax the legs even though I'm past the worst.

I


There, I made it for the second year in a row,  but not fun.....It had started to rain and I was feeling it was going to get slippery...
Ian was a gentleman and helped me around the worst part....I was sweating so bad my hands were slippy.  I'm sure if I fell he would not have been able to save my life!   ;-))

A reminder of the fun part.....

Yellow Heather

The rain then started in earnest!  heavy, heavy downpour....Ruth and I are prepared with extra ponchos in case it's windy also....and it was beautiful in that time.....If you stand on the path and don't move, all you hear is the patter of the rain on the water and maybe the wind in the spruce trees, a special sound.....no other noise....I always wish I could stand in a bubble during a storm and be protected and just watch what happens....
We walked back to Le'Relais Day shelter, stopped in out of the rain, hunkered around a wood stove with many others had their famous carrot cake with cream cheese icing and decided to take early bus back. Got down to bottom of hill and it was cloudy and sunny????

Back to Kicking Horse and Ian came over for supper when he got off work....
To cold and wet to sit by fire so inside it was again and had a good visit.....

Pouring rain....

Is this not beautiful.....?

Beginning and end of hike......

The end of another perfect hike around Lake OHara.....perhaps my favorite spot...you just get such a feeling of peace here....The world is a long way away somehow.....
Had some sun, Had lots of rain. friends, cameras and now blogs.......