The Riddle of the Sphinx

I've been admiring what I thought was Sphinx Mountain for over a year now. Well, today we finally solved some of that mystery. Yesterday, we headed across Kootenay Lake from Balfour to Crawford Bay and headed up over Gray Pass, the AWD route to Kimberley. Near the summit of Gray Pass is a delightful little forest recreation site called Oliver Lake. We had a great sleep in the back of our Toyota and then early this morning headed off to solve the riddle of the Sphinx. The approach was pretty rough - definitely need 4WD for this road. We found the trailhead without difficulty and the trail was in much better shape than any National Park trail I've been on recently. We were on the summit of Sphinx in two hours (picture two) and then climbed the summit which was closer to the lake - the one that I had thought all this time was Sphinx. This was a great scramble and we had super views of Kootenay Lake - the arm that ends up in Creston, as well as the West Arm and Pilot Bay. From each of these summits there are endless mountain views and I'm sure we had a glimpse of St. Mary's Alpine Park - a future hiking destination we sincerely hope. We're still not sure WHY Sphinx has the name that it does but we now know that it hides behind the ridge with the great lake view and that's me on the nameless peak!