Notorious B and G: Hiking, Glaciers and Grizzlies, Oh My!

Hey all!

Life on the open road and in the great outdoors is still going great, albeit a little wetter and colder as we've hit a little Rocky Mountain cold front.

On Tuesday in Banff we took a break from our long days of hiking and did a few short hikes to Stuart Canyon, Johnson Lake and along the Bow River Trail. We saw a female moose near Johnson Lake, but sadly, no pictures. We also did some much needed napping, as it started to rain in the afternoon.

Johnson Lake

Bow Falls

Gina over the Bow

On Wednesday we drove up to Lake Louise and rented a canoe to paddle around the lake. Beautiful and very cold water! After the canoeing we hiked up to Plain of Six Glaciers Tea House and then up to the overlook just below the glacier for some great views of the surrounding glaciers and Lake Louise. After all the paddling and hiking we treated ourselves to dinner at the Eddie Burger and Bar where we both had delicious bison burgers and a huge order of chicken wings.

Canoeing on Lake Louise

It took like 15 tries before we got this one right

Plain of Six Glaciers. Yes, my hair is awesome.

180 degree panorama of Lake Louise and the glaciers

Thursday we left Banff early and had a mostly rainy drive back across the border into the US and Glacier National Park. We got in around 2:30 and decided to set off on a hike to Grinnell Glacier. Beautiful hike along Swiftcurrent and Josephine Lakes before climbing up towards the glacier. We saw three big horn sheep on the switchbacks above Grinnell Lake. They were coming down the trail as we were going up, which caused some brief panic as the name "big horn" is really quite appropriate. Gina hid behind me in preparation to use me as a human shield if necessary, but the sheep veered off the trail to munch on some grass. It was a little foggy up at the glacier so we couldn't get the full views, but still a spectacular hike. Best night of sleep so far in the Suburban as the cold drove us inside before ten and our new sleeping bags kept us nice and cozy. We also got really excited when the couple camped next to us asked to check out the bed we built in the Suburban, as it was the first time we'd gotten to show off our "house" to someone. I may have taken it a little too far when I showed them our off road commode.

Bighorn above Grinnell Lake

The horn

Waterfall from the fog

Run, Gina, run!

Grinnell Glacier, it was approximately negative 200 degrees

Friday morning was cold and wet as we're in the middle of a pretty big Rocky Mountain storm. We made the best of it with a great hike to St. Mary's and Virginia Falls and then went back to camp to drink beer and stay as warm as possible. We didn't think we'd need to bust out all the warm weather gear this early in the trip, but at one point I think Gina had seven layers on. It's been in the low thirties at night at our campsite at Many Glacier and the highs are topping out around 50. Rain hasn't been too bad, more of a cold mist that blows sideways into you because of the wind. Good hiking weather, but our tans are severely lacking.

St. Mary's Falls

Virgina Falls

Gina demonstrating a textbook waterfall dive

Today (Saturday) we hiked to Iceberg Lake, which, as the name suggests, is a lake with a bunch of icebergs floating in it. The icebergs come from the glacier that is directly above the lake. We saw four mountain goats eating on the banks of the lake, as well as two elk and a grizzly bear on the hike back. It was the first time either of us have seen a grizzly bear while out on a trail. It was exciting, but definitely a bit unnerving to see one that close. We've moved from Many Glacier down to St. Mary's campground, as we're going to hike the Highline Trail tomorrow (hopefully in the sun!).