In British Columbia, a Roam Alone

Yoho means “awe inspiring” in Cree. As we drove our rented SUV over the 4,000-foot elevations in Yoho National Park, I hoped the name was accurate and that Yoho would translate for us into “less crowded than Banff National Park.”

A week before, as we drove west into Banff on the 90-minute trip from Calgary International Airport, our family had talked about our wish lists for our first visit to the Canadian Rockies. My husband, Gary, is a passionate fly fisherman and planned to catch (and release) as many rainbow and brown trout as he could in our two-week August vacation. Our sons--Matt, 12, and Robby, 9--hoped to see elk and bighorn sheep. They also wanted to swim in the lakes. Though I warned them that these glacier-fed bodies of water are far colder than the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Cod, Mass., where they swim every summer, the boys still held out hope and dipped their hands into every lake we visited. I love to see wildlife too, and I planned to capture photos of animals and the scenery.

We all agreed on one thing: Too many people around us would spoil our enjoyment of nature.

That’s why we were so happy as we approached Yoho, tucked along the western slopes of the Continental Divide in British Columbia. And during our one-day excursion, Yoho did not disappoint on any count.

As soon as we pulled to a stop in the parking lot for Emerald Lake, Matt and Robby raced ahead of Gary and me toward the trail head. We caught up to them quickly where they had stopped at their first sight of the crystalline lake encircled by mountains. The view was breathtaking confirmation of Yoho’s name. The reflection of dark spruce forests at the base of the mountains gave the lake’s perimeter a deeper green. Toward the middle, calm water mirrored the surrounding gray mountains and, in the center of the lake, the cloud-puffed blue sky. Snowcapped Michael Peak, covered with sparse vegetation on its lower half, then starkly gray above the tree line, dominated our view of the opposite shore. But the feature that made Emerald Lake such a precious find in the Canadian Rockies in August was the element that was missing: crowds.

We had spent the morning of the previous day hiking halfway around Banff National Park’s world-renowned Lake Louise, just 19 miles east of Emerald Lake. The eerily opaque turquoise Louise, surrounded by steep, glacier-covered mountains, was spectacular. But on the return leg of our hike on the two-person-wide path, we came up against oncoming traffic of horseback riders, then several large guided tour groups.

During high season (July and August), Lake Louise, with its 513-room luxury resort Chateau Lake Louise, attracts thousands of tourists a day--many arriving on tour buses. As we were leaving, we counted six buses and more than 100 cars in the two-tiered parking lot. We vowed to seek the less-traveled road (or in this case, national park) the next day.

I had read of several scenic prospects in Yoho National Park in “Canadian Rockies Access Guide” by John Dodd and Gail Helgason (Lone Pine Publishing, 1998). Yoho, on the eastern border of British Columbia, is small--507 square miles--and receives only one-seventh the annual visitors (and far less publicity) than Banff, its famous neighbor in western Alberta.

As we began our hike on the 3.2-mile trail around Emerald Lake, it was clear we were benefiting from Yoho’s relative obscurity. We spotted empty picnic benches in a sunny clearing among the pines, a perfect spot for diving into the sandwiches we had bought at a Lake Louise deli.

‘Let’s rent a boat!” yelled Matt, pointing at two silver canoes in the water, now more aquamarine than green. Gary, who had his fly-fishing equipment in the car, agreed to a fishing excursion after the hike.

The first third of the path, along the lake’s western shore, was through a shady spruce forest. Only the occasional rustling from ground squirrels in brush higher up the slope interrupted the silence. Most of the time we walked without talking; even our sons were mindful of the peacefulness.

Looking straight down into the clear water, I saw fallen bare pine trunks crisscrossed deep on the lake bottom. On the opposite shore, wide vertical swaths of lighter green ground cover cut through the dense forest, evidence of where avalanches had wiped out trees in recent years. Dome-topped Wapta Mountain on the left, and the more angular Mt. Burgess on the right rose above the tree line.

A plaque at the beginning of the trail explained that Burgess Shale Quarry on Wapta Mountain is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Paleontologists have discovered the fossilized remains of 150 species of marine creatures from 530 million years ago. According to “Western Canada” (Ulysses Publications, 2000), about 600 million years ago a giant sea covered the area, and layers of sediment carrying animal and plant debris were deposited on the bottom. Later, about 160 million years ago, there were major shifts in the Pacific and North American tectonic plates, which pushed the sedimentary and metamorphic rocks upward and broke apart the western chain of mountains in Yoho and in Kootenay national parks (just south of Yoho).

Nowadays the mountains of the President Range in Yoho show their age. Eroded by glaciers and water, their peaks look more worn than the younger and taller saw-toothed mountains in Banff and Jasper national parks. But I’m from the Prairie State, Illinois, and found the President Range, at around 8,600 feet, spectacular.

At the northern edge of the lake we trod a wooden walkway built over rivulets fed by melted snow from Michael Peak behind us. We noticed two other groups of three or four. We weren’t the only people out here but still felt as though we were.

Emerald Lake Lodge is at the end of the trail. As we walked down the cabin-lined road toward the main lodge, I stopped in front of a rock garden to photograph the lake with yellow coreopsis and pink sweet William in the foreground.

While Gary and Matt hurried to the boat dock for their fishing excursion, Robby and I entered the log cabin-style lodge’s restaurant. Alone on the deck except for one other family seated several tables away, we watched Gary and Matt paddle their canoe silently toward the middle of the lake.

When they joined us, Gary reported that the trout he had caught was not as large as the 18-inch brown he snagged a few days earlier on a guided trip down the Bow River just south of Banff National Park, but the fishing was still fun.

It was only a short drive to our second Yoho destination, Takakkaw Falls, recommended in the “Canadian Rockies Access Guide.” We used the book, which describes, details and rates scenic hikes within Banff, Kootenay, Yoho, Jasper, the President Range and Waterton Lakes parks, for planning daily hikes from our bases in Banff and Jasper national parks. It was also helpful in recommending the best timing (early morning) to avoid most of the tour groups at Lake Louise and at popular neighboring Moraine Lake in Banff Park and Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park. (In Banff we stayed at the Douglas Fir Resort, and in Jasper, the Jasper Inn. Both were delightful.)

We tried only one hike rated moderate to strenuous, the Angel Glacier-Cavell Meadow loop of Jasper National Park’s Mt. Edith Cavell. The trail started at a parking lot just below the glacier, then climbed up a zigzagging trail on a lateral moraine (debris left by a glacier around 1950). Choosing a strenuous or long hike turned out to be another way to avoid the crowds. We left most of the other hikers behind at the foot of Angel Glacier as we climbed another hour up to a subalpine meadow at 6,918 feet. With an elevation gain of 1,099 feet, we had to stop occasionally to catch our breath and sip water. But the serene, uncrowded view of the snow-covered peak and the meadow flowers was worth our efforts.

We found shaggy mountain goats, our favorites, only in higher elevations, particularly along the Icefields Parkway in southern Jasper National Park. Elk, on the other hand, were ubiquitous; we even saw them munching garden flowers on side streets in the town of Banff. Wildlife was also plentiful in Yoho. On our drive to Takakkaw Falls, we passed a mule deer snacking.

Takakkaw means “magnificent” in Cree, and the falls, which drop 1,246 feet, live up to the name. White water drops from a flat-topped cliff dotted with pines, then hits a ledge about one-sixth of the way down, sending a spray outward. The sun cooperated by displaying a rainbow at the bottom, where the falls meet the Yoho River.

In midafternoon we drove back down the Bow River Valley to Banff National Park. There are 25 mountains over 10,000 feet high in Banff, and they seemed particularly towering from the low elevation of the Bow Valley (3,000 to 4,000 feet). Matt and Robby wanted to look for wildlife, so we detoured north of the town of Banff toward Lake Minnewanka, another less traveled hiking and boating area we discovered. A few days earlier we had spotted bighorn sheep near the small adjoining Two Jack Lake.

We parked in a clearing among the lodgepole pines and walked down to the rocky shore of Minnewanka. Only one other family shared this spot, surrounded by mountains of moderate heights by Canadian Rockies standards. Fortunately, in Banff Park’s 2,564 square miles there are many little lakes like Two Jack that attract far fewer visitors than Lake Louise--and no tour buses.

Gary and I basked in the sun and watched as our sons stripped off shoes and socks and waded gingerly into the clear water.

‘It’s cold!” one cried. Matt rolled up his shorts. Robby threw his T-shirt to land. Both boys reveled in their first (and only) swim in the Rockies, then scrambled ashore.

They were shivering, and we, of course, had not brought towels. After they lay on warm boulders to dry off, we turned back toward the parking lot. Three white-rumped young sheep (with short, spiky, not-so-big horns) ambled across the path, just yards away.

We found many awe-inspiring but less-traveled spots in the popular Canadian Rockies. Still, Emerald Lake was unique: All of us enjoyed everything on our wish lists in a single day.

Linda C. Warren lives in Barrington, Ill., with her husband and two sons.

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Guidebook: The Gems at Emerald Lake

* Getting there: From LAX, nonstop service to Calgary, a 90-minute drive east of Banff, is offered on Air Canada and Canada 3000. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $309. * Where to stay: In Banff: Douglas Fir Resort, Tunnel Mountain Road, P.O. Box 1228, Banff, Alberta T0L 0C0 Canada; telephone (800) 661-9267, fax (800) 267-8774, Internet https://www.douglasfir.com, offers 134 units, from studios in the lodge to two-bedroom cabins with kitchens. Two indoor pools (one with water slides), cable TV and a coin laundry make this ideal for families. Studios begin at $126 in summer. The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, P.O. Box 960, Banff, Alberta T0L 0C0; tel. (403) 762-2211, fax (403) 762-5755, https://www.cphotels.com, an 804-room castle built in 1888, is worth a look even if you don’t stay overnight. In the summer, lodging is for a two-night minimum and is all-inclusive (meals, tours, spa, golf, etc.); $676 to $880 per night for two people.

In Yoho: Emerald Lake Lodge, Box 10, Field, British Columbia V0A 1G0; tel. (800) 663-6336, fax (250) 343-6724, https://www.emeraldlakelodge.com, has cabins and a main lodge set in the pines on the shore of Emerald Lake. The 85 units start at $218.

In Jasper: The Jasper Inn, 98 Geikie St., P.O. Box 879, Jasper, Alberta T0E 1E0; tel. (800) 661-1933, fax (780) 852-5916, https://www.jasperinn.com, has 157 units ranging from standard doubles starting at $135 to spacious two-bedrooms with kitchens and living rooms.

* Where to eat: In Banff: Coyote Deli and Grill, 206 Caribou St., local tel. 762-3963, offers great Southwestern and Mediterranean fare. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but reserve or arrive early because this small gem fills up quickly. (Lunch entrees $5 to $8; dinners $9 to $16.)

Banff Springs Golf Club, on the hotel’s sprawling property, tel. 762-2211, offers fine cuisine and floor-to-ceiling windows for great views. Dinner entrees $16 to $22.

In Yoho: Cilantro, Emerald Lake Lodge, tel. (250) 343-6321, offers casual dining in the lodge or on the view deck. Entrees $8 to $18.

In Jasper: Jasper Park Lodge, east of town, tel. 852-3301, has eight restaurants open in the summer, including casual dining at the Emerald Lounge on the terrace, with a view of Lac Beauvert and Mt. Edith Cavell.

* For more information: Alberta Tourism, tel. (800) 661-8888, https://www.discoveralberta.com. Parks Canada, tel. (888) 773-8888, https://www.parkscanada.pch.gc.ca. Yoho-Burgess Shale Foundation, tel. (800) 343-3006, https://www.burgess-shale.bc.ca, offers all-day educational hikes to Walcott Quarry for $33 and to the Mt. Stephen Fossil Beds for $18. These guided trips are the only way to gain access to the protected areas, and reservations are required.