Paired Explorer Owen - Trip 1 - Opal Hills

A couple of years ago my wife, Chantal, and I stayed at the Pyramid Lake Resort for our anniversary. It’s a beautiful peaceful spot about 5 minutes from the town of Jasper Alberta. During brunch on the first morning we met an enthusiastic Australian waiter who told us if we wanted to do something mind blowing for the afternoon we should go check out the Opal Hills. Chantal and I had never gone hiking in the mountains before so we figured we’d give it a shot, and I’m so glad we did.

It took just over an hour to get to Maligne Lake, where the trial kicks off. The drive, like the rest of Jasper Park was beyond scenic.

Let’s get one thing straight, I work a desk job, I’m not active, so the first 2.5 kilometers of this hike was hell on earth for my tubby ass. I was ready to give up, stopping every 50 meters to take a break, chug some water and have a smoke.

We met an older gentleman at kilometer 1.6, where the trial splits. He told us to join him and keep to the trail heading north east, saying it was the easier of the two. Well fuck me dead, if this was the easier path the other would have straight up killed me. We pushed on another kilometer with him and he asked us to come meet the rest of his group. We cut straight east off trail for about kilometer and climbed up another 200 meters in elevation.

That’s when it happened, while he was excitedly showing my wife the stunning view of Maligne Lake, I stopped, dropped to my knees, and barfed. The server was right though, it was mind blowing, and I was hooked. I wanted to spend every spare moment I had out here, finding places like this, places I wouldn’t see by driving through.

As for the older gentleman, he continued to kick our ass and was pressing on to the Opal Peak, the mountain on the right…this is where we split up.

We took the loop back, an uncanny valley half a kilometer higher where we started nestled between shallow mountains. It was a day that changed my life, rather than spending my weekends cooped up in front of a tv, I became obsessed with hiking and backpacking. So, I would like to take this moment to sincerely thank the two people that pushed us to start and finish this journey.