A day in the Rockies

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Geo: 51.4262, -116.178

Today we spent discovering the delights of the Rockies. We began this morning by going to Lake Louise. This lake is stunningly beautiful. At one end is Mount Victoria with the Victoria glacier evident on its slopes.At the other is a huge resort hotel called Chateau Lake Louise. To stay and visit here we had to buy a pass from the Parks and Wildlife department which covers all this area. There were many people at Lake Louise. We walked from one end of the lake to another. One way took about 40 minutes. We stopped for many photos which I will include in this entry. The walk was fairly easy with few uphill spots. After we walked back we then moved on to Moraine Lake. This is in the Valley of the Ten Peaks. These magnificent mountain peaks overlook the lake which is not as big as Louise but as beautiful. The water in both lakes is turquoise coming fron the melting glaciers above. We also spent another hour walking to the end of this lake. A good period of exercise as we have been siiting too much driving in the last few days. We had lunch at the Moraine Lake Lodge served by an Aussie guy from Sydney who unfortunately, like Toddy, barracked for Essendon.
We then took the Bow River Parkway towards Banff. We stopped a couple of times to admire various features. One was Castle Rock which is spectacular, along with Storm Mountain. We stopped at Johnson's Canyon.This comprises a 2.7 km walk up along a river coming down the mountain to see some spectacular falls. It took us about 45 minutes to reach the Upper falls which were great but exhausting. The return journey only took us 35 minutes walking downhill!! However, the scenery was spectacular.
We then drove into Banff. This is a very pretty little town surounded by mountains ans ski fields. There are heaps of souvenir shopsetc, however, the architecture is attractive with many wooden chalet type buildings and some Tudor style shops and hotels. We spent a pleasant couple of hours there trawling the shops.
We drove back along the main highway to Lake Louise. This only took about 45 minutes. A pleasant though very active day!! Tomorrow we move on to Jasper along the Icefields Highway and hope to go out onto the glaciers.
Hope everyone is well. Send us a comment or two!!

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