Awesome climb along Takakkaw Falls

Another great rock climbing day! As we found this route on the internet, we knew we had to do it. It goes up right beside Takakkaw Falls in Yoho National Park, Canada’s second tallest waterfall! We started early again, though it was way more difficult to get out of bed than the day before. On the highway, an old, a bit creepy-looking Grizzly was crossing right in front of us. In Yoho National Park we also spotted a little fawn and its mom quickly jumping aside hiding in the bushes. As we approached the waterfall, it already looked pretty impressive. Climbing-wise, the route was rather underwhelming, but the experience all in all was absolutely amazing. Some brave mountain goats made their way down along the route and came very close. The pitches right next to the rooster tail of Takakkaw Falls were the most impressive, as the mass of water pouring down caused some intimidating sound effects. But that wasn’t yet the highlight of the route. The second last “pitch” was crawling through a 100 m long, pitch-black cave ending at the very start of the waterfall! Seriously, where else can you find that? Up there, we enjoyed our lunch and admired the water meandering in a deep canyon with a few more smaller drops before the big one.

After the climb, we treated ourselves to an ice cream at Emerald Lake and cooled our feet in the water. As we drove further to Golden, it was also time for our first stay at a recreation site since we entered British Columbia. These are basically campsites (mostly) for free. It was a nice experience and we really appreciated the possibility to camp at such a beautiful place for free.

Click to watch video: At the start of the waterfall, coming right out of the (dirty) cave