O’HARA
Visiting
Lake O’Hara in Yoho National Park is complicated. There is a road leading directly to the
lake. Back in the good old days anybody
could drive in there, park, and hike and camp.
However, the area became too popular, and the Park Service was forced to
implement regulations. The road was
closed to the public. All access is now
by bus service operated by the park, or via an 8-mile one-way hike. Overnight stays are limited to an established
campground, a lodge (very expensive), and an ACC hut. The hut requires ACC membership and stays
full throughout the peak summer months.
Because the hike to the lake is so long, a dayhike isn’t practical for
most mortals. That means that for people
like us, getting a reservation at the campground is the only practical way to
visit the area.
To
reserve a spot in the campground, it is necessary to call the park exactly 3
months before the first night of your stay.
The campground typically fills up within the first hour that the phone
lines are open. So, I called exactly 3
months prior to our intended visit, as soon as the phone lines opened. It was busy.
I redialed repeatedly for the next 2 hours, but got a busy signal each
time. By that point, I was sure it was
fully booked, but for some reason I kept dialing. I finally got through, and was pleasantly
surprised to find that there was still space available. This was a huge relief, since we planned
O’Hara at the end of the trip. Going
later wasn’t an option. If we ever go
back, I’ll plan it for earlier in the trip in case we don’t get our first
choice of dates.
We
booked two nights at the campground. We
would arrive around mid-day on the first day, and leave around the same time on
the third day. That meant that we would
have one full day and two partial days there.
I was pretty confident that we could do most of the hikes there in that
amount of time.
WAITING ON THE BUS
We
got up early on Wednesday. I made
pancakes for breakfast and we broke camp.
We stopped in Lake Louise village to use the free WIFI. Then we made to short drive up the
Trans-Canadian highway to Yoho National Park and the parking area at the
beginning of the road to Lake O’Hara. We
arrived at 9:30, which was an hour early for our bus. We could’ve booked the 8:30 bus, but I wasn’t
sure that we would be able to break camp, repack, and drive over from Lake
Louise in time to make the early bus. In
hindsight, I think we could’ve managed it.
It
was an overcast morning, and the weather forecast looked marginal at best. There was a pretty good chance for rain for
all 3 days. It didn’t look like a
complete washout, but we were definitely expecting some rain. I was just hopeful that the weather would
cooperate enough that I would be able to do all of the hikes I’d planned.
We
were so early that we had plenty of time to re-organize our gear. We boarded at 10:30 and began the drive up to
the campground. There was a ranger on
board, and she gave us part one of the orientation to the campground and
area. She also mentioned that she had
seen the best wildflower display of the year in the Linda Lake Basin the
previous day. That area was at the
bottom of my to-do list, but based on her recommendation I began plotting how I
could squeeze it in.
We
arrived at the campground after 45 minutes or so. The ranger provided part 2 of orientation,
and then we were freed to select our campsite.
Our reservations guaranteed a campsite, but we weren’t assigned to a
specific one. I went up the hill behind
the communal cooking area / campfire and selected #27. It was a bit more private than most, and a
pretty nice spot overall. We then put
our food, including a small cooler, in our food locker. Each campsite is given its own locker. This was all very efficient, which was a nice
change from the reservation process.
We
had lunch at one of the picnic tables before hiking together up to Lake Oesa. Lake Oesa is one of five major hiking destinations from Lake
O’Hara. The others are the Opabin Plateau, Lake MacArthur, the Grandview Prospect, and
Linda Lake / Cathedral Prospect. I hoped
to do at least the first four during our visit.
We
started our hike on the road that connects the campground to the lodge. The lodge is situated on the lake, while the
campground is almost a mile away. After
a short distance we left the road to hike a parallel trail that follows the
stream draining Lake O’Hara. This was
more scenic, but harder than walking up the road. We crossed a bridge over the outlet stream,
and had our first wildlife encounter – a chipmunk charged down the railing of
the bridge right at us!
Once
on the far side we were treated to our first view of Lake O’Hara. It’s a gorgeous lake, with water that varies
from blue to green depending on the light.
The sky was still overcast, which diminished my photos, but it was
beautiful regardless. From there we
hiked around the lakeshore about 1/3 of the way before beginning the climb up
to Lake Oesa.
This climb was rocky and fairly steep.
It was worth the effort though, as the views of Lake O’Hara improved as
we gained elevation. We continued
climbing, passing a series of cascading waterfalls and several peaceful alpine
tarns.
This
trail was fairly busy. Most of the
trails in the area are, despite the access and camping restrictions. Even with those limitations, the popular
areas can be crowded in the middle of the day.
Once
the initial climb was behind us the rest of the hike was pretty easy. As we approached Lake Oesa,
the low clouds began to lift. Patches of
blue sky began to appear. I restrained
my enthusiasm though. Was the weather
really improving, or were the patches of blue sky just “sucker holes”? Canadians call them sucker holes because they
sucker you into thinking that the weather is going to improve. Then, once you commit to some ambitious
outdoor activity, the real storm rolls in.
This was a concern, because the forecast called for decent weather in
the morning but thunderstorms in the afternoon.
Lake
Oesa is in a gorgeous glacial cirque. It is an alpine gem with a backdrop of rugged
peaks and glaciers. We took a long break
there, and against all odds, the sky continued to clear! It was a lovely spot that just kept getting
better and better as the conditions improved.
Eventually
we realized that we would have to go back down.
Christy wasn’t enthusiastic about descending the route we had
climbed. There were two other
options. One climbs up to Wiwaxy Gap before descending steeply to Lake O’Hara. That looked considerably worse on the
map. The other was to follow the Yukeness Ledge section of the alpine circuit, which is
officially a route rather than a true trail, over to the Opabin
Plateau. The trail down from there
looked a little more gradual, though the difference appeared to be pretty
minor. Still, we were planning to hike
to the Opabin Plateau at some point. Taking this approach would mean only one
climb from and descent back to Lake O’Hara.
I
was surprised when Christy agreed to try it.
I wasn’t convinced that it would actually be easier, but at least it
meant that she would be able to visit both Oesa and Opabin. Those are
generally considered the most scenic hikes in the Lake O’Hara area.
The
alpine circuit to the Opabin Plateau was almost
entirely above tree line. Although it’s
not an official trail, the route was pretty obvious and occasionally marked
with paint on the rocks. There was a lot
of rough, rocky footing and some steep but short ups and downs, but Christy
handled it better than a long, steep descent.
The scenery was fantastic, too, with continuous views of Lake O’Hara
below us as well as the surrounding mountains.
We
turned the corner and began contouring towards the Opabin
Plateau. It was along here that a marmot
appeared on the trail ahead of us. It
actually charged down the trail towards us, making it the second rodent to charge
us in a single hike! There were cliffs
above and below us, so we just stopped.
It bailed off the trail just before reaching us, scampered across the
rocks below us, and then climbed back up to regain the path beyond us. It kept on trucking, too. Why was it in such a hurry? Was something chasing it??
We
didn’t see anything else. We descended
gradually to the Opabin Plateau, reaching it at the
foot of Hungabee Lake, which is small but
lovely. We continued beyond the lake,
towards the head of the plateau. Before
long we reached Opabin Lake, which is exceptionally
scenic. It is backed by a wall of jagged
peaks and a sizeable glacier.
We
took a long break there before beginning the hike back. For the return, we started out on the west
side of the plateau. We followed a
stream past a series of alpine tarns before crossing to the east side of the
plateau to make our descent. There are
actually 2 trails connecting the Opabin Plateau to
Lake O’Hara. On the map, the eastern
trail looks a little more gradual. I’m
not sure that it helped much though. It
was still a steep descent, and Christy was in a lot of pain. I was inclined to take it slow, but she just
wanted to get it over with. We met two
other hikers, Janis and Robin, on the descent.
Conversing with them may have helped distract Christy from her knee
pain. We took a long break on a bench
when we reached Lake O’Hara. The sky was
now blue and almost completely cloudless, and the lake and surrounding
mountains were breathtaking. There was
even an impressive waterfall spilling into the lake directly across from us.
From
there we hiked around the west side of the lake, passing by the lodge on our
way back to camp. That evening we made
an Indian meal with chicken and rice at one of the picnic tables. We hung out by the group campfire for a bit
before heading to bed. We turned in
early though, as I had an ambitious plan for Thursday.
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