Day 10 - Saturday 9/23/2017 - Stanley Glacier Hike in Kootenay National Park
We slept in and woke about 7:30. Scott made scrambled eggs, breakfast sausage and toast for us. We headed out a little after 9:00 AM and got to the Stanley Glacier trailhead in Kootenay Nation Park at about 9:45 AM.
The trail was a nice, quiet hike up into the Stanley Glacier valley. It had a fire back in 1968 (Vermilion Pass Fire) so the lack of trees made for the trail to at least have some good views as it climbed up to the valley. The day had high clouds but some sun peeking through once we started back. We made it to the look out at the end of the trail then continued into the scree field for a ways, hoping from rock to rock. We did consider completely crossing the boulder field to get to a high plateau with even better views or to the caves across the valley, but ultimately decided not to (the views were still pretty spectacular! The trail was pretty quiet on the hike up, but a decent sized group appeared just after we got to the end and we encountered more and more people on our hike back down.
The trail was a nice, quiet hike up into the Stanley Glacier valley. It had a fire back in 1968 (Vermilion Pass Fire) so the lack of trees made for the trail to at least have some good views as it climbed up to the valley. The day had high clouds but some sun peeking through once we started back. We made it to the look out at the end of the trail then continued into the scree field for a ways, hoping from rock to rock. We did consider completely crossing the boulder field to get to a high plateau with even better views or to the caves across the valley, but ultimately decided not to (the views were still pretty spectacular! The trail was pretty quiet on the hike up, but a decent sized group appeared just after we got to the end and we encountered more and more people on our hike back down.
Back at the parking lot at 1:45 PM, we found it full. Being that it was early in the day, we continued our drive deeper into Kootenay National Park, admiring the sights. We stopped at Numa Falls and looked around for a bit. The bridge was out for the trail that was there, but the falls were still pretty. We turned around there and headed back for Banff. We arrived back in Banff at about 2:45 PM and hit downtown for some last minute shopping and got some ice cream. We got back to the Douglas Fir at about 4:00 and Scott and I talked Emily into hitting the pool! The Douglas Fir had a pair of impressive in door water slides. We did each of them once before hitting the outdoor hot tub which was a cool experience in the 40F air and sights of the mountains all around! After soaking there for a bit, the 3 of us retired to the room for showers. Dinner found us at the Elk & Oarsman where most of the dishes had elk or bison. It was a nice last meal in Banff! We packed for the flights home and knocked out that night watching Australian Master Chef!
Stanley Glacier Hike - 7 Miles round trip; 1296 ft elevation gain
Safe Travels,
B&E
Stanley Glacier Hike - 7 Miles round trip; 1296 ft elevation gain
Safe Travels,
B&E