A fantastic hike to Lake O’Hara
Canada is one of my favorite countries I went to while travelling around the world. Well, every country where there are high mountains, stunning views and good hiking is my favorite. One of the best hikes I went on was to Lake O’Hara located in the Yoho National Park.
My thoughts after the hike were:
WHAT A BRILLIANT DAY! FANTASTIC HIKING!
It was day 339 of my round the world trip and I was staying in the town of Golden. After two days of lying around like a stranded whale due to the combination of pain in my knee and bad weather I went hiking again.
What made hiking so great was the great weather (only 2 out of 10 days were like that) and also no crowds. Lake O’Hara cannot be accessed by car (Yay!) and there is quota on the shuttle bus that takes people up there. It’s in line with the effort to keep this part of the national park pristine.
The shuttle bus is booked well in advance and those who want can hike up to the lake (very few people). The hike (11km) is nothing special, it’s the hikes that start at the lake that make the trip worth your while. Estimated hiking time is 2 to 4 hours. Alesh the crazy hiker made it in 1 hr 50 minutes. That’s really good because he was carrying his RTW wardrobe, understand backpack, with all the stuff with him. Luckily, he could leave it at the cafe before doing all the other hikes.
So I did the East Opabin and West Opabin trails including the Opabin Prospect, then the Lake Oesa trail and Lake O’Hara Lakeshore trail.
Best spots:
Opabin Lake (where I’m lying on a rock)
Opabin Prospect (the view of two lakes from a rock, one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to)
Lake Oesa (the one with the pieces of melting ice)
Grizzly bears were seen at the Opabin Plateau the day before I hiked there. I wasn’t lucky or perhaps unlucky to see them. I did see chipmunks, marmots and squirrels though. When I didn’t move a chipmunk was bold enough to come super close. Marmots were timider.
Total hiking distance: 30+ km
I was so happy the shuttle bus going down wasn’t booked. I wouldn’t have wanted to hike the 11 km down. And it was my first time in a yellow school bus 🙂 Because that’s the kind of bus that runs in the park.
Mountains are happiness. Hiking is happiness.
