Sunday, 8 July 2012

Peyto Lake and Bow Lake

Today we are going to do a couple of walks by some lakes, a short drive north from Lake Louise village along the Icefields Parkway. This is the road that connects Lake Louise and Jasper and is meant to be the most scenic drive in the world. I can’t vouch for the absolute veracity of that claim, but I have never seen views like it from a road. Enormous snow-capped mountains are lined up on either side of the road and in addition there are occasional turquoise lakes. Up ahead the cars have slowed down and some pull onto the shoulder. Brigette tells me that this is probably because there is a bear. Sure enough she is right and I see my first bear – and it’s a grizzly right by the side of the road.

Grizzly

We pull into a car park and join the tourists on the short trail to a lookout over Peyto Lake. A couple of National Parks rangers are here talking to tourist about being ‘bear aware’.and people are telling them about the grizzly by the side of the road. They know about him and say he hangs around these parts.
Peyto Lake

Peyto Lake

Taking the trail a bit higher up the side of the valley soon leaves the tourists behind and we come to a rocky outcrop where we sit and watch a marmot sunbathing on a rock, while a chipmunk darts around near our feet looking for crumbs.
Brigitte at Peyto Lake

Marmot

We drive on and stop at a less-visited lake – Bow Lake. Looking beyond the head of the lake we can see the waterfall we are heading for, where the Bow River starts from the melt water of the glacier above.
Bow Lake and Glacier

We walk along the side of the lake and then follow the river upstream as it weaves across wide gravel flats and we climb up steps alongside a narrow gorge.
Following the River Upstream

Gorge

Beyond the gorge we are guided by small cairns across a wide grey gravel landscape, backed by huge looming cliffs. As we approach the falls it is impossible to judge the scale of the cliffs because there is nothing to gauge them against, but we can no longer see the glacier which sits above and when we reach the bottom of the falls we have to lean back to look up at the top.
Gravel Landscape

Cairn and Waterfall


Waterfall

2 comments:

KBH said...

Beautiful scenery, that's more like it/like you back in the wilds, hiking and taking beautiful pictures.

jeanserjeant said...

I loved your photos of Bow Lake and Peyto ; it is such a lovely turquoise colour. I expect you are now going on to Jasper at the end of the Rockies road. We stayed at an Inn called the Lobstick and I remember seeing all the elk walking through the village. Glad you saw a bear at last; everything stops for them. I remember we followed one across some open ground and then down a slope to the river. Take care. Love Jean X