Leon Turnbull Photography

I took my time in the morning, slept in a bit, ate breakfast and drank coffee. I had a tough day ahead of me.

I hiked up to Minaret Lake and found another new waterfall at the outlet, about 60 ft. high. Surprise! It was in the sun but I still took a photo of it. If I had known this was here, I probably could have gotten to it in good lighting. I studied all this area on Google Earth, but did not see this waterfall. Minaret Lake was gorgeous, as expected.

From here I had to climb the monstrous cliffs above the lake and over the pass to get to the other side. There is no trail. I had read there was a route that people used. I read it was steep. I read it was very steep. But it was not too difficult. I made it to the top. 10,300 ft. in elevation. I thought that would be the most difficult part of the hike today. Wrong. I went down to Cecile Lake and ate my lunch.

I thought the trek from Cecile Lake down to Iceberg Lake would be a piece of cake. There is an established trail, you can even see it on Google Earth. Nope. It was very steep, it was very treacherous, the ground and rocks were very loose and unstable. I had to slide down on my butt in the dirt a few times, and be extremely cautious as I descended. If you fell, you would end up allthe way to the bottom where there was a big snow field at lake level. A soft landing? Once down the steepest section, you are not done yet. You have to traverse over a huge talus slide to the other end of Iceberg Lake. The rocks are sometimes shifting, it is very slow going. One hiker I passed called this the Wall of Death. I thought it was a very appropriate description. It took a very long time.

Finally I arrived at the end of Iceberg Lake. There was no shade here, but I found a little bit behind a rock and rested. The hard part (the Wall of Death) was behind me. The rest of the hike would be easy.

As I hiked down to Ediza Lake, I noticed a large waterfall at the inlet to the lake. Another surprise. I had not known about this waterfall either, and this one looked like a very good one. I decided to change my plan. Initially I was going to camp up at Nydiver Lakes, but now I would camp at Ediza Lake and close to this waterfall, or better yet, at the waterfall.

Ediza Lake is supposed to be the prettiest of all the lakes in this area. Everyone seems to say this. It was certainly pretty, but no prettier than Minaret, Cecile, Iceberg, or Shadow Lakes. They were all equally gorgeous in my view. But Ediza Lake is by far the most popular lake to camp at, and there were a lot of people here already and it was still early. I prefer to camp in secluded spots with no one else around me. I figured there would not be anyone at the waterfall, if I could get up to it, and and if I could find a campsite there. It is a bit of a climb from Ediza Lake up to the falls, but not too difficult. There were not really any good options for camping there, but I found one small spot to put my tent. Not too shabby.

After dinner, I decided to go on an evening hike. I still hoped to get to the Nydiver Lakes waterfalls. However, I found that creek completely dry. I was not expecting much for that creek, but I did not think it would be all dried up. Instead, I went down to the Upper Shadow Creek Falls and photographed that waterfall (30 ft.). It was a little far to hike considering how tired I already was, but I guess it was worth it. Shadow Creek was flowing surprisingly strong for this late in the year. It is a glacier fed creek, so perhaps that is the reason (but so is Minaret Creek and that had much less flow). I hiked back to camp, arriving just before dark, and photographed the waterfall at my campsite (shown here), a marvelous 40 ft. high falls. I slumped into my tent and to bed.