Lake Louise

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After both managing to get time of work together we decided to go exploring, Banff National Park was first on our list, the plan was to go up to Lake Louise, have a look around and then head to Lake Moraine for a hike and then explore the town of Banff, well in hind sight that was a bit of wishful thinking, there was no way to fit all that in one day...

We head off to Banff along HW1 and into the Rocky Mountains. We pull off the highway and into Banff. There were so many people, definitely a tourist town. We went into a sporting shop and to get some bear spray and a bear bell, the man explained to us how to use them and then we were off with bear spray in hand.

We arrived at Lake Louise at approximately 11am, had a look at the lake and decided to go for a small hike, that hike took us up to a small lake called Mirror Lake, it was beautiful, it was a little too breezy to get a good mirror effect but you could see it at a small part of the lake. It didn’t take us long to get to Mirror Lake so we carried on a little further, just before the next lake we came across a small waterfall which was quite cool and then up a few stairs to Lake Agnes, we could not believe the colour of the water, it was just amazing. There was a tea house at Lake Agnes but it only took cash so we didn’t get anything there, but did see some cute little chipmunks hanging around the edge of the lake.

We carried on around Lake Agnes a bit and once we got to a sign that told us how far the next place was it didn’t look that far so we decided to continue, the next place on the list was the Big Beehive, we hiked on around Lake Agnes until we got to the other side, where there was the chance to get some great photos, then it was up hill, we zigged and zagged up a very steep hill until we finally reached the top where there was a bit of a walk to a lookout over Lake Louise... AMAZING, we couldn’t believe the view it was beautiful, we could see Lake Louise and the Mountains. We had walked so far.

It was funny, you could tell when Amanda was getting nervous about bears because all of a sudden the bear bell would be ringing faster and louder as she wacked it instead of just letting it hang on her hip from her belt loop.

On our way down the other side of the Beehive we came across a man and lady trying to pass a bird, every time they tried to pass it, it chased them. They got past and then it was our turn, it stood there staring at you, waiting for you to try and pass it and when you did it attacked you, and kept chasing you. We got passed and carried on our walk, we met a couple of other people heading up so warned then about the bird, a little while later we heard them screech, we knew that they had met up with the bird. We looked at the time and it was 3pm, we had been hiking for hours and knew then we weren’t going to fit everything we wanted to in so thought we might as well make the most of Lake Louise.

We were now heading for the Plain of Six Glaciers, it was a long walk after all the walking we had already done, at 5pm we made it to the tea house at the Glaciers, but of course didn’t have any cash on us to buy anything, when Shane realised that he had stashed a couple of 20s in his wallet for emergency cash, well what better emergency then two hungry people on a hike, right, so we got a piece of cake each, some lemonade and water for the rest of our hike, because we still had to make the 10km trek back to the truck.

While at the tea house we heard this noise that sounded like thunder, it was an avalanche, but we couldn’t see it, while walking back to Lake Louise we heard the noise again and looked back and could see the avalanche, we got to see it twice. We made it back to the chateau, which didn’t look as fancy as we expected on the outside, but the inside was very nice. We had a look around and then went back to the truck.

We drove to Moraine Lake which was a small drive from Lake Louise. It was getting late by then and the sun was not in the right position to really see the beautiful colour of the lake but it was still fabulous.

As we drove back to Lake Louise Village from Lake Moraine we noticed quite a few cars pulled to the side of the road and people taking photos, we knew straight away something exciting was going on. We stopped and Shane hopped out and spoke to a man and then saw a black bear eating berries on the side of the road, Amanda watched from the truck (chicken LOL).

We stopped in Canmore for some McDonalds on the way home. The whole drive home was spent staring at the side of the road in case there was another bear to see.

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Photos

Lake Louise
View from in front of Chateau

Comments

[mary11]

Great update and fantastic photos
Love this blog and the spectacular scenic photos. The geology is different and interesting looking. The colour of the lakes is just fantastic isn't it ! It's just like the colour of the ones in New Zealand around Twizel and Te Anau. . . Was a bit alarmed to find out you have been into bear territory :-0 . .No wonder Amanda was ringing the bell like mad ! Lol. . .We look forward to the next blog. xoxo