Hiking the Opabin Plateau Circuit

Nestled between Yukness Mountain and Mt Schaffer is the most magical place we have ever been, the Opabin Plateau. We are well into the alpine zone here being 2250 Meters above sea level in the Canadian Rockies. To get here one starts their hike at Lake O'Hara in Yoho National Park, British Columbia.

This pond has a stream running through it which changes the colour to look a lot less muddy and more aquamarine. The lakes in the high rockies often feature this colour which is from the minerals in glacial runoff.

These trees could be a hundred years old, the growing season is very short up here and in May it would still be covered in a few feet of snow. The grasses and nature is fragile so it is best to keep on the path.

A brook crosses our path. Much of the trail is worn down to the rock as soil up here is a few inches thick in most places. This plateau would have been a glacier a thousand or so years ago and the peaks around us are for the most part covered in ice year round.

The forest gets bigger as you come further down the valley, not that the altitude is any lower, it is just that the soil and trees have had centuries to establish themselves. I wrote about coming down from the Opabin Plateau to Lake O'Hara last year.

There is so much unique alpine life to look at up here. Our favourite is the Pika's, or little rodents who spend most of their lives living above 2000 meters. These heights are filled with ferns, moss, mushrooms and grasses to eat.

Grouse live up here as well, feeding on the seeds, they are hard to spot except for when they move. We have probably passed hundreds but have only seen a few dozen. There is a surprising amount of flora and fauna in this unique biome.

Opabin lake is right at the glacier. The water would be ice cold and the lake is quite small. You would not find water more pure than this anywhere in North America. There is no industry anywhere near here as we are in the middle of a giant National Park with Banff being just on the other side of those mountains in Alberta.

To get here, one needs to luck out and win a lottery to take the bus with Parks Canada. It would have sold out in a few minutes to those lucky enough to be selected to visit this pristine wilderness. Alternatively you can walk up a ten kilometer mountain road, just to get to the start of the Alpine circuit hike.

Once you get here you will not regret it. Some of the more fit locals run up here, run along the hike and run back down the mountain, doing 30 to 40 kilometers in a single day. For that you would need to be peak shape ;)

Views like this can be found all over British Columbia and in the Rocky mountains, but to get to the alpine zone one has to put in effort. We love the greenery in the mountains as everything east of here is mostly brown grasslands for thousands of kilometers.

The Canadian Rockies are truly an amazing place and this Summer is going to be busier than ever as many Canadians have decided to spend their vacation at home. If you do decide to even come to Banff this year, book immediately or you are probably going to be dissapointed. This is the first long weekend of the Summer season in Canada and it just gets more crowded from here.

The Lake O'Hara region is called a hikers paradise for a good reason. We had been hiking for 4 and a half hours and were just about fifty percent of the way into our hike. It was a really tiring day but well worth every second.

We did over thirty thousand steps this day, and it is much more difficult when you are 2200 meters above sea level going up and down ledges and adding a few kilometers of elevation to your hike on uneven ground and often loose gravel.

We will do anything to see these epic views and this place is forever burnt into our memories. We didn't try to get bus tickets to come here in 2025 but will make a big effort to visit in 2026. Thank you for reading and if you are in Canada or some other country with Monday off, enjoy the Victoria Day long weekend!

All photos were taken with an s22 and are unfiltered