PART 4 - This is six-part travelogue of my memoirs of Canadian Rockies Travel - Banff, Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, Yoho, Icefield Parkway, and Jasper.
British Columbia’s Yoho National Park is land of spectacular lakes, mighty waterfalls, glacier-clad mountains, and free-flowing rivers. It certainly deserves its name derived from native Indian’s word "wonder". It is situated on the border of British Columbia and Alberta bordered by Banff National Park on east and Kootney National Park on south.
Day 9
Today, we allocated whole day for Yoho National Park. There are many things to do in Yoho including glorious hiking trails in Lake O’Hara region or overnight backpacking in Twin Falls area or spectacular window of sightseeing through roadside attractions on Trans-Canada Highway 1 slicing through the park.
We left Banff early in the morning, drove nearly 60 km past Lake Louise on the border of Banff-Yoho National park. As you enter into park, you pass Lake O’Hara region within minutes. Lake O’Hara region is astonishingly beautiful high elevation backcountry area with excellent hiking trails. It is eco-fragile alpine area and maintains restrictive quota system. Reservations are required to take the bus to Lake O’Hara for day use or overnight camping. Unless you have reservations, you have nothing but only one option –driving further on Highway 1. Since I couldn’t get any reservations for Lake O’Hara region, we decided to access only roadside highlights of the park. I have decided that with in next couple years, if time permits, I will definitely visit Lake O’Hara region.
Our first stop on Highway 1 from eastern entrance of the park was Spiral Tunnel Viewpoint overlooking railway tunnels in Kicking Horse Pass. It is architectural wonder of Canadian Pacific Railway. If you are lucky, the figure-eight tunnels allow you to watch the front of trains emerging from one part of the mountains before the rear has entered at the tunnel entrance. Spiral Tunnels were built in 1909 to solve the problem of sharp gradient of kicking Horse Pass for lying railway tracks between towns of Field and Lake Louise.
After Spiral Tunnel Viewpoint, we drove further on Highway 1 taking narrow winding Yoho Valley Road to the Takakkaw Falls. Takakkaw means “magnificent” in native Indian language. Takakkaw Falls is tallest falls in Canadian Rockies dropping spectacular 1250 ft in the series of cascades fed by melt waters of Wapta icefield. As we were driving closer to the falls, we can see the falls thundering down on the headwalls of the mountain range. We hiked all the way to falls from parking lot to feel cool mist of ice-cold water. From Takakkaw falls parking lot; you can hike many excellent trails in the Yoho valley area varying from half day (laughing falls) to full day (twin falls) to overnight backpacking tour (iceline trail). We also stopped by at confluence of turquoise-colored Kicking Horse River and milky white-colored Yoho River turning into light-green-colored Kicking Horse River.
Once we came back on Highway 1 from Yoho Valley Road, driving further on Highway 1 running parallel with wild greenish-white Kicking Horse River was unforgettable experience. At the western edge of the park lies Wapta Falls. It is known as Canadian Rockies Niagara Falls. Wapta falls is Yoho’s largest waterfall and entire kicking horse river thunders down 100 ft forming clouds of mist. It was a 5 km roundtrip hike on leveled trail through dense forest. We enjoyed nice and easy walk all the way up to the falls. As you approach falls, you first see viewpoint overlooking the top of falls and later descend down to riverbanks for clear yet partially uninspirational view of falls behind rock piles.
After Wapta falls, we skipped going further to Golden for kicking horse Mountain Resort gondola. We returned back all the way to town of Field (Park’s only village and home of Visitor center) in the middle of Yoho National Park. From here, we turned left for final attraction of the day - Emerald Lake, another turquoise-colored jewel-like lake of Canadian Rockies in majestic setting among high mountains and surrounding lush forest. Emerald Lake’s shoreline is graced by secluded but beautiful Emerald Lake Lodge, which is considered as Yoho’s equivalent to Jasper’s Jasper Park Lodge, Lake Louise’s Chateau Lake Louise, or Banff’s Banff Spring Hotel. Emerald lake image used to be adorned on the back of $10 bill for many years. It is excellent spot for canoeing, quite walking, and riding horses. We strolled for an hour on lakeshore enjoying reflections of surrounding mountain range on serene turquoise-colored lake before heading back to Banff.
Once we came back to Highway 1 near town of Field from Emerald Lake Road, we saw freight train going in the direction of Spiral Tunnels situated just 8 km east of Field. My wife and I knew right away that this is our excellent chance to watch freight train passing through tunnels. At view point, we enjoyed sight of freight train passing through spiral tunnels where we can easily see train going through first tunnel and coming out from second tunnel before rear end completely entered into first tunnel.
Other Attractions
Lake O’Hara Region – Lake O’Hara Alpine Circuit, Lake Osea, Lake McArthur Hikes, Paget Lookout Hike, Iceline Trail, Twin Falls Hike, Hamilton Lake Hike, Burgess Shales fossil beds, Natural Bridge, Kicking horse Mountain Resort gondola in Golden, Whitewater rafting on Kicking Horse River, Cross-Country skiing in winter