Day 36 - Yoho National Park

Yoho National Park, 134 miles total and 27.3 mpg. Totals for the trip, 6204 miles, 27.8* mpg. Those are the stats.


An easy day is the plan today. I slept IN – until 9. I think the ribs last night might have had something to do with that. Sally-Heath made us a fine breaky, and we spent some time on our plan from here on. At this point we do not have a reservation anywhere from Tuesday night on. What we came up with is Tuesday we drive to Hope, BC, which is about 1 hour away from Vancouver, and we stay there – somewhere with high speed internet that accepts dogs for just a few bucks – for four nights. More on the plan later, as it develops.

We finally get rolling – I don’t remember what time it was, but we’re headed for town to find an internet connection and a snack before heading to Yoho National Park. Our search leads us to the café in the book store, and initially everything looks perfect. Yes, I said initially, because it soon became apparent that the internet connection, which at times was stellar, was flakey, it would simply come and go. After a while we gave up – I didn’t complete yesterdays pictures or the blog – we didn’t get to check the weather – we didn’t get to research places to stay in Hope. But it was by now around 3pm, and our easy trip to Yoho was becoming more difficult.

Yoho National Park is a small area west of Banff. Highway 1, the Trans-Canada Highway, goes right through the middle of it. We have traversed Yoho each time we have gone to Jasper, Banff or Kootenay National Parks. This is about the fourth trip through – but this time we will stop to smell the roses, or hike the trails, or something. It’s about a one hour drive from our cabin.

I forgot to mention, the weather today might best be described as variable. Sunny, yes, sometimes. Thunder storms, yes, sometimes. Overcast, foggy, misty, rainy – yep, all of those. Changes rapidly. You never know.

One thing going for variable weather – the mixtures you get of clouds, mountains, blue sky, lightning, etc., are just incredible. These cannot be captured on film. The double rainbow at the end of the day, maybe, but even that is never as dramatic as seeing the real thing.


There are four things on our list for Yoho NP. The visitor center, Takakkaw Falls, Emerald Lake and the Spiral Tunnels. We did all of them. Here’s a brief blow by blow.
First was Emerald Lake. It is emerald, to be sure. Really pretty. You can drive to it, and the Lodge w/ cabins that are right on the banks. When we got there it was raining and thundering. Left the boys in the car, took umbrellas and walked around a bit. The rain let up, so we got the boys and started out on a walk that ended up taking us around the lake – 5.3km. At the half way point the sky above was blue, but there were two storms, one north and one south yelling at us (and each other) to hurry up. Just as we finished the hike, the heavens (or sky) opened again. What great timing! It was a good, flat hike. Very easy. Very pretty. Very interesting. The east side trail is through fairly normal forest, right next to the lake. The south side trail is over the alluvial fan, an area that the lake will eventually cover. The west side is through a rain forest! Incredibly different areas for such a short trail around a lake, wouldn’t you say?!

Next was the visitor center. This one is in Alberta. I say that because we are slowly discovering that visitor centers here in Canada are useful, and we first discovered that yesterday in British Columbia. From now on we plan to seek out visitor centers here – they have proven very helpful. They are not (yet) merchandising opportunities – they actually have and dispense information that is helpful to tourists! What a concept! Please let me know the next time you experience a visitor center in the USA that is more than 50% visitor information oriented, or less than 50% T-shirt sales.


As we leave the visitor center a train is just leaving Field, the town, headed up the mountain to the east. I mention this, because here is located the spiral tunnels – an engineering solution to a difficult grade problem faced by the railroad. To reduce the grade, they effectively lengthened the track, by tunneling spirals (two of them) into the mountain. The train, if it is long enough, actually travels over itself. So we raced ahead to the view point to watch the phenomenon, and sure enough, we’ve got pictures to prove it. Pretty neat.

After marveling at the trains, we headed back west to see Takakkaw Falls. Here we have, among many fabulous views, three things to talk about. First, there is a triple switchback on this two lane road that is just incredible. No beating around the bush – full 180 degree turns, and I’m glad I’m in a small car! Buses may do this, but I don’t want to watch! Second, the falls. Wow. Wow. Wow. Did I mention Wow? And thirdly, there were 3 backpackers – 1 guy, 2 gals – hitching a ride. We stopped, explained the two dogs and no seats, and they accepted! So they piled in and we had a nice conversation and they played with the dogs, and we took them to Field. They all worked for the parks, and had been hiking the Ice Edge trail today, 20km, during the thunder showers and rain. Doesn’t seem like much fun, and the lightning did cause some concern, but I guess they enjoyed it!

That was it. We were done. Nothing left but to drive home. Sound boring? It wasn’t! I can’t describe the whole thing, but one example might suffice. Remember the variable weather? It still is. At one point I am driving straight into the sun through a pouring rain. It was around 8:30, about an hour before the sun should set. The reflection/glare off the roadway, and the prism effect of the sun through the raindrops – a different kind of WOW!

We made it home. Sally-Heath made a pasta dinner, guaranteed to bolster good solid sound sleep, unlike the ribs… We have a Canadian Shiraz again, and we can’t quite figure out what it is like. It’s quaffable, but it’s not Shiraz, not really. Goodnight.