Yoho National Park - Around Emerald Lake

In prior visits to the Canadian Rockies, we had been to Banff and Lake Louise.  This trip, we wanted to get to know the other Canadian national parks in the Rockies.  Having visited Jasper National Park, our next visit was to Yoho National Park.

After parking our RV in Fairmont Hot Springs, which lies 2-3 hours south of Yoho, on Monday, August 22, 2016, we drove back up to Yoho to visit Emerald Lake and stay two nights at the lodge on that lake.  The day we arrived, it was drizzling, and the rain continued all day and into the night.  We walked around a bit and took this misty selfie, which gives you an idea of that milky blue-green color of the lake:

Our cabin sat on one arm of the lake.  Below our cabin was the bridge that brings visitors to the lodge.  We walked out to the bridge and got this photo looking back up the arm of the lake:

The whole lake was looking cloudy and misty:

A little walk around the lake and we could see the lodge and cabins decked in low clouds beneath the glowering mountain:

For most of the day, we just lazed around inside by a fire and caught up on some internet items, using the lodge internet.  We finished out the evening with a cozy fire in our cabin:

The morning of Tuesday, August 23, 2016, dawned clear but with some low-hanging clouds beyond the lake:

We began our Tuesday hike (more on that in the next blog entry) by circling the lake.  Early low-hanging clouds graced the elevations we would soon be climbing:

Our Tuesday hike brought us back to the lake, and we chose to complete our circle around it, to see what we could see.  From the far side of the lake, we got these interesting reflections, showing a montage of the lakebed stones and the blue-green lake water:

With the lowering sun, the lake took on deeper hues:

The sky had enough sun to bring out colors, but enough clouds to make the light variable and mysterious:

After our hike, we had just enough time in our day to paddle a canoe around the lake.  Here, Kathy directs the canoe into what looks like a magical, enchanted kingdom...

...while, in the rear of the canoe, David kept us on a straight course through the milky glacial waters:

We retired to our cabin, satisfied that we'd had a chance to see the lake, and this area of Yoho National Park and get to know them.  This would be an area we'd love to return to, and we now know it well enough to plan adventures deeper into the mountains to find even more beautiful glacial tarns.