Fairview Mountain (9000'), looms above world famous Lake Louise in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. The trail starts at Lake Louise and climbs fairly steeply through a subalpine forest. Eventually I broke out of the forest into a clearing with great views across the Bow Valley, and looking back, I caught a glimpse of Chateau Lake Louise far below me. I continued up the trail stopping to admire the wildflowers along the path. The trail started switchbacking up a steep section and as I climbed higher, I saw that the slopes were still covered by snow patches. The cries of a colony of Columbian ground squirrels attracted my attention and I followed them to their underground tunnels. A squirrel gave one last cry of alert to his friends before disappearing into the safety of its tunnel. Continuing on, I eventually arrived at Saddle Pass, a pass between Fairview Mountain and Saddle Peak. I took a brief rest at the beautiful subalpine meadow filled with wildflowers such as Red Indian Paintbrush, Yellow Columbine, and Subalpine Buttercup. From the pass are grand views of the north face of 11,000 foot Mt. Temple as well as Sheol Mountain and Mt. Aberdeen. Paradise Valley is visible at the base of Mt. Temple (photo below).
The hike starts from a picnic area just north of Canyon Junction. The trail heads briefly downhill through some trees before entering a meadow. The walk through the meadow is fairly easy and lasts for about 3 miles before reaching Cascade Lake. Along the way we saw a bear print on the trail which was larger than my hand. Shiver... From there, the trail heads up. It's not especially steep, but this being our first hike of the summer combined with the high altitude (the meadow is at 7500') made the climb pretty tough. With our heads down and legs pumping, we made our way up. About a mile into the climb, we met up with a couple who were resting on the side of the trail.
They asked us, "So how'd you like those moose?". Gene and I looked at each other and said, "What moose?". We headed back down the trail. In our determination to get to the top, we had walked right past a pair of big bull moose who were browsing in some trees no more than 25 yards from the trail! The moose seemed undisturbed by our presence and continued to feed on the brush, although we kept a wary eye out for any signs of aggression. We snapped some photos and then continued on our trek to the summit. As we approached the top, we were startled by the sudden sound of rustling grass. We looked up in time to catch a glimpse of a herd of elk taking flight. A few hundred yards later, we came across a pair of young mule deer bucks, sporting small sets of antlers. They obliged and posed proudly with their heads held high long enough for me to snap a photo before scampering off. Eventually we did make it to the top. The bare summit provided a stunning panorama of the Yellowstone Valley and the rolling hills beyond. We enjoyed a well deserved drink and snack while admiring the view. However, as we looked to the west, we saw dark ominous clouds moving in and decided we'd better book it on down before we got drenched by the rains. We made it about halfway back to the trailhead before the rain hit. It was a cold hard rain and we were nearly blinded as we alternately ran and walked the remaining three miles to the trailhead.
We were in high spirits as we hiked along the rushing Cascade Creek with the peaks of Mt. Teewinot and Mt. Owen towering above us to the left. We stopped to admire the beauty of Hidden Falls as it tumbled down a rock staircase from 200 feet above. Continuing on, we encountered a slight delay when we came up to a cow moose ambling along the trail ahead of us. She would stop every now and again to browse on the bushes along the trail. We certainly didn't want to get too close since a kick from those hind legs could have sent us flying all the way back down to Jenny Lake! Eventually, she stepped off the trail to get at some particularly appetizing bushes and we were able to sneak by. As we carefully walked past, I saw just how big she really was - easily five feet tall at the shoulders. We were able to make pretty good time for the rest of the way up to Lake Solitude, although we stopped a few times to play hide and seek with a marmot and to enjoy the beautiful wildflowers. The final climb up to the lake was fairly steep, but we made it. The lake is a crystal clear glacial tarn bordered on three sides by a steep rock face. Looking back down the valley which we had just come up, we saw the stunning 13,000 foot peak of Grand Teton perfectly framed by the U-shaped glacial valley. We sat down on the rocks and munched hungrily on beef jerky and Clif Bars as we admired the view and watched some people fishing for cutthroat trout. We were thinking about heading back down when another hiker mentioned an alternate return to Jenny Lake. This would take us up over Paintbrush Divide and down Paintbrush Canyon instead of simply returning down Cascade Canyon, adding another 5 miles and 2000 feet of elevation gain to our trip. I looked down at my watch and saw that it was past 1:30.
The last boat across Jenny Lake leaves at 6. That leaves four and a half hours to hike over twelve miles. If we miss the last boat across, that would add another 2 miles since we would have to hike around the perimeter of the lake back to our campground. I looked up skeptically at Gene, but his mind was already made up. So off we went, up the switchbacks towards Paintbrush Divide. We knew we had to make good time, so we huffed and puffed up the trail, stopping occasionally to catch our breaths and to look back down at Lake Solitude growing smaller and smaller. The views were spectacular as we had a bird's eye view of the valley and the neighboring peaks. We arrived at 10,700 foot Paintbrush Divide out of breath but exhilarated. We allowed ourselves to feel content for a moment before beginning our descent down the steep switchbacks. Although it was the middle of August, there were still some snowbanks on the hills. And we took advantage. Sliding down a snowbank on your butt surely beats pounding your knees hiking down a rocky trail. And it's also faster, which at this point started to become rather important. As we continued on, it became clear that we needed to pick up the pace. So we ran most of the last four miles through the forest, checking our watches constantly. Finally the boat dock came into view. We jumped down onto the dock, clambered into the boat, and collapsed in a heap. I checked my watch. 6:01pm. Soon thereafter, the boat left the dock and we headed back to the other shore and to our campground. We were utterly exhausted, but it was well worth it.
The trail began to steepen and we climbed continuously for a couple of miles. We were now well above the valley floor where we had started earlier that afternoon, and the unobstructed view of Lower Grinnel Lake far below us and the mountains beyond it were absolutely majestic. The light blue water of the lake, surrounded by the deep dark green of the lush pine forests. The green forests climbing midway up the slopes of the mountains, fading into the light gull gray of the granite, and culminating in jagged peaks. All of this under a bright blue sky mottled only by a few puffy fair weather clouds. I don't think any artist could have painted a picture as beautiful as the landscape that lay before us.
