Thanksgiving holiday at Yoho - Wapta Highline trail

Have been meaning to do this trail for a while - it's a 20km hike with a 900m ascent - yayy! The trail wander around Emerald Lake - it's pretty freezing first thing in the morning - we were loaded up with 2 layers of thermals on our legs, 4 layers on our torso, 2 beanies and 2 gloves. And not many layers came off for the whole day! The trail is famous because if passes through the remarkable UNESCO Burgess Shale site that rewrote the history books of life in the Cambrian period - so we're really thrilled to see it - though there are signs up everywhere threatening prosecution is you enter the site. But we can easily see it from the trail and get a good sense of what it's like. As we walked along an avalanche slop beneath the Wapta Mountain there were about 30 sections of turned soil and we (OK just Jenny was) were a little worried that it might mean there's a grizzly in the area - so we (OK just Jenny again!) were relieved to put a group of 4 loud obnoxious americans on the trail ahead of us. The 360 degree views from Burgess Pass are out of this world and we stopped here for a good 45 min lunch break before tearing ourselves away. The guidebook described the route from the pass down to the trailhead at Emerald Lake as a relentless bone jarring descent,,, and it wasn't kidding. It wasn't too bad in places considering it was pretty much 900m straight down - there were lots of switchback which made it a little easier on the knees, but we were happy to be down all the same! But another fantastic walk - one to remember! These pics are of President Mtn and the huge lateral moraines left from the receding glacier, Emerald Lake from the trail, the trail near Burgess Pass, and finally, down and out - great reflections on the lake!