Canada - Cathedral Lakes Lodge, Day 1

Drove from the Keremos hotel to the basecamp parking lot to catch the 1000 shuttle to the lodge. 

The shuttle drives you 16km up a 4x4 road to the lodge in the middle of the park. On the way the driver did a great job explaining how things work and how to deal with the mountain goats.

The lodge is great with beautiful furniture in the rooms and the common area. It is right on Quiniscoe Lake and includes wonderful wood hot tubs for use after a day of hiking.

Hot Tub Building

After settling in, we took a loop hike along Quiniscoe Lake, up a very steep scramble to the Rim trail and then along the Rim trail to Red Mountain, and back down by Scout Lake.  The first part along the lake was pretty easy along Quiniscoe Lake.

Looking back down the lake to the lodge

Starting up the trail to Red mountain we saw this nice waterfall and then hiked up a very steep trail (around 1300' in a mile) to the ridge.  The trail up was steep and it was pretty smokey, but at the top it was much less smokey - even though you could see the smoke in the valley.

Ridge in the distance

Zoom in to see Sawako by the snow field

Along the trail were many beautiful flowers.

Yellow Mountain Heather

Pink Mountain Heather

Purple Lupine and Arrowleaf Ragwort

Oxeyed Daisy

Indian Paintbrush

Goldenrod

Mountain Avens

Sitka Valerian

Then we hiked along the ridge on the Rim Trail and back down to the lodge. 

Squashed fir tree due to wind

Quiniscoe Lake from Rim Trail

Looking back toward Red Mountain

Scout Lake through a snow filled notch on the Rim Trail

Burned out area on the trail back to the lodge

Even with the smoke it was a great hike.  4.2 miles with 1300' of gain (mostly in just one mile).  We got up to 8089' high at the top of Red Mountain.  At the lodge we had a nice hot tub to rest the feet and then a great dinner.  They seat you with other guests so you get to hear about their experiences which is wonderful.  Looking forward to a hike to the Cleft tomorrow.