Yoho National Park is located in the province of British Columbia in southwest Canada. Located in the Rocky Mountains, the national park is approximately 1,313 square kilometers.
Together with Jasper National Park, Banff National Park, Kootenay National Park and Mount Assiniboine, Mount Robson and Hamber Provincial Parks, which were added in 1990, Yoho National Park has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984.
The national park is an IUCN Category II protected area. This world database of protected areas is the most comprehensive collection of data in the world, in which almost all areas are recorded that are particularly protected due to their ecological value or that are particularly worth protecting.
The Yoho National Park is one of the smaller national parks in Canada. The only locality within the park, which opened in 1886, is Field Parish, which is only home to 300 people.
From Field there are many hiking trails for easy or difficult tours through the mountains. In addition to hiking trails, there are more than 400 kilometers of mountain trails in Yoho National Park . Especially adventurous hikers and mountaineers have a lot of fun here.
On guided hikes, the experienced guides give you a fascinating insight into the region’s natural secrets.
The Yoho National Park is a small but fine paradise made of rock and water
The landscape in Yoho National Park is characterized by eroded rock faces, large waterfalls and small and large picturesque lakes. One of them is the “Emerald Lake”, which is located in the middle of a dense spruce forest and 3,000 meter high mountains.
The lake, fed by ice-cold glacier water, is one of the most popular holiday destinations in the region, especially in the summer months. On the hikes through the park you can discover numerous rare plants and animal species.
Grizzly bears and black bears, moose, elk, coyotes and rare pumas live in the national park.
Sights: Takakkaw Falls and Burgess Shale Rocks
The Yoho National Park has numerous other attractions – including the Yoho Valley with the more than 250 meters high Takakkaw Falls, which are among the largest waterfalls in North America.
There are many more waterfalls to be found in Yoho National Park. Including the approximately 80-meter-high Twin Falls, which can be reached after an eight-kilometer hike. In addition, numerous glaciers can be admired in Yoho National Park.
The glaciers are particularly popular with winter sports enthusiasts because they are ideal for skiing and snowboarding. Another attraction are the “Burgess Shale Rocks,” one of the most important fossil sites in the world.
Fossil formations of various marine animals up to 515 million years old can be found in the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Kicking Horse River, which is crossed by a natural bridge, is another major tourist magnet. The raging river is mainly used for white water rafting and canoe tours.
Due to the strong current, the Kicking Horse River is not suitable for beginners in water sports. Anglers also get their money’s worth in Yoho National Park. Fishing licenses are issued on site for this purpose.
The Yoho National Park shows a rich flora and fauna
The Yoho National Park forms the extensive flora and fauna of the high mountain character of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The flora and fauna appear in almost the same form as the Banff or Jasper National Park.
At the deepest points of the Yoho National Park you can still find the rainforest of the temperate zones. The West American hemlock, the giant arborvitae and the Igelkraftwurz grow in them.
Other forests in the park consist of Engelmann spruce and rock mountain fir. At the transition from the forest to subalpine mountain meadows, we still find rock mountain larches, which are mostly only bush-shaped due to avalanches. There are also berry bushes and many wild flowers on the plants.
The wildlife is also plentiful. The mountain goats and bighorn sheep are represented in large numbers, the elk among the deer, the wapiti (elk) and the deer family.
Small mammals include the chipmunk, marmots, beavers and porcupines. The predators of the animal world include bears, wolves, lynx, puma, coyotes, wolverines and weasels. In the Yoho National Park it can happen that hiking trails are blocked for use when bear activity is too high.
Did you know that …
- enormous stone walls, spectacular waterfalls and soaring mountain peaks gave the Yoho National Park its name? This comes from a word in the language of the “Cree” Indians, which means awe and wonder.
- Yoho National Park will celebrate its 135th anniversary in 2021?
- Yoho National Park is a park with a history firmly rooted in railroads? In addition to the legendary, spiral-shaped railway lines built into the mountain, there are stories of driverless trains traveling on them.
- the Takakkaw Fall in Yoho National Park is the third highest waterfall in Canada with its 254 m height?
- Water erosion created yet another wonder of Yoho National Park: symmetrically arranged rubble on high pillars of ice-age moraine rock, called hoodoos?
- one of the most important fossil finds in the world, the “Burgess Shale” in Yoho National Park? Named a World Heritage Site in 1981, it contains the fossil remains of more than 120 marine animal species dating back over 515 million years.
- there are 28 mountain peaks with a height of over 3,000 m in Yoho National Park?
- that the mountain goat is the most common mammal in Yoho National Park?