June 2 – Stewart Canyon and Cascade of Time Garden

Another short hike today. We drove up to the nearby shores of Lake Minnewanka and walk along the shore to Stewart Canyon which was carved out by a river that feeds the lake.

Lake Minnewanka was created when a river was dammed. It is surrounded on all side by towering mountains much like the fjords.

It is the only lake in the park where power boats are allowed. They also offer various lengths of cruises up the lake.

The hike is 3 km round trip, half of which is along the shore and the rest is up the canyon to a bridge. It is also essentially flat.

The hike hugs the eroded edge of the lake but the water level seems to be way down.

Then to the bridge.

The path continues farther up the canyon, mostly in the forest, but this was far enough for us.

Looking back towards the lake.

and farther upstream.

The water has a nice green tinge to it.

The photosphere from the middle of the bridge.

We did go a bit further to a spot where you could climb down to the river. Jennie stayed up high.

The “trail” down was a little narrow.

The views up and down the river.

As we walked back to the bridge we saw that we had company.

The first was joined by another and the pair then crossed the bridge and followed the path for quite a way before heading into the woods when there were too many people on the trail.

On the way back we someone relaxing down the the rocky shore, enjoying the scenery.

Near the start there is a nice little spit for us to explore.

The photosphere from the end.

By now is was only 10:30 but we had had an early small breakfast and this looked like a great place to have lunch.

When we arrived around 9:00 the parking lot was already half full. When we left the vultures were already circling to grab our spot..

Since it was still so early we went back to town to check out the Cascade of Time Garden that is located behind the park administration building.

We again used the free parking by the train station, then walked a bit over a kilometer along a path by the Bow River to the gardens.

Once we were there we saw that there was free parking right at the base of the garden with lots of empty spots. BUT if we had parked there we would not have had to walk back through town and get some ice cream from Cows, a very delicious and creamy chocolate mud flavour.

The administration building overlooks the end of the main street.

We are too early for most of the flowers but it a very pretty setting and we will try and come back closer to the end of our stay to see what has changed (and park closer),

The gardens are built on a hill with many stone paths and of course a cascading stream.

One poppy was out, along with some daisy and pansies.

We sat and enjoyed the view for a while before heading back through a very crowed downtown. .