The Four Layers of the Lake Helen Hike

We've heard from three different sources that the Helen Lake trail is a favorite, so we're driving the 37 kilometers (23 miles) down the Icefield Parkway to the trail head this morning. We've been in this area before, as it sits right across from the Crowfoot Glacier that we saw when Denisa's family was visiting. That's the 3-toed glacier, that is now down to 2 toes, but is still looking very impressive hanging above Bow Lake.

We are being joined by our new hiking buddies, Jill and Mike from Lincoln, Nebraska. We talked all the way up that steep slanted trail as we gained 455 meters in elevation. We were walking in the trees for the first hour and a half up this mountain. Let's just say that we don't have to worry about sneaking up on a bear when we hike together, because there's plenty of chatter going on between the four of us.

That chatter helps all of us forget how much we are working! We finally came out of those trees for a view of Crowfoot Glacier, but now it's at eye level.

This uphill tree section will be our "Part 1" of this hike. Other than the wildflowers along the trail, we can't see much with all the thick foliage. Mark made a heroic scramble down the slope to take a picture of this particularly colorful group of wildflowers with the mountain background. The rest of us were saving our energy, as this is a pretty demanding hike.

Right after that view of the glacier, we suddenly broke out above tree line, and found ourselves in a beautiful alpine meadow. Welcome to Part 2 of this hike.

With full sun, the wildflowers in the meadow are particularly stunning this morning.

We had a little water crossing, and we spotted a golden eagle family soaring in the skies above us.

It was a pleasant and LEVEL walk across the meadow with our new friends that are beginning to feel like old friends.

It took us another hour to get to the trail's name sake. We've arrived at Helen Lake and our third section of this hike. This was a nice place to have a snack and toast our accomplishment with beef jerky and power balls. 

This was the official destination of the 6 kilometer Helen Lake trail. But we knew there was an additional 3 kilometers that would take us up another steep section to another viewpoint. We were having a meeting by the lake to determine who was going on and who was heading back.

But first we had to have a last group picture in front of the lake.

Then the Engelmans decided to do the extra 3k, while Jill and Mike decided to call it a day. So after 3 days of hiking together, we say good-bye to our new friends as we headed up the next mountain. It was a steep climb as we looked back on Helen Lake.

After the forest, the meadow, and the lake sections, we have now entered the fourth section of this hike. It looks a little like the winter desert section. Few plants survive at this altitude so it seems very barren.

Big patches of snow are still here in the hottest part of the summer.

From this vantage point we can also see more lakes under us--including Lake Katherine.

We also have the shadow of another mountain top over us. This extension is called the Dolomite Pass, and we wondered how it got its name. We learned from another couple on the trail that it is named after the Dolomite Mountains in Northern Italy that look like this. She should know, because she was raised in Italy just south of the Dolomites.

We took a few more pictures as we finished our hike on the ridge overlooking the two valleys on either side.

Among those rocks at the top was a marmot, ready to greet visitors to his home.

A hike doesn't feel like it's finished until you can stand on the highest ridge and look around in all directions. This one is officially finished!

Then it was time to point our boots back down-hill towards the trail head. We had one last look at Helen Lake,

and then the long section of meadow,

as we see the Dolomites now in the distance.

We finally have the final picture overlooking the Crowfoot Glacier and Bow Lake before we skirted into the last section of trees.

What a great hike! But we noticed that hiking down seemed longer without our friends to keep us company. It was great hiking with you, Jill and Mike!

Since we were already on the Icefield Parkway for this hike, we decided to check out a few more stops. We found more of those red adirondack chairs overlooking a lake at the no-hook-up campground at Silver Horn.

If we hadn't gotten enough lake views today, we also stopped by some of the bigger lakes along the Parkway.

It's been another day filled with good friends that we were blessed to wander more of God's wonders with.