O'hara lives up to the hype

Wow lake O'Hara in Yoho National park must be one of the nicest places in the world. It;s basically the hikers version of Glastonbury, you can only get to the campsite or bus to the trails if you book three months in advance and even then you have to ring repeatedly in order to get through. Given that we hadn't even heard of Lake O'Hara before we arrived we were unbelievably lucky to get there, the ranger at the information centre made us aware that there was a cancellation and Fi got up early to make the call.

When we arrived it was peeing down with rain and we couldn't really see a single mountain because of the thick mist. Miserably we pitched our tent and considered spending many hours trudging in the rain without seeing a thing. Amazingly for a back country campsite O'hara has a day shelter that sells coffee and carrot cake, I know....pretty amazing for a wilderness site.  We stowed ourselves inside by the wood burning stove and considered spending the day there. However, within an hour the weather had changed and we got out for a walk, the pictures nearly do justice to how amazing it was.

Keep your ears open and you will hear a marmot whistling...or is he shouting Alan, Alan

Lake O'hara

Not a bad spot for a picnic

Lake Oesa

Preparing for take off

There is a Pika on top of that rock if you look carefully

Yukness ledges, nicer than the name suggests

Either a very clean or very dirty marmot

The bus to lake O'hara

Creepy signage - Ralph told others on the bus he hoped to keep bodily fluids to himself for the extent of the journey.

the good the bad and the ugly

Banff has some beautiful places, one of which is Lake Louise...........................as long as you are facing away from the humongous hotel that looms over the valley bottom like, like , well like a big ugly looming thing.

Fi loved this hotel and thought it was the highlight of our trip to date (no I didn't!)(yes you did you loved it)

Look the other way across the lake and it is a very different story and to be fair much of the rest of the park is unspoilt. One of the rangers told us to think of Lake Lousie as the sacrificial lake that draws 90% of the parks traffic. You could hire a canoe on the lake but it was mega bucks and we only wanted to paddle away from the hotel.

Fi with a new friend - she certainly preferred his conversation anyway

Opposite the hotel there is a steep trail ascending to a tea house, we started the walk with the best intentions but soon got distracted by the wealth of mammal life at the bottom of the mountain. Having got our first fix of Pikas the previous day we spent a couple of hours watching one at lake lousie going about his business, warning off chipmunks with an Eeeek, or chasing other Pikas. We never did get to the tea house, but we didn't really mind...........................

"and what do you do" Is it me or does this ground squirrel look a bit snooty

another episode of spot the pika

Pika poo

Pika den

Single rainbow, even this can't make the hotel look subtle

Are tourism and protection balanced here? We asked a couple on the way up the trail if you could still see the ugly hotel from the top of the mountain they said yes sounding a bit shirty, we then realised they were probably staying there, oh well.

Fluffed up nutcracker after some rain

The overloaded Ark of Kananaskis

We finally saw a grizzly bear and it was absolutely amazing!

BORING ALERT, READ THE NEXT PARAGRAPH AT YOUR OWN RISK: We were staying in old style trappers tents at a campground in Kananskis, although the tents were nice it was over priced and under resourced. There was no sink to wash up in and no tap apart from a big hose for filling up big RV water tanks and we weren't allowed to use it for washing up either (I know, I know the Rwandan refugees don't know how good they have it).  The lady at the front desk attempted to convince us that no campgrounds in the whole of Canada had sinks for washing up in due to food scraps attracting bears, "we are just crazy like that" she said suggesting it was a national quirk, rather than crapness on their part..... this was disproved 2 days later in a backcountry campsite only accessible by fire road but still with two sinks.  We asked what she suggested we should do about washing up, funnily enough she said we could rent a washing up bowl from them! I know this is quite boring but it really got us annoyed, anyway if it is wildlife you want Kananaskis is not a bad place to go.

Kananaskis valley is in the foothills of the Rockies near Banff.  We saw so much wildlife here.  Our first grizzly was grazing in a meadow beside the road, it turned and  looked at us (we were in the car) then slowly walked back to the safety of the woodland edge, it reminded Ralph of a gorilla because of the front loaded body shape.  No time to get a picture.

This is also where we spotted Pikas for the first time, they may well be the cutest animals alive! A hamster in grey pajamas running over boulders shouting EEEKKK!

Wildlife bridges cross the motorway every 25km. The trans-Canada highway goes straight through Banff and Yoho national parks, the entire length of which is fenced off to wildlife. There were also a number of wildlife tunnels, we heard that the bridges are only used by wildlife after they have been established for 5 years. Although some wildlife are using the bridges it seems unlikely that some limited access does not effect the ecology in some way - I am keen to look up the science on it.

White tailed deer with antlers in velvet -Peter Lougheed Prov. park

Spot the ground squirrels, there were 7 popped up in a row at one point

We walked up and round the Ptarmigan cirque from Highwood Pass in search of Pikas and found one eeking among the rocks

Moments before a big thunder storm

I may be having some sort of seizure here or something, Fi is finding it funny though

there be Pikas in them there hills

Alpine flowers - mountain avens

On Ptarmigan cirque

Female big horn sheep extreme close up - someone had obviously fed these sheep at some point

Dad - the mountain behind me is Mt Rae

Trappers tent

Wildflowers in the Kananaskis valley just south of Banff

Jerk porcupine

We headed from the craziest hostel in the world to one of the most scenic, located in Yoho National Park the Whiskey Jack hostel boasts a dramatic few of a glacier fed waterfall, the Takkakaw Falls. The hostel manager Andrew, a relaxed young lad who strangely does not seem mad keen on the outdoors, is having a very public feud with the local porcupine. In Andrew's words the porcupine is a "jerk", the evidence of this jerk like behaviour can be witnessed by examining the numerous scratches and gnawings on the porch and dorm doors and through the need for Andrew to wrap his car with chicken wire. Much to our dismay we didn't get to see the porcupine, it left us wondering if the latin name of this species is Jerkus elusivus.

The hostel building is the last remaining cabin left from a group built by the Canadian Pacific railway, the rest have been swept away by avalanches over the years. A good job really as collectively they looked a bit of an eyesore, Ralph said as much but rather untactfully before we were told no one was injured in the event!

View from the hostel

The hostel

Columbian ground squirrel

Columbine

I thought this was an alien life form but Fi claims its just a fungus, a black Morel

I want to be a part of it Yoho, Yoho............

a bird which we don't know yet