Moominmama's Adventures

In which Moominmama finally arrives in the Canadian Rockies and enjoys a land made beautiful by its proximity to glaciers... Moominmama's first hike in Yoho National Park was to Emerald Lake, pictured above. Like much of the water here, it's a piercing blue-green, sometimes clouded by glacial silt, known as rock flour. That's thanks to this guy here, Michael Glacier, barely visible through the clouds, which feeds Emerald Lake.  Moominmama is on the western side of the Rockies, staying in a town in the valley between the Columbia range and the Rockies, where the Kicking Horse River (popular for its rapids) merges with the grand Columbia. The Kicking Horse also has the mark of glaciers in its waters, the milky green of fast-moving water that keeps the pale rock flour churned up as it flows. Moominmama has seen this on the eastern side of the Canadian Rockies in the famous Banff, Jasper and Lake Louise areas east of the Continental Divide. This time, the goal is to see some o...

  Wherein Moominmama visits a land of shrinking glaciers and brilliant wildflowers and meets another friendly marmot... Behold the Meeting of the Waters, where the runoff from the Illecillewaet and Asulkan glaciers meet. Moominmama took a hike that originally led to the foot of the Illecillewaet Glacier, (pronounced ill-a-sihouette) an area that is now just a cascade of water. The glacier itself is out of view, having retreated almost a mile and about 2,000 feet vertically up the rock.  Moominmama is not yet in the Canadian Rockies. It turns out these mountains west of the Rockies are called the Columbia Range, and Moominmama is staying in a section known as the Selkirks where Mount Revelstoke and Glacier National Park are located. This is one of the benefits of travel -- I've just discovered an entire mountain range between the Rockies and the Coastal Range that I never knew existed! This year is the International Year of Glaciers' Preservation (per the United Nations), and I...