Summer Vacation - Day 6

We are now into September and here I am playing catchup, trying to post all the happenings from August.  I hope to be able to get through everything shortly, and be up to date.  The girls started school again today, Hailey in Grade 5 and Anna in Grade 2.  Helena begins pre-school later this week.  We were away for the Labor Day Long Weekend and there is a definite feeling of fall in the air.  More on that later...  Now I will try to post more about our travels in August with Martina and Karl.  Day 6 of our vacation was August 9th.

We awoke to a nice morning at Two O'Clock Creek campsite.  Martina was thrilled to catch a glimpse of a black bear in our campsite, though it was too quick for her to take any photographs.  After breakfast we packed up and rolled down the highway.  We entered Banff National Park at Saskatchewan Crossing and headed south towards Bow Pass.  Near the crest of the pass we stopped at the Waterfowl Lakes Campsite.  This is where we would spend the remainder of our trip.  We settled down into our campsite to relax and enjoy the next few days.

Later that afternoon we attempted a hike up to Cephren Lake.  Hailey and I attempted this hike last summer but were turned back by a thunderstorm.  This time around it was hot and humid, but there were no imminent storms.  

 

The trail started out with are moderate elevation gain up onto a ridge, and levelled out for quite a ways.  There were a lot of wildflowers and mushrooms along the way.  The girls were in pretty good spirits, but grew tired as the trail wound along through the forest.  By the time we got to Cephren Lake, about 3.3km later, the girls were pretty worn out and Anna was more than a little annoyed that we had walked all that way "just for this".

But it was a beautiful mountain lake, with the peaks of the continental divide rising at the far end of the lake.  By this time is was getting close to supper time and we realized it had taken us four hours to get to the lake, and we still had the long hike back to the campsite.  

We made it back in a little over an hour, despite having to carry the two younger girls most of the way.  We didn't stop to explore or to take any photographs on the way back, so it went a lot quicker.  The evening light was beautiful as it fell on Totem Peak on the opposite side of the Mistaya valley.

By the time we got back to the campsite and started getting supper together, everyone was beat, including the dogs.  Later that evening the girls horsed around the campsite and posed for some night portraits.

Everyone slept pretty well after such a busy day.