Winter in... September!!

Plans to hike to Glacier Lake were rudely thwarted this morning... by Mother Nature's dumping of about six inches of snow overnight! The freakish weather caused an accident which closed Hwy 1 near Banff, and it also rendered the Icefields Parkway in poor driving condition... So, being the diehards that we are, my friend Michael and I instead headed for what looked to be a patch of clearer sky down the Spray Lakes road. We ended up at Chester Lake, which turned out to be an excellent choice on this somewhat wintery day.

Not surprisingly, we were the only vehicle in the parking lot, and ours were the first tracks up the snowy trail.

 

In spite of the weather however, the lake was absolutely gorgeous with all the snow surrounding it...

...and in the flat light I had fun experimenting with some different settings on my camera.

 

 

We hiked as far as we could beyond Chester Lake, into Three Lakes Valley, but the deep snow stopped us after the first lake.

The temps were perfect and there was no wind, just alot of the white stuff! It really looked more like November than September. Except that the larch trees are starting to turn, which is very pretty.

 

By the time we started to head back to the parking lot, we saw a bit of blue sky... but it never did completely clear up today.

I'm hoping that EnviroCan isn't pulling my leg again... they're calling for SUN/SUN/SUN/SUN, right through the weekend... which would be incredibly stellar, since my friend Jody and I have plans to hike the Bow Valley Highline Trail over the next two days. And aside from that, well, I'm not quite ready for winter just yet!

Cheers.

Chester Lake / Three Lakes Valley (first lake)

Time (car to car): 3-1/4 hrs

Distance: ~12.5km

Elevation Gain: 425m