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Kait Tx

I love spending time outside living in a tent and exploring dog friendly trails. Quality time with friends and family in the mountains makes me happiest.

Love this hike. My husband and I have done it twice just the two of us. Once again to Kinney Lake with some day-hiking with my step-kids, and again on their annual marathon (highly recommended if you love a good long mountain trail run). Can't wait to do it again this summer. This is a beautiful hike on a very well-maintained trail. It has everything: suspension bridges, waterfalls, marmots, glaciers. There are not many hikes I'd opt to do again start to finish, and this is definitely one of them. Oh, and if you have an extra day, check out Toboggan Falls and the cave. I can't say enough; go see for yourself!

My husband and I completed this trip last summer. We teamed up with another couple to coordinate car placement - we drove they drove our car to trailhead at Maligne Lake, and we parked theirs at the trailhead in the canyon. Our one friend had not backpacked in years, so my husband and I opted to hike in the "wrong" way (canyon to lake). This made for a fairly uneventful first few kms in the trees. Once we broke out into some open space, we were able to take in some spectacular views. We continued our hike past Tekarra campsite through the Marmot-rich valley and onto the spine. It was a particularly cold and windy day, so unfortunately we boogied toward "the Notch" and off of the spine as quickly as possible. Once we reached the bottom, we were very near Curator campsite (alas, not our end destination for the day) and continued along the trail to the intersection of Watchtower. Due to the popularity of Skyline Trail, it can be difficult to get the sites you want along the trail (especially when you are hiking against the grain). My husband and I, booked a site off of the main trail along Watchtower. After a slog over a ridge and down into a marshy valley, we were ready to call it a day. The positive? The campsite was very private, in fact I think we were the only people in the valley. The not so positive? The mosquitoes set a new standard for "worst I've seen". Hungry and tired, my husband and I contemplated just going right to sleep rather than venture out of our tent to eat among the mosquitoes. In the end hunger won, but the bugs certainly took a toll on our morale. The next morning we slogged out of the valley early in anticipation of meeting our friends along the trail. A few hours in, we met them. They had eaten lunch at Evelyn Creek campsite (our destination for the night) the day prior and told us the bugs had been pretty bad. My husband and I opted to alter our plan and to hike out that day and get a campsite at Wapiti where we could have a fire instead. Overall, it wasn't a bad trail, but I wouldn't hike the whole thing again. After some discussion, we decided that if we were to hike the Skyline again, we would still hike it in reverse (Canyon to Lake) and would stay a couple nights at Tekarra. From there we would surge out on a few day hikes further along the trail. Happy hiking!