Sleeping Poet’s Pool Trail

Sleeping Poet’s Pool Trail is a short out-and-back spur branching from Yukness Ledges near its Opabin Plateau end. The mapped spur is about 0.68 miles round trip; the route line shows the roughly 0.34-mile corridor once, then you return the same way. It doesn’t include the longer hike you choose to reach the junction. Terrain models suggest about 120 metres (400 feet) of climbing to the high point, packed into a short, rocky ascent. Allow around 1 to 1.5 hours for the spur and a stop at the pool; that’s an estimate, since no official timing is published.

The spur leaves the main Yukness Ledges route and climbs sharply toward a higher ledge. Descriptions call it faint and unofficial, and it does not appear in the park’s current trail descriptions. Its present access and maintenance status have not been confirmed, so check with Parks Canada before planning around it. This is the pool spur, not the longer Yukness Ledges traverse or the separate Yukness Mountain scramble.

The small alpine pool sits among broken rock above Opabin Plateau, with a broad view across the basin. Its water level isn’t dependable: it has been seen partly ice-covered and nearly dry in different seasons and years. From the ledge, keep the tarn low in the frame with the open plateau beyond it; that shows how high the pool sits above the basin.

There’s no separate parking for the spur. Reach Yukness Ledges from the Lake O’Hara area; the route length above starts at the branch, not at the parking lot. Private cars can’t drive the 11-kilometre access road: visitors use the seasonal shuttle with an advance reservation or walk the road in. Le Relais is a separate day-use shelter with trail information and hot drinks or snacks during hiking season. Leashed pets are generally allowed in the backcountry and on the road, but the shuttle doesn’t take pets, so dog owners need to walk in.