Beyond the Treeline - Iceline Trail in Yoho National Park

Walking along Iceline Trail in Yoho National Park, amidst stunted trees

I think that today marked my personal favourite hike of the whole trip, though I also found it to be the most challenging.

Up, up, up we go. Bonus question - ask Brad how many water bottles he's carrying 

We got up this morning, had a quick breakfast and packed a trail lunch, and off we went to Yoho National Park to tackle the Iceline Trail. The trail starts near the stunning Takkakaw Falls, then ascends steeply up the mountain, up past an ever-shrinking and increasingly stunted treeline, and right to the edge of a glacier.

With a hot forecast, and unrelenting sun for much of the hike, our guides highly recommended at least 2L of water per person, lots of sunscreen and frequent breaks.

The road to the trailhead was a bit of an adventure in itself - between seeing the incredible engineering work involved in twinning Highway 1 near Golden, and the white-knuckle switchbacks on the road up to to Takakkaw Falls, we all really enjoyed just relaxing and watching the scenery go by.

The hike started with a flat 1k along the road, and then we hit the official trailhead. Once we hit the trailhead, things started to head in an unrelenting upward slope. The trail started in the thick pine forest, passing babbling brooks and streams, making our way through a stream that sort of ran down the trail. The trail was a steep, dirt, switch-backed path for the first almost 2km.  Then the trees starting getting smaller, eventually disappearing, as we continued up the unrelenting upward slope.

Don't mind me, just obsessed with mini trees over here.

As we picked our way through the scree and gravel path, we rose above the treeline, and found ourselves with spectacular vantage points of both Takakkaw Falls and the glacier above (I tried to google the name of the glacier, but it's late, and I've been sipping wine, so you'll have to settle for non-exact glacial nomeclature).

After about 4.5 km, we arrived at a spectacular vista over both the glacier and the Yoho Valley below. At this point, I made a beeline for the gorgeous glacial stream cascading its way down the mountain, promptly removed my shoes and socks, and enjoyed the relief of plunging my tired feet into the cold water. 

Imma stick my feet right into this cool glacial stream and stare out at this insane view

Brad, Zoe, and Rosie were still feeling pretty spritely, so they, along with our guides, made their way a little bit closer to the glacier to get a better vantage point.

Zoe marks the first hike this trip where she racked up more elevation than mom.

Behold, the elusive Mountain Bean in her natural element 

I really enjoyed a few minutes just chilling alone and taking in the sights.

Brad and the girls soon made their way back, thrilled to have seen the glacier up so close, and then the group started to pick its way back down the mountain.

Posing and not looking down. 

Those who know me well will know that heights and I don't have a great relationship,  Not gonna lie, the ridgeline scree situation leading up to yesterday's vantage point almost did me in. :p

The whole time we were going up, every time, we went around a particularly sketchy switchback or loose scree section, I was just thinking....omgggggggggg this is going to be a nightmare to go down. There were a few sections, I really just had to look at my feet and just keep going, because I tend to get vertigo any time I'm on a ridge.  

The entire route down was carpeted with gorgeous alpine flowers.

I made it though, in no small part thanks to the quiet and confident encouragement of our excellent guides, Jamie and Manuel (who are awesome, incredibly hardworking humans).

We took a slightly different route at the end, and took an alternate trail that led us straight to Takakkaw Falls, the spectacular gushing waterfall we'd been seeing from afar all day.

Takakkaw Falls showing her colours with a glorious double rainbow

As it turns out, our guides were genius in the way they planned the day. We started close to the waterfall but they indicated that we would end up there at the end of the day.

And to be honest, they couldn't have planned it better. By the time we hit the falls, they were likely less busy than they would have been, and there was also a spectacular double rainbow thanks to the angle of the sun. 

As well, the cool spray rising from the falls felt AMAZING, as we had been hiking and sweating in 30+ degrees all day. Brilliant.

Many of our tour group are avid swimmers, so after we got back to the van, we headed to Emerald Lake, where most of the female members of the group (present company excluded) proved their mettle and plunged into the cool green water.

Emerald Lake is okay, I guess

Both Zoe and Rosie proved up to the test and reveled in the admiration of their fellow travelers (many of whom proved to be incredible cold water swimmers, and all of whom are in their sixties and seventies and are absolutely killing it on this physically challenging trip).

They did it!

We wound up the day with chats and cheers over stir fry and we are looking forward to day of rafting the Kicking Horse River tomorrow with Glacier Rafting.