Ink Pots - June 30, 2012

Ink Pots - take the Bow Valley Parkway turnoff from Highway 1, west of Banff. The Ink Pots can be accessed via the very popular Johnston Canyon trail, but if it's summer and you want a little peace and quiet, the Moose Meadows trailhead is usually much quieter and doesn't add much distance to your hike. The parking lot for Moose Meadows is about 2-3 minutes past Johnston Canyon.

There should be a million photos from this hike. It was a hike we'll never forget, for all the wrong reasons. The rain, the swamp-like conditions of the trail, the bugs.... oh the bugs. And that feeling that I was hiking just to get through it. So I didn't think to take the camera out until we'd arrived at our destination. Wet, bitten, muddy, and generally in need of some therapy for our therapy.
 
But it wasn't a total loss. It is true, the cloudy days do make the colours seem impossibly bright.

Johnston's Canyon -- January 26, 2008

Johnston's Canyon trail, particularly the Inkpots, is an excellent example of a trail that is completely different depending on when it is hiked. N and I had hiked this same trail back at the end of October, but the difference between the two experiences is stunning.

(Trail details here)

This time of year the snow is just starting to build up along the canyon walls, and the catwalks of the trail. It wasn't as slippery as it has been in previous years, but give it time and a little more packed snow -- it will be.

The difference in this snow was this it seemed thick, wet and heavy... very much like late spring snow. Here it is hanging of the crags and cliffs of the canyon wall:



D and I were much more interested in the Inkpots part of the hike, plus we had some serious time constrictions related to daylight, so admittedly we sped through most of Johnston's Canyon. But even we had to stop to watch the brave and determined ice climbers scaling the wall along the Upper falls:




Once we got away from the canyon and onto the trail things changed quite a bit. There was much more snow on the trail, and it was a good thing the trail was packed down as much as it was because if we veered too far to either side we'd wind up knee deep in the snow. It made the uphill that much tougher to climb, but the snow-spotted, sparkly lookout was worth it:



From the lookout, it's all downhill (and a mighty big downhill -- something to remember for the trek back), and the thick heavy snow hung in the forest around us, making the whole area look like a picture postcard:



From a brief opening in the forest, maybe 5-10 minutes from the Inkpots. Check out the huge ball of snow covering the tree on the left side of the photo:



When we finally arrived, the snow was covering some of the Inkpots, while the uncovered ones certainly didn't have the amazing colours they had before. But it didn't matter, the area is still absolutely gorgeous:



We didn't stay long. After being sheltered by the forest for so long, the wind at the Inkpots was an unpleasant surprise. Besides, we had about 2 more hours of decent light left and needed as much of that to get back to the car. We made it in 90 minutes, and headed into Banff for dinner and a trip to the hot springs.

Johnston's Canyon -- October 31, 2007

Johnston's Canyon's popularity and proximity to Banff makes it nearly impossible to get to during the summer. Even on weekdays, the large parking area overflows with every type of car and the highway is usually lined with parked vehicles for at least a kilometer. Summer weekends -- I don't even want to think about it. For the Ink Pots, there's always the option to drive a little further down the highway, park at the Moose Meadows trailhead and hike in from there, but you miss the views of the canyon itself.

With all of this is mind, N and I figured a late-fall trek to Johnston's Canyon and beyond to the Ink Pots would be a nice diversion, since we'd missed getting out there all summer long.

Directions to the Johnston's Canyon trailhead are here.

My previous hikes in Johnston Canyon this season had both been in the spring, once in April, and before that in February. Both times there had been plenty of snow deep in the canyon, most of the falls were still frozen over and we did not venture beyond the Lower falls due to icy catwalks.

Happily, the entrance to the canyon was free of snow:



And look, running water! These mini-falls are on the way to the Lower falls. You can see part of the catwalk along the canyon walls on the rockface in the background:



As always, the deeper you get into the canyon, the more ice and snow you see. These logs were resting in the pool at the bottom of the Lower falls:



We were able to venture beyond the Lower falls, and from here everything had just a touch of ice. We passed a small creek beside the paved trail, and found the creek water just in the process of starting the freeze:




Yet the cliffs above the canyon were still covered in damp green moss:



One of the smaller falls between the Upper and Lower falls. Check out how it's just beginning to form ice on the surface:



At the end of the official trail, the catwalk descends right into the canyon at the base of the Upper falls. It ends right beside a giant orange rockface that is actually covered with a type of algae. And yes, this was just freezing over as well. There's some sort of cave at the top:



The Upper falls from the bottom. It's not frozen over, but it looks pretty cold to me:

.

Another shot of the algae wall freezing over:



From here there is a view from the top of the Upper falls, and then the Johnston's Canyon part of the hike ends. The path turns to a typical dirt trail and it's about a 4k hike to the Ink Pots, natural, coloured pools of water that collect near the river.

I originally did the Ink Pots hike one summer day many years ago. It was crowded and the "pools" were a disappointment because if they had a natural colour, it was the colour of mud.

This hike was much better. We had the trail to ourselves until we got to the, and even then, only a couple of other hikers were there. And the pools? Wow:




The valley itself was beautiful:



From here the trail continues on for hours. It's another 2k or so to a backcountry campground, and from there the trail forks into many backcountry options including Mystic Pass or Luellen Lake.

But, it was Halloween and N and I had other things to do, so we headed back through Johnston's Canyon and back out to civilization.

Crazy Easter Weekend!

Diamond T - see Diamond T for Trail Particulars.
Johnston's Canyon Interpretive Trail - Trail Particulars - Trailhead is off Highway 1A (accessed from turn off from the Trans-Canada, just a few kilometers West of the Westernmost Banff exit. Look for the Johnston's Canyon parking lot. Lower Falls is less than 1 km from trailhead, Upper Falls is about 2.5 km from trailhead. An unmaintained trail from the Upper Falls continues to the Inkpots (about 3 km)

The week before the long weekend sucked. And that's all I'm going to say about that. I needed this hike, I needed my mountain therapy this weekend, and on Easter Sunday I got plenty of it.

N. and I started out on a quick (very quick) Diamond T hike. Neither of us had worked out much this week, so we were feeling slow and tired. Excellent time to visit the Cardio Hills!


The snow had finally stopped by this point. It had actually been snowing so much that when we set out on Diamond T, there were fresh cross-country skiing tracks. Ok, despite the fog and snow of previous week's hikes, there hadn't been enough actually collecting on the ground for cross-country skiing... but now enough had fallen in the foothills that the skiers were out again. I'm happy and all for the skiers, but it's April already!

Back at Bragg Creek, I said good bye to N., and headed out to Banff. Friends from Winnipeg (L&D) were in town for the long weekend and we'd arranged to meet for Mexican food in Banff (yes, Winnipeg to Banff is a long way to travel for good Mexican food, but I concur with my friends -- it was worth it).

Besides, I'm a sucker for the drive to Banff National Park. There's something about driving into the Rockies that will never get old. I've lived here all my life and the longer I'm here, the more I love the mountains. I can't believe I'm lucky enough to have this amazing part of the world on my doorstep. I pulled over in Canmore to take this incredibly generic photo.

It was actually warmer in Banff than the Calgary on Sunday. Even though I got my usual early 8 am start with N., by the time we'd hiked and I'd driven the rest of the way to Banff, so had most of Southern Alberta. Holy crap! All my usual secret parking places were gone. I wound up driving to the Cave and Basin parking lot and taking the foot path into town. It's only about a 15 minute walk and on a day like Sunday where it's a beautiful 15 C outside -- how can you not?

I got some great shots on this pleasant walk into town. This is one of my favorites. This was almost as soon as I got into the trees by the Cave and Basin. You wouldn't even know you were within a 2 minute drive of the complete nuthouse that was Banff that weekend.


The snow was melting so quickly there were several "lagoons" within the trees. The path itself was ok, but if you wandered off the path away from the road by more than 10 feet or so, you ran the risk of stepping into swampland, or encountering a pseudo-creek. I thought the shadowy lagoons looked the most interesting.

Post-Mexican food L&D decided to head to Johnston's Canyon. Knowing I had a 15 minute walk ahead I took my time, looking for photos. As picturesque as Banff is though, I've seen it all before. Once I got to my car, I figured I'd head out to Johnston's Canyon, see if I could catch them. I got there just as they'd finished the hike to the Lower Falls and had decided to start the trek home. I thought I'd quickly hike out to the Lower Falls myself, compare it to the ice hike D. and I did a month ago here.

The sun was fading fast, but needless to say, some of the differences are striking:














Notice how much cleaner the water was in March. The further I went into the canyon, the less the difference between the shots. The last shot is the Lower Falls -- hard to believe there's still water flowing under all that.

Johnston's Canyon

A few weekends back. It was nice and muddy throughout the foothills, but once you got into the Rockies, it was nothing but snow and ice. This was only the beginning....