Bow Glacier Falls

The snow line still remains fairly low, making most hiking still off limits. Nothing that was not snowbound in K-Country turned my crank, but Banff was reporting that the Bow Glacier Falls hike was free of snow and in good shape. This is pushing my limits for distance at 90 minutes from The West Wing, but the hike is easy and has only a 95 m height gain that all happens in one short stretch. In addition, it's been years since I ventured up the Icefield Parkway, and I also wanted to check up the Bow Summit hike -- only to discover that it, too, was still snowbound. So off the the Falls we went.

The hike starts with a lovely walk along the shoreline of Bow Lake -- half of which is still covered in ice.



Views of the Bow Glacier just keep getting better and better.



In addition, at this time of the year, there's tons of waterfalls on the sides of the valleys.



After crossing the flats, you open up to a vista that includes part of the Wapta Icefield as well as the falls themselves, the Bow Glacier having long disappeared from view behind the cliff face.






Then comes the grand finale: the falls themselves.






The views back towards Bow Lake are pretty decent despite the low elevation.





There weren't a lot of critters, but ther was one very proud Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel who insisted on posing for me.



Heading home, I also had to stop and take a picture of the Crowfoot Glacier, too.