{"id":1611,"date":"2015-09-04T08:10:13","date_gmt":"2015-09-04T14:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/?p=1611"},"modified":"2019-03-16T11:10:50","modified_gmt":"2019-03-16T17:10:50","slug":"peyto-lake-lupes-search-for-the-peyto-glacier-7-26-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/?p=1611","title":{"rendered":"Peyto Lake & Lupe’s Search for the Peyto Glacier (7-26-13)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lupe’s 17th day of her 2013 Dingo Vacation started with a short drive up to Bow Pass (6,785 ft.) on the Icefields Parkway Hwy 93. \u00a0South of the pass water drains into the Bow River system.\u00a0 North of Bow Pass it drains into the Mistaya River and then into the Saskatchewan.\u00a0 At Bow Pass there is a\u00a0turn off the Icefields Parkway to the Peyto Lake overlook.\u00a0 The short access road is paved and so are the parking lots.\u00a0 Even the short trail up to the observation deck is paved.<\/p>\n

Peyto Lake lies\u00a0just W of Bow Pass, but is within the area that drains N down into the Mistaya River.\u00a0 Peyto Lake was named after “Wild Bill” Peyto<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, an early guide, outfitter, trapper and ultimately a game warden, who was usually based out of Banff.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP took the paved trail to the observation deck for a look at Peyto Lake.<\/p>\n

\"Peyto<\/a>
Peyto Lake as seen from the observation deck near Bow Pass.\u00a0 Cauldron Peak<\/a><\/strong><\/span> (9,554 ft.)<\/strong><\/span> is on the L across the lake.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Looking<\/a>
Looking N from the observation deck at Peyto Lake towards mountains along the Mistaya River valley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SPHP had more in mind for Lupe than just a look at the lake from the observation deck, though.\u00a0 An unpaved trail left the area just above the observation deck and headed SW into the forest.\u00a0 Lupe was going to follow it down into the valley S of Peyto Lake.\u00a0 Then SPHP hoped that Lupe could continue on up Peyto Creek to find and reach the Peyto Glacier.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The view SW from the Peyto Lake observation deck. The Peyto Glacier is visible on the left. Lupe descended to the floor of the valley by Peyto Creek at the very lower right corner of the picture to begin her search for a way to reach the glacier.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The trail descended the forested side of the valley quite steeply.\u00a0 There were switchbacks in some places.\u00a0 It was a long way down to the floor of the valley.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A glimpse back to the NE at Peyto Lake coming down the forested side of the valley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the bottom of the valley, the going was trickier than SPHP expected.\u00a0 The trail completely disappeared.\u00a0 There was quite a bit of mucky, marshy ground full of tall slender willow-like bushes.\u00a0 Just beyond them the open and gently sloping valley floor was covered with rocks and gravel deposited by Peyto Creek, which was a braided stream with many branches in this area.<\/p>\n

SPHP couldn’t find an easy way through, but after some wandering around heading generally downstream\u00a0among the willows eventually found a way to\u00a0reach the more solid ground without getting non-waterproof boots and feet totally soaked.\u00a0 Dingoes don’t suffer these travails.\u00a0 Lupe had no problem getting across to the gravel and wondered what the holdup was.<\/p>\n

Once on the gravel, the footing was good.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP headed upstream toward the right side of a low forested ridge ahead.\u00a0 Peyto Creek was coming down around through a big flat gap to the right of the ridge.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The gravel strewn floor of the valley upstream (SW) of Peyto Lake. Lupe and SPHP headed for the gap at the right side of the low forested ridge ahead.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Along the way to the low ridge, Peyto Creek was a braided stream with a lot of little branches.\u00a0\u00a0A few\u00a0were too big to step or easily jump across.\u00a0 SPHP eventually gave up and just walked right through even the largest ones.\u00a0 SPHP’s boots and feet got soaked, of course, but the cold water felt good.\u00a0 Lupe thought this area was cool, too.\u00a0 It was only a few feet between cold drinks and refreshed paws.<\/p>\n

Exactly as SPHP feared, upon nearing the right side of the low ridge, Peyto Creek was not a braided stream any more.\u00a0 All of the water channeled into one swiftly flowing stream.\u00a0 It wasn’t big enough to be dangerous, but it was still more than SPHP wanted to take on.\u00a0 Especially since it could be seen that just a little farther upstream, the full force of Peyto Creek swept up against the steep opposite side of the valley, blocking the way forward again.\u00a0 There was no point in\u00a0fording the stream.\u00a0 It would just have to be forded again a\u00a0short distance upstream.<\/p>\n

\"Peyto<\/a>
At the right side of the low ridge, Peyto Creek gets its act all together.\u00a0\u00a0Lupe and SPHP were forced to climb up and over the forested ridge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some of Peyto Creek was branching off to block access even to the low forested ridge.\u00a0 Fortunately, there wasn’t so much water\u00a0that Lupe and SPHP couldn’t get across to reach the ridge easily enough.\u00a0 SPHP hoped to be able to stay just a little above creek level working upstream along the base of the ridge long enough to get past the creek.\u00a0 Then Lupe and SPHP could drop\u00a0down to the valley floor again.\u00a0 Soon it became evident that wasn’t going to work.\u00a0 The edge of the ridge became too steep.<\/p>\n

Lupe and SPHP had to start climbing.\u00a0 The ridge was steep enough so that SPHP had to grab onto trees to make progress up the slope.\u00a0 It was steep, but not treacherously steep.\u00a0 Lupe again had to wait and wonder why the delay?\u00a0 One thing about low forested ridges among towering mountains – they may be forested alright, but they aren’t as low as they look.\u00a0 It was probably 200 or 300 feet elevation gain up to the top.\u00a0 Before even reaching the top, when the ground started leveling out, SPHP had the unexpected pleasure of coming upon the trail again.<\/p>\n

The trail crossed the rest of the ridge and brought Lupe and SPHP to another rocky open area beyond.\u00a0 The ground to the left was higher than the ground to the right where Peyto Creek now stayed for a while instead of meandering around.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP crossed the open ground, which was considerably rougher with larger rocks than before crossing the ridge.\u00a0 The trail was fainter in this area, but continued on.<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe exploring the rougher terrain beyond the forested ridge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The trail eventually headed back towards Peyto Creek, which was also curving back towards the trail.\u00a0 The terrain was forcing a convergence once again.\u00a0 Nearing the creek, there was a view of waterfalls plunging down from very high up on the opposite side of the valley.\u00a0 A tributary of Peyto Creek came down from the opposite side\u00a0of the creek cutting a narrow little canyon just for itself through solid rock.<\/p>\n

\"Waterfalls<\/a>
Waterfalls high above Peyto Creek and a tributary carving a path down through solid rock.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The terrain now forced Lupe and SPHP into an increasingly narrow “V-shaped” valley with Peyto Creek rushing though the bottom.\u00a0 Away from the creek, at the entrance to this valley,\u00a0was a huge sloping\u00a0slab of rock that was swept clear of debris.\u00a0 The slab of rock jutted up toward the sky at a\u00a045\u00b0 angle.<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe on the steep slab of rock. The slab sloped down towards Peyto Creek below.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>Lupe and SPHP continued on past the\u00a0big sloping slab, but SPHP could see that the way forward was\u00a0getting increasingly\u00a0challenging.\u00a0 Ahead, Peyto Creek was\u00a0churning violently as\u00a0it came down\u00a0around a narrow curve on\u00a0the valley floor.\u00a0 If there was a way through this narrow spot, Lupe might be able to go much further.\u00a0 However, the terrain ahead couldn’t be seen, because\u00a0it was around a corner to the right.<\/p>\n

As Lupe and SPHP got closer, the way\u00a0ahead on Lupe’s side of the creek looked daunting.\u00a0 There was a\u00a0steep wall of rock that didn’t look safe to climb, yet it probably had to be climbed in order to follow the creek any farther\u00a0upstream.\u00a0 Higher up\u00a0were more towering rock walls.\u00a0 It wasn’t clear how far up Lupe might have to climb.\u00a0 The opposite bank of Peyto Creek looked more promising, but there wasn’t a way across.<\/p>\n

\"Peyto<\/a>
Peyto Creek churns down around a narrow curve.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lupe and SPHP advanced as far as was easily possible.\u00a0 Then SPHP paused to consider the situation.\u00a0 Lupe had gotten far enough to see a little way around the bend, but not very far.\u00a0 What could be seen wasn’t all that encouraging, although SPHP suspected better terrain was not much farther ahead.\u00a0 It was now clear that getting to the opposite bank of Peyto Creek wouldn’t help a bit.\u00a0\u00a0The terrain rapidly became\u00a0even worse over there.<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe shows the way. SPHP are you coming, or not?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Oh,<\/a>
Oh, come on! We didn’t come all this way NOT to see the glacier, did we?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe licks the backpack while awaiting a final decision from the dithering SPHP.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the end, it just didn’t seem safe.\u00a0 It was time to turn around.\u00a0 Even just a badly sprained ankle, never mind a fall,\u00a0would ruin what had so far been a wonderful day.\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP took a break and spent a little time enjoying Lupe’s farthest point of advance towards the Peyto Glacier.\u00a0 How many people or dingoes ever even get this far, to this amazing spot?\u00a0– not very many.\u00a0 On the way back, Lupe hid her disappointment at not reaching the Peyto Glacier well by showing interest in everything around her.\u00a0 She was still having a great time!<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe checks things out along the way back to Peyto Lake.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the way back, in the middle of the rough open ground before getting back to the low forested ridge, Lupe\u00a0met the only two people she saw during the entire jaunt from the Peyto Lake observation deck up to her farthest point of advance along Peyto Creek and back.\u00a0 SPHP stopped and chatted with them for a few minutes.\u00a0 They had skis and planned to ski on the glacier and snowfields, which sounded like\u00a0fabulous fun.\u00a0 They had also brought ropes\u00a0and climbing\u00a0gear specifically\u00a0for\u00a0working their way past the narrow gorge where Lupe and SPHP\u00a0had turned around.<\/p>\n

Oh, and one other thing!\u00a0 Lupe and SPHP, of course, followed the trail back over the “low” forested ridge.\u00a0 On the downstream side of the ridge, the trail did go down to the gravel at the bottom of the valley, but farther away from where Peyto Creek goes around the ridge.\u00a0 SPHP still had to get wet boots and feet again.<\/p>\n

However, it was possible\u00a0to get back to the stretch of trail coming down the side of the valley from the Peyto Lake observation deck by passing through a smaller section of willows with less annoyance than where SPHP had wandered through them farther downstream earlier in the day.\u00a0 There was no obvious trail on the gravel of the floor of the valley anywhere.\u00a0 Head upstream, though, not downstream to get through the willows as quickly and easily as possible.<\/p>\n

Links:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Next Adventure<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Prior Adventure<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Want more Lupe adventures?\u00a0\u00a0Choose\u00a0from\u00a0Lupe’s 2013 Beartooths & Canadian Rockies Adventure Index<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span>,\u00a0Dingo Vacations Adventure Index<\/strong><\/span> <\/a>or Master Adventure Index<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0Or subscribe free\u00a0to\u00a0new Lupe adventures<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lupe’s 17th day of her 2013 Dingo Vacation started with a short drive up to Bow Pass (6,785 ft.) on the Icefields Parkway Hwy 93. \u00a0South of the pass water drains into the Bow River system.\u00a0 North of Bow Pass it drains into the Mistaya River and then into the Saskatchewan.\u00a0 At Bow Pass there … Continue reading Peyto Lake & Lupe’s Search for the Peyto Glacier (7-26-13)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[105,32,30,31,106,249,26,104,250,251,134],"class_list":["post-1611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2013-beartoothscanadian-rockies","tag-american-dingo","tag-banff-national-park","tag-canada","tag-canadian-rockies","tag-carolina-dog","tag-cauldron-peak","tag-dingo-vacations","tag-lupe","tag-peyto-creek","tag-peyto-glacier","tag-peyto-lake"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adventuresoflupe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/P1050129.jpg?fit=1651%2C1238&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1611"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20793,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611\/revisions\/20793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}