Day 2 Ribbon Lake Kananaskis Prov Park 2017

Day 2 Ribbon Lake Campground to Buller Mt Day Use Area, 10.2 km 3691 m Elevation Gain, 691 m Elevation Loss, 4 hrs 28 min.

We had rain overnight but the morning greeted us with a beautiful sunrise over Ribbon Lake.

I got out of the tent at 7:00 am and took pictures of the sunrise over Ribbon Lake. While Laura packed up the tent I collected water and got the coffee and breakfast going. The rain overnight and the clear skies left us with a very wet picnic area. We had our breakfast of coffee and oatmeal about 7:45 am and were ready to leave camp by 8:40 am.

8:40 am. Ready to tackle the hike. It was sunny out but we put our rain skirts on because we were expecting the vegetation to be very wet on the initial part of the hike.

It was sunny and warm as we headed off. We never saw the other couple who were at the campground. I was somewhat concerned about the weather, as the forecast did call for a chance of rain. I did not want to be trapped going over the pass if a storm blew in. As we thought, the deep vegetation just outside the campground was soaking wet and our rain skirts did a great job keeping our legs dry. Once we got back to the tumbling waterfall we were able to remove our skirts.

Looking down the tumbling falls. The sign on the right marks the junction with the trail to Guinn’s Pass. Because of my photographing the waterfall it took us over 10 minutes to walk up the falls.

The day was bright and sunny. There seemed to be no threat of rain. We worked our way back up to South Buller Pass. We did pause for a few minutes contemplating taking the route back over North Buller Pass. There was a nice-sized cairn marking the junction. With time restrictions and having to be home to volunteer for the swim meet, we did not have the appetite to deviate from what we knew and go off on an adventure.

Blue sky and sunshine have dried out the trail nicely.

Just over an hour in and we were heading into the alpine. Laura with Guinn’s Pass in the distance.

Laura inspecting the impressive cairn marking the junction with the route over North Buller Pass

Trail starts strong then sort of fades away.

We arrived at the top at 10:20 am, 1 hr 40 min after we had left camp. We had made pretty good time to the pass, considering the time I had spent taking long-exposure photos of the waterfall and that this was the end of the elevation for the day. The skies were much clearer and afforded a better view of Mt. Assiniboine.

Looking into the distance to Mt. Assiniboine

Eon Mounting on the left. The long ridge is Aye Mountain. Mt. Assiniboine towers on the right.

We continued hiking with only a little pause for the high alpine views. We continued down the way we had come the day before. We got yelled at by a small ground squirrel. At the junction to North Buller Pass we did stop for a 30-minute lunch, which included the leftover wine. We chatted with some hikers doing the loop over both passes. They offered to take some photos of us and we accepted their offer.

Laura working her way down the scree, Mt. Engadine on the left with Mt. Assiniboine watching from a distance

Had to photo-bomb picture of Laura descending from the pass

I have four pictures of this interesting but not unique landscape. Could not remember why I found this so interesting.

Zooming in on the photographs, I found this little fellow. There were not many signs of wildlife on this trip.

Our late arrival at camp meant we did not have time to drink all the wine, so we made amends by having a little wine with lunch.

We had lunch by the junction with the North Buller Pass Route. While Laura tended to some hot spots on her feet, I wandered around and discovered this lovely little waterfall and pool close by and spent several minutes taking pictures.

Access to the pool was on the right. Easy scramble down the angled ledge

Different angle. I tried to blur the water, shutter speed was 1/10th second, but there was too much direct light on the water to hold the shutter open much longer.

We headed back to the trail just after 12 pm. It was a simple walk back down the trail through the burn area back to the car. We arrived at the car at 1:15 pm. We arrived back home by about 2 pm with enough time to clean up, have a nap and an early dinner before heading to the pool to volunteer at the swim meet. The entire trip took less than 24 hrs. I would be very happy at some point in the future to repeat the trip but leave earlier, stay later and spend more time enjoying the area around Ribbon Lake, but it is always good to get away.

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