June 17, 2010

Rowe Lakes Trail at Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta


The next morning we left the campground to hike up to the Rowe Lakes Basin. This hike climbs 1700 feet in a 7.8 mile moderate round trip. It stars in the Engelmann spruce forest at 5400 feet and ascends above treeline to over 7,100 feet. The trail took up past beautiful wildflower and up first to Lower Rowe Lake and the Rowe Meadows.
The trail to the first meadows is pretty easy

After the first meadows, it begins to climb more steeply to the Upper Rowe Lake

On the climb up, we could see it was cold and windy up there, and some light drizzle had begun

Bear Grass (a species of lily) is plentiful in the area

As you climb up to the upper basin, a steep headwall appears. A glacier sat in this basin at one time, carving out the lakebed and leaving this cliff behind
Here is Upper Rowe Lake. Despite being the last week of June, it started snowing on us when we arrived at the lake. We didn't stay long before we headed back down to warm up.
Here are some more wildflowers on the way down

Bertha Falls back near Waterton Lake

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