Day 18 - 19 Muncho Lake Provincial Park

We left Toad River Lodge early in the morning hoping to get a site at Muncho Lake. They do not take reservation, it’s a first come first serve system. We travelled the 60 km and saw some beautiful scenery

As we got closer to Muncho I was getting a little nervous...we were hoping to get a site. To our delight the first three campsites were available. I quickly directed traffic to who gets what site, then we all settled in.

Muncho means “big lake” in the Kaska language. The lake sits at an elevation of 817 metres or 2680 feet and is 12 km or 7.5 miles long. It is one of the largest natural lakes in the Canadian Rockies. The striking colour of Muncho Lake is created by tiny rock fragments scraped from the valley walls by glaciers and carried by meltwater downstream to the lake. This silt flows into the icy waters where most of it sinks to the bottom. The fine particles that are ground to the texture remain suspended in the lake water giving it a milky appearance. The “rock flour” reflects and scatters sunlight, returning mainly the bluegreen part of the spectrum to our eyes.

We went for a drive and were surprised with Stone Sheep and beautiful wildflowers. An easy way to identify male and female Stone Sheep is by their horns. The rams (males) have large, strongly curved horns while the ewes (females) have smaller, straighter horns. Sheep horns continue to grow throughout their lives and do not fall off like antlers. The larger its horns, the more status a ram has in the herd. Stone sheep rams uses their horns for battering each other during the fall mating season.

The northern Canadian Rockies are famous for their summer downpours. When heavy rains fall on the mountains, the areas largely bare of trees and other soil-holding vegetation provide little resistance for the rain. The water carries sand, gravel, and even boulders into the gullies between the peaks and everything washes out onto the flat valley floor. This deposit is called an alluvial fan because its outline resembles an open fan. The material carried downstream is called alluvium. 

Feeling like I need a hike, we decided to go to Trout River mineral licks. Rock flour are tiny flakes of rocks carved from the mountains by the glaciers a long time ago. Limestone, dolomite and shale make up the majority of the mountains in this area. These provide the base elements found in the rock flour: calcium, magnesium, sulphur, phosperous, and sodium. Hoofed animals need all these elements for growing bones, teeth, and hair. Stone sheep, moose, and caribou frequent these slopes.

What an amazing place, glad we are staying one more night.