Twin Falls and Yoho Valley Trail.

 This began as a trip down memory lane as it was one of the more ambitious hikes I took with my family back before my parents bought our cabin. We stopped for tea at the hut located just below Twin Falls. The downhill trot bruised my mother's toes to such an extent that she bought hiking boots in Banff the day after our hike. 

Stats: Length - 19.7 km., Elevation gain - 889 metres, Time on trail - Almost 7 hours 

Trail - Several side trails lead off the main one to Twin Falls. Unfortunately, water no longer flowed down Angel Steps Waterfall, the first diversion. The second diversion, Point Lace Falls provided more positive results with water falling lace like down the moss-covered fractured rock face. The third, Duchesnay Lake, proved another disappointment having almost completely dried up. Laughing Falls still laughed and provided a similar image to that of Takakkaw Falls we'd visited before starting up the Twin Falls and Yoho Valley Trail. 

The trail offers a couple of campsites, one at the start and another just below Twin Falls, We stopped at this one admiring its facilities and then on up to Twin Falls where one of the twins had disappeared, no longer flowing, the result of a very dry spring, a misfortune that has befallen the other water fed sites we'd visited. The trail leads right up to the edge of the falls where we snapped a few pics before heading down for lunch at the Tea Hut, closed until further notice. Nicola worried that the National Parks people would let it decay into the ground. Then, she discovered that the Alpine Club had been awarded a ten-year license to maintain the hut

The southern side of the loop around Yoho Valley leads past the pretty little Marpole Lake and then over an interminable rockslide. Instead of maintaining the original trail lower down and through the trees, we guessed that Park officials believed a trail over the rockslide required little to no maintenance. We grumbled a lot especially when we saw the original trail meandering below. A moderately difficult trail had been made difficult. 

The path wound back and forth for a couple of kilometres and I understood why my mother's toes bruised in her cheap canvas runners. We returned to the trailhead just as the sun started disappearing behind the mountain tops. 

People: We met very few people on the trail this Thanksgiving weekend. A couple of guys asked us how far the next place of interest beyond Laughing Falls where they'd just arrived at about 4:30. Nicola said Twin Falls would take them another two hours. I thought they could do it in less. Nevertheless, night would have fallen before their return. A thirty-something guy and gal admired our dogs toward the end of the trail for us, the beginning for them. Another young couple passed us on the downhill slope from the rockslide and that was it. 

Cocktail: White Negroni - Gin, Campari, and sweet white vermouth 

Takakkawa Falls	Point Lace Falls
Nicola in front of Point Lace Falls	Laughing Falls - Ha, ha, ha
Duchesnay Lake just about dried up
The dried up Duchesnay Lake looking the other way.
Twin Falls with missing twin.	Canyon below the falls
Another angle below the falls	Us in front of them
Tea Hut in front of Twin Falls in need of repair
Marpole Lake
Nicola crossing rock slide