Today we’re heading back to Lake O’Hara. Unfortunately, the skies are starting to get smoky again, so it’s a good thing we did an alpine hike yesterday when the views weren’t too bad.
Arriving at the Lake O’Hara parking lot, we got checked in for our bus ride up to the lake.
We decided to do a lower elevation hike where the lack of clear skies would be less of a problem. Therefore, the plan was to head out to Schaffer Lake. Our plan was to head up one trail and back via another, so we could see as much as possible.
Below is our route map. We thought we’d start by heading out toward the West Opabin Trail, and go as far as Mary Lake for a quick look. We would then backtrack a short ways, and pick up the Big Larches Route to Schaffer Lake, where we would stop for lunch. On our return, we would take the Alpine Meadow Trail, which takes us out behind the Elizabeth Parker Hut and then to Le Relais.
The trail started out through the forest toward Mary Lake.
We followed this giant Raven up the trail for a while. He bounced along the trail, seemingly unconcerned about our presence behind him.
Arriving at Mary Lake, it became clear that the skies are smoky today, and that the smoke just seems to be stuck in this area, perhaps contained by all the large mountains around us.
We headed up the Big Larches Trail, which mostly hugs the edge of the forest, but remaining in the open, heading up a slope of large rock. It has also be come very evident where this trail gets its name. This trail is just filled with Alpine Larch trees. I expect this will become much more beautiful in another month when they start to turn a golden yellow.
Here we are all gazing back at the view behind and below us. I can see this would be quite beautiful on a clear day.
A little over 3 km into our hike, and we came across this massive Alpine Larch tree, far larger than the others in the area.
At close to 4 km into our hike, we arrived at Schaffer Lake.
We found a nice spot to sit down and break out our lunch. After a nice rest and a bit of bird watching, we headed back toward Lake O’Hara. I suppose we could have pushed on to Lake McArthur, but with the skies all socked in with smoke, it made more sense to just head back.
The Alpine Meadow Trail back, is also as the name suggests. It was often in the forest, but with nice clearings of wildflowers.
Arriving back at Le Relais shelter around 1:15, we relaxed and waited for the 2:30 bus out.
As we waited for the bus, a rather large family of about a dozen people came by to wait. As it turns out, they didn’t have bus tickets and had walked in. Basically, they hiked the 11 km up the fire road, and then did a quick loop around the Lake O’Hara Lakeshore Trail. I couldn’t help but think what an awful waste of time and energy that must have been. To spend hours hiking up a very boring dirt road, only to do a quick look around, and then try for a spot on an outgoing bus. I’ll never understand why they did it, but to each their own, I suppose.
Below are some satellite images made from our GPS tracks recorded during the hike.
For those of you who would like them, I’ve uploaded our GPS track files here for download.
Here are the tracks on a flat topographic map along with the elevation profile.
It was a short hike at only 5.3 km. Max elevation was 7,124 feet and minimum elevation was 6,592, for a net gain of 532 feet. Total ascent/descent was 714 feet.
Back at the parking lot, it was still early, and since we’re already so close, we headed over to Takakkaw Falls.
Feeling like Italian for dinner, we called the Chateau Lake Louise and got a table at Lago for this evening. Our meals were great, as usual, and I think I had just enough pepper!
Lake O’Hara has a reputation for being one of the best hiking destinations anywhere. The area consists of several glacial alpine lakes, set up high in hanging valleys, surrounded by glaciers and waterfalls, with Lake O’Hara as the central point. A beautiful network of hiking trails interconnect these destinations, resulting in some scenery overload. Experience the power of positive change with antabuse – your partner in breaking free from the cycle of alcohol dependency. Take the first step towards a brighter, healthier future today.
Lake O’Hara itself is at a fairly high elevation, which means you don’t need to hike that far up to get above treeline and into some fantastic views. However, it is a very fragile area, with an extremely short growing season for the plants, so to minimize human impact on the area, Parks Canada sets strict quotas on the people that can access the area every day. Getting to Lake O’Hara requires either tickets to the Parks Canada bus, or a boring hike up an 11 km dusty old fire access road. Bicycles and private vehicles are not permitted on the road. For most people, it’s not practical to spend much of the day hiking in (and possibly back out) before you can even get to start one of the amazing hikes, which all begin at Lake O’Hara (although some keen hikers do make the trek in). For the lucky few that get bus tickets, you get an experience that feels like you’re in the backcountry, with very few other hikers around, surrounded by only nature and great views.
Bus tickets went on sale on April 20 at 8AM mountain time, and the entire allotment for the season was essentially gone in less than a minute. While tens of thousands of hopeful hikers were disappointed, we managed to luck into not one, but two days of tickets! Today is the first of our days here.
Not wanting to take any chances at missing our bus, we had an early buffet breakfast at the Poppie Brasserie at the Chateau, had the valet bring our van around, and we were on our way. It’s not a long drive to the Lake O’Hara parking area, but we planned to arrive about 30 minutes early, since delays from highway construction and long freight trains do happen. We checked in on arrival, and sat on the bus for about 20 minutes of bumps before reaching the Le Relais Day Use Shelter at Lake O’Hara.
The skies are still hazy from the BC fires, but at least the smoke isn’t as thick as it was earlier in our trip. Since there was a chance of views, we wanted to do one of the alpine hikes. Our plan was to hike up to Lake Oesa, passing a number of smaller lakes and waterfalls along the way, and then have lunch there. The next section of the hike was to take the Yukness Ledges Alpine Route around to the next valley, and emerge at Hungabee Lake. From there, we would take the East Opabin Trail back down to Lake O’Hara, and follow the Lakeshore Trail back to Le Relais where we would meet the bus back to the car. I’ve highlighted our planned route in orange on the trail map below.
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We crossed the bridge at the outlet stream from Lake O’Hara, and followed the Lakeshore Trail around.
About three-quarters of the way along the far side of the lake, the trail to Lake Oesa branched off to our left, and started to climb.
There were lots of places to stop for photos, with great scenery in all directions.
Here we are, pausing for a short break.
The trail building here is really a work of art. The trails are easy to follow, and built into the surrounding nature using the natural stones along the way.
There were several waterfalls along the way, as the water flowed from one lake to another. This fall is coming down from Victoria Lake and toward Yukness Lake.
It was another nice spot to stop for a photo.
Here we are, arriving at Victoria Lake.
You can see on the other side of Victoria Lake, the Yukness Ledges alpine route we will later follow, but we will arrive at it from the other side of the lake, after we visit Lake Oesa. But, there is a shortcut trail that we could take here, if we wanted to skip Lake Oesa and trail of scree at the start of the alpine route.
We continued following the trail up to Lake Oesa, which isn’t much further from here.
About 3.8 km into our hike, and about 830 feet above Lake O’Hara, we are arriving at Lake Oesa.
Up here at Lake Oesa, it seemed to be very hazy. It’s like the smoke blows into the valley and gets stopped by the wall of mountains at the back of the lake, and the haze just sits there!
We rested here for a bit, had some sandwiches for lunch, and then continued on our way.
Shortly after leaving Lake Oesa, we dropped down to cross over the outlet stream below the small falls exiting the lake.
Apparently, there’s a lot of photo opportunities here!
After a short climb down to Lake Lefroy, we started back up again, but this time, up a scree slope toward the Yukness Ledges.
This is looking across to Lefroy Lake, which is the small lake below Lake Oesa but above Victoria Lake.
And continuing up the scree…
After leaving the scree and turning to large rocks, the trail passed the shortcut back down to Victoria Lake. It then turned left and followed a series of ledges around Mount Yukness. Here’s Yukness Lake immediately below, with Lake O’Hara further below in the background.
We continued following the trail, which contoured up and down, and varying from scree to rock ledges to large boulders.
Came across a pair of hoary marmots on the rocky slope below us.
At this point, we’re getting close to Hungabee Lake, and are on the other side of Mount Yukness from Lake Oesa.
You can see Hungabee Lake coming into view just ahead and below us.
From this spot on the trail, we have a nice view of the moraine on which Opabin Lake sits, just above Hungabee Lake. We visited Opabin Lake last year, coming up the West Opabin Trail, and stopping at Opabin Prospect and Moor Lakes on our way, before descending to Lake O’Hara by way of the same trail we plan to take today.
Now we just have to descend the boulder field to get to Hungabee Lake.
We rested for a bit on the rocks beside Hungabee Lake and had a small snack. Here is Nadine cooling off her feet in the lake.
Doing a quick time check, we decided to get going back down the East Opabin Trail to Lake O’Hara to try to make the 4:30 bus out. I would have preferred to take the west trail, which I consider to be far more scenic than the east, and make a detour over to Opabin Prospect, but we probably would have had to wait for the 6:30 bus if we went that way.
After hiking the gentle trail down the Opabin Plateau, we soon entered the trees and followed the switchbacks down through the forest.
Arriving at the shoreline of Lake O’Hara, we turned left and followed the lakeshore back to the trailhead.
You can see the Seven Veil Falls across the lake, which we went up at the end of our hike last year.
This seemed like a great spot to rest!
And here we are back at the beginning of our hike. The photo below shows the cabins of Lake O’Hara lodge in the foreground on the other side of the little bay in front of us. At the back of the lake you can see the Seven Veil Falls. In the centre of the photo is Mount Yukness, which we hiked around. We went up the valley on the left, where Lake Oesa sits. On the right is the Opabin Plateau, where we returned from.
And a few more perspectives of the same…
This is the Le Relais day use shelter, where they have some really nice carrot cake to enjoy while waiting for the bus.
We took the bus back to the parking lot, and drove back into Alberta and up to Lake Louise. After getting cleaned up, we enjoyed another nice dinner in the Lakeview Lounge.
With every hike we take, I like to keep a GPS track recording so I can later visualize where we went. Here are some images of GPS track, starting with an overview of the entire area.
Below is an overview of the entire hike, but zoomed in on the area covered.
Following are some zooms of various sections of the hike.
For those of you who would like them, I’ve uploaded our GPS track files here for download.
Below is our hike overlaid on a topographic map of the area a corresponding elevation graph below.
Our total distance covered was 10.6 km. Our minimum elevation was 6,614 feet and maximum elevation was 7,579 feet, for a net elevation gain of only 965 feet. Total elevation gain and loss was 1,444 feet, after accounting for the various sections of going up and down.
After visiting the Rockies several times, this year we are finally going to make it out to Lake O’Hara. I tried unsuccessfully to get bus tickets in the past, but this year, we managed to get two tickets for the 8:30 bus today! We awoke early, had breakfast, and left Lake Louise extra early, because we do not want to miss the bus and be disappointed for another year.
The thing about Lake O’Hara, is that it has a wonderful network of hiking trails around it. Lake O’Hara isn’t the destination, but the starting point for some excellent hikes. Anyone can walk in, but it’s 11 km, each way, up a boring old fire road through the trees. Some people who don’t secure bus tickets do make that walk, but I’d rather not spend 22 km of my day walking a road through the trees on top of the main hike. That’s how Parks Canada manages to significantly restrict access to this area, to protect the fragile area from too much human traffic. To give you an idea of what the walk up the road might be like, here is some video taken from the bus.
After about 20 minutes of riding a rough road in a school bus, we arrived at Lake O’Hara, dropped off in front of the Le Relais day use shelter.
We took a few minutes to get our bearings, and headed down to the lake to have a look. It was still a bit overcast, but still looked like it would be a great day.
Our plan for today was to hike up to Opabin Lake, via the West Opabin Trail and return via the East. We started out by following along the Lakeshore Trail, passing the Lake O’Hara Lodge and through some nice scenery.
After a short distance, we reached a junction, and took a trail to the right that started climbing through the forest toward Mary Lake.
We crossed a few streams and passed a few waterfalls as we ascended quickly, and reached Mary Lake after about 1 km. Mary Lake sits about 130 feet above Lake O’Hara.
Below is a short video from the shoreline of Mary Lake.
Beyond Mary Lake, it is not long before we are out of the trees. One of the great things about Lake O’Hara, is your hikes begin from an elevation where you don’t have far to go to start getting great views. You don’t have to slog it out through 500 or 750 feet of climbing to get a taste of great scenery. Here, most of your day is spent in the great scenery!
In the video below, you can see we are slightly above Mary Lake, and are about to emerge from the thinning trees.
Once out of the trees, we have a good view of the trail ahead.
We continued climbing the trail up a rocky slope, below a rock wall that we would soon be on top of. Here are a few images taken along that trail, each shot from a slightly higher spot along the trail.
We’re now getting closer to the Opabin Plateau.
Arriving at a trail junction, we proceeded straight ahead to the Opabin Plateau. The trail to our right is the start of the All Souls Alpine route, which we will have to tackle another day.
Now up on the Opabin Plateau, we’re about 210 meters or 690 feet above Lake O’Hara, and about 3.8 km into our journey.
At this point, we have another trail junction. We can continue ahead on the West Opabin Trail, or take a side trip by heading back toward Opabin Prospect, which is a viewpoint on a cliff overlooking the area. The video below shows the approach and arrival and Opabin Prospect.
This is a view over Lake O’Hara with the alpine route to Wiwaxy Gap above.
This is a view to our left, looking toward the All Souls Alpine Route.
In this image we see Lake O’Hara and Mary Lake below.
As you can see, to call this spot ‘breathtaking’ would be a severe understatement. It’s so nice a spot that we decided to sit down, relax, and have a bite to eat while we take in the view.
I should also mention, that the flipside of having difficulty getting access to this glorious area, is that when you are here, you pretty much have the trails to yourself. Yes, we passed other hikers, but it is nothing like the crowds at other popular trails in the Rocky Mountain National Parks.
We continued heading up the Opabin Plateau, and came upon this wonderful scenery!
Below is a video of the scenery in the above two photos.
We continued hiking toward Opabin Lake up the west trail.
Nadine captured the video below as we continued along the trail.
We’re starting to get closer to Opabin Lake.
It should be just beyond the top of this next section, only about 200 more feet to climb up before we should see the lake.
We paused briefly for some photos part way up the last incline.
This is looking back at Hungabee Lake below us.
Just a bit further…
We’re now about 6.0 km into our hike, and about 900 feet above Lake O’Hara, and we get our first glimpse of Opabin Lake.
We took the opportunity to sit down on the rock by the trail, just before we descend the final stretch to the lake, to take in the view and have another snack. In the video below, you see Opabin Lake, and the glacier below Opabin Pass into the next valley.
After watching the ground squirrels for a bit, we headed down to Opabin Lake.
Here we are arriving at Opabin Lake.
Here at the shore of Opabin Lake, we encountered the most people we saw all day. At only about 10 people, it’s certainly not crowded when compared to popular sites in the National Parks, but it was nevertheless the most crowded place we came across all day. The family in this photo carried up a cooler, some pots and a stove! I guess they like to eat well.
After chatting a while with the other hikers, we started our return to Lake O’Hara, but this time via the East Opabin Trail.
As we approached Hungabee Lake, we came across a hoary marmot on the trail.
And here is a video from where we tried to sneak by our furry friend. Instead of running off to the side, he continued into the rocks, right along the trail we were trying to follow.
Just beyond this rocky section of trail, we arrived at Hungabee Lake.
At this point, the trail splits off, and to our right, we can pick up the Yukness Ledges alpine route over to Lake Oesa. We’re going to skip that for today, as we’ve been moving a little slowly, and don’t want to risk missing the last bus out. There should be plenty of time, but we’re taking so many photos and videos along the way, we might get sidetracked. Therefore, we’ll continue down the East Opabin Trail.
We grabbed another video heading down this section. Personally, I think the West trail was more scenic, but compared to other hikes we’ve done, this is still pretty darn good!
The trail entered the forest, as it descended along switch backs toward Lake O’Hara.
We passed a few waterfalls in the forest along the way.
And, here we are, back at Lake O’Hara.
Because we still have a lot of time, we’ll take the long way around the other side of Lake O’Hara to return to the trailhead.
Here we are walking along the shoreline trail at the back of the lake.
We stopped to enjoy the view over the lake for a few minutes as we had another snack, before continuing around.
Coming across a short side trail, we decided to proceed up to the Seven Veils Falls viewpoint. It’s just a short detour, about 250 meters each way, and only about 140 feet up.
I should mention that throughout our hike, I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of the trails that were build. But the trails to this viewpoint were really something. The trails, the platforms and even benches that were constructed at this viewpoint, all by hand, and apparently all from local materials, were very impressive.
Here we are at the top viewpoint.
And after admiring both the beauty of the area and the quality of the trail building, we headed back down to the lake.
We finished our hike with a pleasant walk around the back of the lake. At this point, we ran into the only swarm of mosquitos all day!
Here is Nadine, happy with our accomplishments! Behind her, you can see the Opabin Prospect in the distance.
Once back at the start, we went into the shelter to buy a slice of the fantastic carrot cake we heard about as a nice reward. We then sat by the lake while we waited for the 6:30 PM bus to load and take us out to our car. We will definitely try for a return trip to Lake O’Hara.
And now that we’re back, it’s time to post some maps.
For those of you who would like them, I’ve uploaded our GPS track files here for download.
Here is our track overlaid on a high level overview of the entire area.
Here are a few other images with a closer view of the hike, from some different perspectives.
Below is an elevation plot of our hike. Please ignore the elevations at the beginning of our hike. I’m starting to realize that it seems to take my GPS a bit of time to receive an accurate fix from a cold start. For future hikes, I’ll try to remember to turn the GPS on a good 15 minutes before starting the hike. The more accurate elevation for the start of the hike, is closer to what the graph shows at the end of the hike. The track look right on the map, but the elevation for about the first 500 meters seems off.
When all was complete, our total hiking distance was 11.4 km, took a total of 4:18 of “moving time” and 3:40 of “stopped time”, which just goes to show, I take way too many photos!
Highest elevation reached was 2,297 meters (7,536 feet) just before Opabin lake, and minimum elevation was 2,017 meters (6,617 feet) at Lake O’Hara. Total elevation gain was therefore a rather modest 280 meters (919 feet). What is particularly nice about this hike, is that with only 919 feet of gain to climb, you get a lot of visual reward for the effort. Starting the hike at over 6,600 feet, we get out of the trees quickly, making this a spectacular trail.
