Rocky Mountains

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Cirque Peak

Helen Lake-Cirque Peak is generally considered one of the best day hikes in the Canadian Rockies. It's a short drive north of Lake Louise on the Icefields Parkway. I started my day fairly early and had a quiet walk to Helen Lake. There's a bit of an incline, but not overwhelming. You have an obstructed view of Bow Glacier for most of the way up the trail and then enter a valley for the final couple of kilometres to Helen Lake. You then really start to ascend and get some nice views. It's definately worth going a bit beyond Helen Lake even if you don't go all the way up Cirque Peak. Cirque Peak is a somewhat moderate scramble up the ridge starting in the bottom left. Scrambling is not really my thing - I am not a big fan of going down and always seem to think that I'm going to end up rolling to the bottom. This was as sunny as it got the day I visited … I waited in the howling wind for quite a while waiting for clouds to clear behind Cirque Peak.

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