I Took The Path Less Traveled By: Mount Temple Banff National Park August 8, 2018

So to date this is the highest mountain I have ever climbed and was it ever a great one. Our day however started out about as bad as it could. We woke up at about 5:30 and drove from our campsite at Tunnel Mountain in Banff to Moraine Lake. Well at about 6:30 we got to the turn for Moraine Lake and the park was already closing the road access by barricading the intersection. They claimed the parking lot was already full and that there was already over 40 vehicles too many up at the Lake. We of course were the first vehicle to be turned away and had to wait till 8:00 am till they would let us up. It was painful waiting and because we got a later start we probably hiked the first 6km to Sentinel pass a little quicker than we should have. In the end it didn't make a difference but I was worried we would be coming down in the dark. This total time for the hike was about 9 hours (much shorter than the 12 hours I thought it would be). This actually is quite an easy hike, it is trailed the entire way and aside from one exposed climbing section it is actually not bad. It is tiring but if you have a nice day like we did I would recommend this to any prepared in shape hiker. I did notice that the higher elevation made it a little more difficult to breath. This mountain was over 1000 feet higher than I have ever been on. The views around were spectacular even though a good amount was impeded due to the haze of smoke that was all around us due to the B.C. forest fires currently west of us. We summitted after about 5 hours of hiking and stayed at the top for quite some time before we descended. The day was perfect and the weather was great. This is one of those mountains I would love to do again and I think I will, especially in the fall when the larches are turning colour in the valley of the larches.