Banff National Park: Valley of the Ten Peaks at Moraine Lake

Another freezing cold morning arrived, right around 4C(39F). I was bundled up really well as you can see in this picture that Dad took of us all "enjoying" our breakfast.

Enjoying our breakfast on a chilly morning in the mountains

 That morning we were heading back to Moraine Lake to hike the Valley of the Ten Peaks. We would be hiking the Larch Valley/Sentinel Pass trail and then backtracking and going down the Eiffel Lake trail. I was having serious doubts about this hike. I wanted to do it as Dad promised it would be beautiful but he said it was at least 10 hours and would be the hardest hike of the trip. Well with slow poke Lessa along and with the level of difficulty he was stating I was afraid that I would hold the group up and we would be out there for much longer than the stated 10 hours. I was seriously considering staying behind at Moraine Lake for the day with my camera and a good book.

 We had to skirt around the edge of Moraine Lake to get to the trailhead.

Moraine Lake

The first part of the hike was all uphill along a switchback, this is where most of the hike's elevation gain occurs. I wanted to give up but my family refused to let me. Turns out that was for the best as once we got up the switchback the worst was over and the rest of the hike was not bad at all. So don't let it intimidate you, if I could do it so can you!

Going up!

Entering Larch Valley, this area is absolutely beautiful in the fall when the needles turn a lovely gold colour.

View of the Ten Peaks from Larch Valley

There were a few of these little guys around and they were all making this squeaking/chirping noise. They were so cute!

 Here is a panoramic video of the valley. If you turn the volume up you can hear the squirrel? chirping in the background Video: View of the Ten Peaks from Larch Valley

 We were now out of Larch Valley and making our way to Sentinel Pass. This part of the hike was in a very exposed area. It was very windy and very chilly!

 That is Sentinel Pass in the distance

Sentinel Pass

 You are probably thinking that doesn't look too bad. In person it appeared to be very steep and the path looked very narrow. There was no way I was going up there. I would have been terrified and probably got sick just from looking down.

Dad decided that he would leave Marcus and I behind at the lake while the rest of them climbed the pass. He said it should take about an hour for them to get up there and then back down.

 They decided that they would take off their packs and leave them with me at the lake where Marcus and I would be waiting. I asked Dad for the bear spray since it would be just Marcus and I and I was paranoid and a little scared to be left alone although it was a very open area as you could see so I would definitely see something scary approaching from very far away.

Here are some pictures of the surrounding area that I took while Marcus and I were waiting for the family to return.

 Here are Dad's pictures from the journey up Sentinel Pass

Climbing up Sentinel Pass

Climbing up Sentinel Pass

Looking down at the Ten Peaks from Sentinel Pass

View of Paradise Valley from Sentinel Pass

When everybody got back from the trip up Sentinel Pass they said it was not a hard hike up but I wouldn't have liked it due to the height and the steep slope. The view was great though so worth the hike for them. They sat down for a few minutes to eat a snack but it was so chilly that we decided to head back down to the more wooded area to eat our lunch where there would be more protection from the wind. This is also the point where my camera battery died. It had lasted a pretty long time considering I had no way to charge it. It had lasted through the day at Glacier, the first two days at Banff and then the first half of this day as well. Luckily I had planned ahead knowing that the battery would die and I had brought along my old camera on the hike. The old camera takes AA batteries so no worries if they die, easily replaceable whereas my new camera which I had been using had a rechargeable lithium battery, not so good when camping with no power outlets.

View of Moraine Lake from our lunch spot

 Here is a funny Marcus story: While we were walking to our lunch spot Alek and Erich were ahead of Dad and I and they had Marcus tied to themselves. Well Marcus saw something, marmot, squirrel, who knows. He went charging after it and tried to dive into its hole in the ground on the side of the path. His head was right in that hole. Well, before they could pull him away, Marucs yelped and jumped backwards, up into the air doing a spiral back flip and then landed on the path looking completely bewildered. Dad and I got to see this all happen from behind and had no idea what had happened, all we saw was Marcus doing a flying back flip through the air. It was scary and hilarious at the same time. It was scary as we didn't know what had happened but hilarious because we had never seen a dog accomplish a jump like that before.  What we think happened is that when he tried to follow that squirrel/marmot into the hole it fought back and bit him on the head. We noticed a little while later that it looked like he had a bit of swelling above one of his eyes. Did he learn his lesson? Nope! He continued to try and chase after all the animals the rest of the day. 

 After our little lunch break we turned right and made our way down the Eiffel Lake trail. The nice thing about this part of the hike is that it was pretty much flat, no strenuous climbing.

 This trail offered great views of the Ten Peaks. The bad part of the trail is that one side of it was a steep slope and Marcus, still acting like a naughty dog, kept trying to go after any animal he smelt or saw and often that meant trying to yank whoever had the leash down the steep slope.

Eiffel Lake was so pretty! I just loved the sapphire blue colour. The colour kept changing as clouds passed over it and then the sun would hit it again and it would start sparkling.

Eiffel Lake

 I did not like crossing this part of the path, very scrambly.

We took a twenty minute break once we reached a good area above Eiffel Lake. The trail contiues on much further to Wenchenka Pass but we did not have enough time to continue and still get back to the car before the sun set. 

On the way back as we passed through the scrambly rocks we saw many marmots.It was quite the task keeping Marcus on the path.

Soon Moraine Lake was back in view which meant we were almost back to the switchback and almost done the hike.

It was nearly 6pm by the time we finished the hike. Dad suggested visiting the gift shop. This was amazing to me as the Dad I grew up with hated gift shops! Before doing anything else though I wanted to get my boots off as my toes were screaming in pain from the steep switchback. I hobbled over to the car and slipped my flip flops on. I then browsed the gift shop where I bought nothing. The step-mother pouted because Dad refused to buy some ridiculously overpriced knick knack. I pulled Dad away and asked him to take my picture down by the lake while the others went to wait at the car.