Saddle Mountain
Saddle Mountain is not difficult, but the views from it are incredible, you just cannot get enough of them. The most challenging part probably is boulders hopping to reach the peak, but it’s not hard, it’s even kind of fun, simply watch your step and better have hiking poles. The trail begins at the left corner of Lake Louise main Instagram viewpoint next to parking lot, and inclines through the forest for about 3km; there are a few openings with nice views of Lake Louise area, Fairmont Chateau and Paradise Valley. In our opinion, the best season for this trail is fall (larches, you know).
Pretty soon you can see the Saddle Peak in front of you (and Fairview on the right), and it’s clear from here why it’s called “Saddle”:
End of September and beginning of October is larch season, and you see a lot of them all the way up.
and once you reach the col and out of the tree line, you get an incredible view of Sheol and Haddo,
the trail forks (there is a sign), and you can either go to the left and hop the boulders to the Saddle Peak,
or take a long challenging ascent to the right and climb the Fairview.
Or you can continue straight to Sheol – Paradise Connector. We did the Saddle, and views from the Saddle summit are incredible. You can see Temple,
Sheol, Haddo, and Fairview,
Paradise Valley.
After we returned to the col, we decided to make it a loop and descended to Paradise Valley through Sheol – Paradise Connector, which apparently is a very well established trail with plenty of switchbacks (despite of how it may seem, there are no other descents to Sheol side of the col, except this “connector”, which is marked by the official sign. We tried another one from Alltrails, which seemed to be an alternative, but ended up bushwhacking after 100 meters and returned back to the sign before it was too late).
The trail is well marked, goes at the foots of Sheol, then through the forest,
and then finally you end up at the creek, where the Sheol – Paradise Connector end. If you go to the right by the creek from here, Paradise Valley Trail in a couple of kilometers will come to Lake Annette, and then there is a long way to Sentinel Pass and Moraine Lake, but we turned left.
Crossing the creek back and forth (there a bridges, but they can be overflown) in the Paradise Valley, you get very impressive views of Temple,
Saddle,
and Sheol
This was a long (about 20km) hike and we were very tired at the end, but it totally worth it.
More photos here: