Northern Montana and the Canadian Rockies - Part 7
After coming back down from the viewpoint over Peyto Lake, we decided to add another park to our list. Not far from Banff, and just across the border in British Columbia, lies Yoho National Park. I was told it was a really cool place to be and I shouldn't miss it. So we turned Lola towards BC as the rain clouds started moving closer.
On the road into Yoho, we made a stop at a viewpoint to check out the historic Spiral Tunnels. These tunnels were the ingenious solution to a problematic hill along the Canadian Pacific Railway's route through the Canadian Rockies. The rail line had to climb from the town of Field, at 4,267 feet, to the top of the Continental Divide at 5,340 feet in the space of 10 miles. The steep valleys meant there were limited places to lay a rail line. To complete the line as quickly as possible, the Railway simply built a line above the ground, causing this section of track to have a very steep grade of 4.5%, which was more than double the preferred 2.2% grade. As such, this section became known as The Big Hill. This ridiculous grade required a lot of caution to traverse, and it required specially built locomotives with enough power to make it up this hill. As such, the town of Field was built for the purpose of storing these massively powerful locomotives. The Big Hill remained a monumental and dangerous challenge until 1909, when the Spiral Tunnels were built.
Image via Google
The Spiral Tunnels were a stroke of genius. The trains enter at the bottom of the valley and complete a series of quarter circles on the way up. Once past these, they enter a large, climbing circle that actually passes over itself before emerging from under the mountain. The train then enters another tunnel where it again circles over itself before coming back out and continuing on it's way. This process allowed the railroad to significantly extend the length of the track while staying within the available space. This little engineering marvel turned the Big Hill from a 4.5% grade to a 2.5% grade, which was significantly safer.
Once we were finished looking at this cool piece of engineering, we set off towards the middle of Yoho. A few kilometers before the town of Field, there is a turn off that takes you toward the center of the park. The road narrows and crosses a few bridges before climbing up to a series of tight switchbacks that actually had one tour bus backing up on the way up. After this little obstacle, we spied a large waterfall above the trees. Intrigued, we parked the truck and hopped out at a hiking trail leading to the falls. As I exited the truck, my shorts caught on an adjustment knob on the side of my seat. I heard and felt a large ripping sound, and to my dismay, my only pair of shorts I had packed on this trip had an enormous rip in the rear end.
That was rather irritating, but I shook it off, changed into some hiking pants, and we hit the trail. It's a very short and easy trail. A plaque along the way identifies the waterfall as Takkakaw Falls. When loosely translated from the native Cree, Takkakaw means something close to "it is magnificent", which is apt in my opinion.
These falls are fed by Daly Glacier, and plummet 991 feet from top to bottom. The water falls about 140 feet from the river above, then hits a shelf where it is catapulted off the cliff side and down a further 850 feet to it's base. It is quite the sight to behold, especially from the provided red Parks Canada adirondack chairs.
Beret and I pulled on our rain jackets and moved in closer to the falls.
What you can't see in the photos is the effect the water has on the plants. On all of the vegetation within about 150 feet from the waterfall, there are no limbs on the side facing the water. The spray and constant dampness seemed to have stopped them from growing on that one side. It's actually pretty cool.
Satisfied with this tower of water, we hiked back towards the truck as the rain started coming down even more.
Now that the weather was coming in again, we decided to forego the other sightseeing we had planned for the day and headed back to Banff. I needed something to replace my shorts, and I needed a pair of gloves for the coming night of rain. As you can imagine, shorts were impossible to find this late in the season in Canada, so I got myself a pair of jeans. We stopped in at Abominable Sports and picked up some nice gloves, then hit Safeway for a couple small groceries we needed.
Once we made it back to the camp, we set up the awning and began the task of making some dinner as the rain came down even harder still. Our fare for the night was one of my favorites, campfire pizzas. We loaded down some crusts with our favorite toppings, wrapped them in foil, and set them over a crackling fire. Dinner that night was tasty, and we went to bed with happy stomachs.
These kinds of adventures are what we live for. Here we were, in a foreign country, camping in the cold rain after a day of exploring some of the most beautiful places I've ever seen in my life. We had Lola, we had the scenery. This is overlanding bliss.
