Day 3 Iceline/Twin Falls – Yoho NP

Siobhan at the top of Twin Falls with the Whaleback Mt (2633 m) in the background.

Day 3 Twin Falls CG to Twin Falls to Takakkaw Falls Parking Lot, 14.7 km, 650 m Elevation Gain, 760 m Elevation Loss, 5 hrs 20 min.

For my standards I slept in. I did not have the coffee on until 7:00 am. The water from the Yoho River is quite silty with the runoff from the glaciers. If you actually read the signs at the campground the water source is a small stream on the east side with nice clear water. Took some photos of my by the Yoho River using the timer on my camera and propping it on a rock. Then another camper who had risen early offered to take some photos which looked better since they were not taken from the ground. Chatted for the while with the other camper. He was intending on going up the Whaleback then hiking up to the peak, along the ridge and scrambling Isolation Peak before dropping back down to the trail along the Little Yoho River. The route he talked about is clearly marked on my Viewranger App and could make for a fun day especially if you could snag a campsite at Little Yoho CG.

The setting moon keeping an eye on the coffee.

Coffee by the Yoho River. Another early riser at camp took the photo.

Getting breakfast ready. Since Siobhan eats oatmeal for breaky had to bring my old steel pot.

I started breakfast at around 8 am. We had many options for the day. We could head straight back to the car, go to Twin Falls then back to the car, go to the top of Twin Falls then back to the car or traverse the Whaleback. We decided to take snacks and water in a day pack (the top lid of my Osprey Aether converts to a day pack) and go to the top of Twin Falls then backtrack to the campground have lunch and pick up the rest of our gear for the walk back to the car. After breakfast we packed up our sleeping gear into our backpacks and stowed them in the tent and hung up our food. We hit the trail at 9:10 am.

The Yoho River tumbling through the campground

It is less than 1.5 km to Twin Falls. We arrived at the viewpoint for the falls at 9:30 am. After a nice little warm up this is when we confirmed that we wanted to hike to the top of the falls. The hike would be 2.5 km with 240 m of elevation gain and a quick 80 m drop at the end. To climb the steep cliff that forms the drop for Twin Falls the trail traverses northward away from the walls and utillized several switchbacks to keep the gradient from becoming overly steep.

Trail is in good condition but Mother Nature put some rubble in the way to keep us alert.

Heading down. My memory tells me this had some fairly steep, rooty sections.

It took us 55 minutes to make our way to the cliff at the top of Twin Falls. There is a very spacious and wide area at the top of the falls making an excellent nature viewing platform.

At the top of the falls. Whaleback Mountain in the background.

Video of Twin Falls

We went back to the open area at the cliff a little ways from the falls to enjoy the view and have our snacks. We spent 35 minutes relaxing at the cliff taking in the view of the Yoho Valley.

The natural viewing platform. It not a sharp drop off. Even though it will look like we are sitting at the edge there is rock at our feet.

Looking over Yoho Valley. Frosty made it.

Siobhan showing off. Not actually at the edge.

We headed back at 11:00 am. It was a speedy hike back to the campground. We met our first people of the day on way down the cliff. They had full backpacks on and had started from parking lot at Takakkaw Falls and were heading over the Whaleback to camp at Little Yoho CG. Twin Falls CG was fairly quiet when we arrived back.We grabbed our food from the bear hang and we were eating our lunches by 12:15 pm.

Great views from the trail at the top of the cliff.

Lunch and the ever present can of bear spray.

Shortly after arriving a large group of young people arrived and began looking for available campsites. We had not taken our tent down yet as we had stored our backpacks inside while we had been hiking. It did not take long to tear down the tent and pack it away. We were all good to go by 12:45pm. We had barely left the campsite when someone had thrown a tent down in our spot. The hike back to the car was fairly rapid. We did stop in at Laughing Falls CG. I wanted to show Siobhan just how small the campsite area was. I had boasted that you could walk around it in 30 seconds. We did walk around it and Siobhan informed that it took a bit over a minute. We also took a quick side trip to see Angel Staircase Falls. Being late in the summer there was very little water flowing down the staircase. We arrived back at the car at 2:20 pm.

All packed up. Siobhan in good spirits even though we are on the final leg of our trip.

Not a whole lot of water flowing down Angel Staircase Falls

We arrived back a the car at 2:20 pm. We had a marvelous three days on the trail. Yoho NP is a real jewel of the national parks. Even after now a total of 5 days in the park I can already see how I could find several more days on the trails exploring the park. We finished our day at our favourite restaurant and patio, the Santraps Restaurant at the Canmore Golf Course. Ordering a fine, tall cold beer and hot juicy burger. A great way to end a great trip.

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