Remembering Beauty in 2012: Yoho National Park

Takakkaw Falls, Yoho National Park (ground level view)

 Yoho National Park, the Iceline Trail.  Completed in September, this was our last back-packing trip of the season, and most definitely the coldest.  Despite mainly freezing my nibs off nearly every night, I loved this trail.  Every section was completely different from the last.  Also, we had learned how to pack lighter food by this point in the season, so we could enjoy the views more and experince less backpack- straps-cutting-through-our-collarbones pain.

 That's right, ladies and gentlemen: Daniel cooks, bless him, even when it's finger-numbingly cold in the morning.

And here is Takakkaw Falls again, this time at eye level.

Day 2: we reached the end of the tree line.  Welcome to the scrub brush growing part of the mountains.

And then we went above the scrub line, to the glacier and these giant rock steppes.

 I literally had to crawl up the last 14 meters to get to this level because I was sure I was going to fall backwards and die on a set of carved stairs that I kid you not looked like the ones in the Lord of the Rings that Gollum leads Frodo and Sam up to get through Mordor.  Nevertheless; I survived, and what a fabulous view! (the mountains are nice, too).

It's a game: where in this photo is Faye?  Or Daniel.  Whoever that is.

This is a petrified tree.  No, it didn't get scared of the heights, too.  It got buried in something, and then eventually turned into rock after years of pressure.

 This was some sort of organic lifeform surviving in ridiculously cold glacier water at the top of the mountain.  If you want a more specific definition, you'll have to ask someone else.

 Looking back at where we'd been only a day earlier.

 Close-up of tree sap on a pine tree.

 Hiking out on Day 4.  There were some very vibrant red plants that grew on the ground on the trail that led us out.

I hate saying good-bye to the summer, because depression is so much harder to fend off in the winter without the sun, but it was a beautiful fall.  And this photo is of Daniel, who did not fall, despite being dressed to match it, and is also beautiful to look at.