Hike One, Drive One

We have a whisk, so the day started off with ricotta pancakes.

Followed soon after by messages from friends reporting my instagram account had a new fake account created with my information. This delayed our departure to Sylvan Lake to hike some of the Needles Highway.

We parked at Sylvan Lake parking lot and walked to the section of Needles Highway that is closed to traffic. When we planned this trip we had hoped that the full highway would be open, but we knew the likelihood of that was slim.

It was cold to start off the hike.

Our goal was to make it to the tunnel and if we felt up to it keep going. The hike was majestically beautiful and we remarked a few times that this was the better way to see Needles the first time, walking it.

Well trudging through 4-8 inches of snow was tiring, so we only went a bit past the tunnel. It was a breathtaking experience. If you don’t know cars actually drive through this.

This was a little over 3.6 miles and took us two hours. We stopped to take a few photos at Sylvan Lake, but were to tired to do the mile loop around it in the snow.

We left the lake to drive the open part of Needles Highway. It was beautiful and here we drove through a tunnel, wider than the one we walked though (thank goodness).

The rest of the way home we took different routes to ohhh and awww.

Today was a day to walk through one tunnel and drive through another on a beautiful highway. I know we will be back in a different season so we can actually drive through the tunnel we walked.