Skoki Loop

It is sad that it is late July and we only just made it away for our first backcountry camping trip of the year. All of our previous trips got cancelled due to sick dogs or to work on the house. This trip almost got cancelled when a mudslide closed the highway on Friday afternoon... fortunately we were able to squeeze our three day trip into two days.

We completed the 34 km Skoki Loop which starts from the Lake Louise Ski Resort, climbs up to Boulder Pass and Ptarmigan Lake before descending down to Baker Lake, where we camped Saturday night. The wild flowers were out in full force - as well as the bears - although we seemed to be the only people on the trail who didn't actually see the bears.

Indian Paintbrush

Boulder Pass

Ptarmigan Lake

Bear Tracks

Baker Lake

Baker Lake

Baker Lake

Milky Way

Baker Lake

The second day we travelled through the wide meadows around Fossil mountain to Skoki Lodge. Skoki Lodge is a historic backcountry lodge that has been in operation since 1931 and recently became world famous when William and Kate stayed at the lodge during their Canadian tour last summer. Of course, they got to take helicopters to the lodge instead of hiking 30 km like us common folk. They were also too good to use the outhouse and had their own personal washroom flown in.

Skoki Lodge

Swings at Skoki

After lunch in the meadows at Skoki Lodge, we climb up Deception Pass before dropping back down to Ptarmigan Lake for the long hike back out the ski access road.

Deception Pass

Deception Pass

There is a reason this is one of the classic Canadian Rockies hikes - the scenery is stunning. Definitely a good (very late) start to the hiking season.

Amy