Lake Minniwanka & Johnson Lake
All elements felt right for hitting the highway west where I could find some wintry mountain therapy! The weather forecast was ideally winter-like, the highways were listed as green which means go, a sweet chalet was available for a three night stretch and my hope was there would be no crowds.
I arrived at the Lake Minniwanka Parking lot late morning to see only five other vehicles, three of those vehicles had just arrived and the people were gearing up to cross country ski. I geared up to spike hike along the shore of Lake Minniwanka and then head over to Stewart Canyon. This is my favourite time of year to be here. I was greeted by the biggest snowman I ever did see!
My skates were in the car with hopes of skating somewhere while on this mountain therapy escape. The time has passed for it to happen here. The recent snowfall of a few inches covered the ice.
By hiking on the ice/snow close to the shore rather than on the trail, you are afford the views of icy creations. These are tiny waterfalls suspended inside the ice chunks.
water droplets frozen and suspended inside the ice chuck (that red is my reflection)
looking out over Lake Minniwanka
After taking a short detour up onto a rock outcrop, I descended back down to the shore line to find more icy creations. It amazed me how an oval opening so smooth to the touch could be formed. Also, the ice formation on top looks like something but I don't know what.
To me this creation looks like some kind of royal jewel!
On this visit, I was able to hike along the shoreline most of the way to Stewart Canyon. Near the end, I veered up hill onto the trail for the final stretch to the bridge. You can see the shadow of the bridge and the shadow in the middle of the bridge is me waving.
hiking the shoreline back after visiting Stewart Canon
someone else went for a slide on the ice
I arrived back at the parking lot early afternoon to see only about a dozen vehicles which was an unusual sight for here on such a beautiful day, even though it was a Monday. I had a couple of hours to pass, so drove to Johnson Lake. No skating would be happening here either! I have hiked this loop a few times but never did take the ridge trail, so this time I went for it and had a lovely view down to Johnson Lake.
a Gray Jay
looking back while on the ridge
what wonderful therapy to be swinging on a winter day in the mountains up on a ridge
The trail descends off the ridge at the backside of Johnson Lake. I continued on with looping the lake and arrived back to near where I started. The view remained gorgeous and now some sunny shadows were scattered across the snow covered lake.
Someone took a short cut across the lake! I played it safe and stuck to the trails here. It was time to cover the last short stretch back to the parking lot and drive on deeper into the west.
I arrived at my home away from home!
Before doing anything, I got a fire going!
Ahhh! Sigh!
Mountain therapy - sheer bliss!
ReplyDelete