Canadian Rockies - Emerald Lake, Open Field on Western Shore Hike

Much of the land in the Banff National Park is wild, and fortunately protected.  This scene greeted us while hiking the trail along the western shore of the lake.  I overheard a guide saying that not one, but two grizzlies were sighted recently close to one of the trailheads here, and it's easy to imagine seeing them romp in terrain like this.

Later in the day we hiked another trail that supposedly led up to a waterfall.  It was just the six of us and the trail was a little rough, with lots of roots and rocks, so it was slow going.  A little more than halfway there I began to get anxious, because if a bear - or anything - popped out of the forest we would have no chance to make a quick getaway.  Thus, we turned around to play it safe.  As it turned out the "waterfall" had pretty much dried up anyway for lack of snowmelt, so no worse for the experience.