Stampeding to Calgary - a bit late! 13th August Us Hikers - NOT!

parisdisneyfan · 14 Aug 18, 04:34 AM

When we watched the sun rise this morning the mountains were definitely clearer and in colour as well. Although it was a bit later than we would have liked to start we decided to go for Lake Louise and Moraine again. I tested the weather by heading on to the balcony and declared it shorts time, but still popped a jumper on and shell jacket in my bag.

As we drove up we started to get very excited as the mountains were clear, hints of blue sky and sunshine……… until we were almost at Lake Louise when it all clouded over! This almost dampened my spirit until I saw my first proper Canadian wildlife – a bald eagle. It was sitting on top of a pine tree beside the Bow River, big brown body, white head and big yellow beak. Sadly we were going to fast to stop or get a photograph ☹

We knew that Moraine Lake would already be full but we easily got into Lake Louise and fairly near the front. I think this was luck as I had forgotten to put the park pass on the dash so we were sent down the lane to pay but the guy just scanned us and pointed us straight to a space. It was here that we discovered that it wasn’t shorts weather in Lake Louise, or at least not for another couple of hours! Even with a very brave face, my jumper and jacket on it was freezing! Lake Louise was covered in low cloud, no mountains or even the end of the lake were visible.

After a quick recce we found that there was a deli serving hot drinks, sandwiches, cakes etc in the Fairmont. All the sign said was that hotel guests had priority, but no one questioned us so I joined the queue while dh got a table. The style of the hotel reminded me a bit of looking out from the Disneyland Hotel in Paris on to the entrance of the park. From all the items on offer I picked us a fruit scone each, which were huge and 2 muffins, 1 blueberry and 1 carrot and walnut, washed down with a big cup of hot chocolate. It's blurry because I was shivering!

We spun these out as long as we could, decided we would do the trail to the end of the lake and then head off somewhere else. That was the plan but as we started walking the cloud slowly started to lift and by the time we got to the end of the lake, it was clearing and we could see the hotel again.

So we thought lets just go on a bit and see if we can get a better photo, we did this several times! En route we saw a trail ride out enjoying the scenery and several groups of climbers, human and animal!

This kept on again and again until we found we were only about 1-1.5 km from the Plain of 6 Glaciers tea room. This was a much easier, although longer, route than the one to Lake Agnes but we had already done 5.5km according to my app and the thought of another 2 or 3 plus 5 to get back was just too much so we turned round. However we did get to see the Victoria Glacier much closer up and I remembered some of my Geography O level from the dark ages and pointed out the terminal moraine (or gubbins as my old geog teacher called it) to my dh.

At this point we stopped to remove jumpers and put on sunscreen as the clouds had totally cleared and it was quite warm in the sunshine, not so much in the woods or beside the glacier melt stream.

Back to the car and into the village for sandwiches before we slowly drove back down the Bow Valley Parkway. No animals spotted but we did enjoy the scenery and stopped several times at various turnoffs. Back on the main road we stopped just outside Banff overlooking Vermillion Lakes and several mountains including Sulphur, Tunnel and Rundle, which had signs pointing to them so I could identify them. Rundle used to be part of the ocean floor and is a typical thrust formation!

A quick stop at Safeway for some supplies and back to the hotel where we had pork kebabs and pasta for tea before catching up on notes, reading and planning.

Gunna · 14 Aug 18, 07:27 AM

Lake Louise is lovely, it was cold when we visited but did warm up as the day went on.

Well done on the hike too.

**jocat** · 14 Aug 18, 09:15 AM

Glad the weather picked up for you today, even though it was a bit cold at LL first. Get you remembering the geographical vocabulary from school - I’m very impressed!

We used that deli in the hotel too, although it took some finding for us because we didn’t go in the the doors that it’s closest to!

We drove down the Bow Valley Parkway a couple of times, eagerly scanning the sides of the road and grassy areas for wildlife, but no such luck for us there either. We did see long horned sheep on the road between Lake Minnewanka and Two Jack Lake, plus some goats close to Two Jake Lake. We also saw Long Horned Sheep on the Stewart Canyon trail at the side of Lake Minnewanka. This is a fairly short flat trail that ends at the bridge over the Cascade River, so may be worth a walk if you’ve got a spare hour. Any further than the bridge and I think you’re supposed to go in groups of 4 or more with it being berry season for the bears.

Our only two bear sightings weren’t in the Banff area. One was on the Icefields Parkway about 1km North of Sunwapta Falls, and the other was on the road back to town from Pyramid Lake in Jasper. We found it really seems to be about luck though and being in the right place at the right time, rather than looking in a particular area.

**WileyCoyote** · 25 Aug 18, 07:45 PM

Brrr to being cold. Well done for persevering, looked gorgeous !

parisdisneyfan · 25 Aug 18, 10:42 PM

Originally Posted by Gunna

Lake Louise is lovely, it was cold when we visited but did warm up as the day went on.

Well done on the hike too.

On reflection I'm annoyed with myself that we didn't continue!

14 Aug 18, 04:34 AM	#1
	14 Aug 18, 04:34 AM parisdisneyfan Imagineer
parisdisneyfan Imagineer Join Date: Feb 08	Stampeding to Calgary - a bit late! 13th August Us Hikers - NOT! When we watched the sun rise this morning the mountains were definitely clearer and in colour as well. Although it was a bit later than we would have liked to start we decided to go for Lake Louise and Moraine again. I tested the weather by heading on to the balcony and declared it shorts time, but still popped a jumper on and shell jacket in my bag. As we drove up we started to get very excited as the mountains were clear, hints of blue sky and sunshine……… until we were almost at Lake Louise when it all clouded over! This almost dampened my spirit until I saw my first proper Canadian wildlife – a bald eagle. It was sitting on top of a pine tree beside the Bow River, big brown body, white head and big yellow beak. Sadly we were going to fast to stop or get a photograph ☹ We knew that Moraine Lake would already be full but we easily got into Lake Louise and fairly near the front. I think this was luck as I had forgotten to put the park pass on the dash so we were sent down the lane to pay but the guy just scanned us and pointed us straight to a space. It was here that we discovered that it wasn’t shorts weather in Lake Louise, or at least not for another couple of hours! Even with a very brave face, my jumper and jacket on it was freezing! Lake Louise was covered in low cloud, no mountains or even the end of the lake were visible. After a quick recce we found that there was a deli serving hot drinks, sandwiches, cakes etc in the Fairmont. All the sign said was that hotel guests had priority, but no one questioned us so I joined the queue while dh got a table. The style of the hotel reminded me a bit of looking out from the Disneyland Hotel in Paris on to the entrance of the park. From all the items on offer I picked us a fruit scone each, which were huge and 2 muffins, 1 blueberry and 1 carrot and walnut, washed down with a big cup of hot chocolate. It's blurry because I was shivering! We spun these out as long as we could, decided we would do the trail to the end of the lake and then head off somewhere else. That was the plan but as we started walking the cloud slowly started to lift and by the time we got to the end of the lake, it was clearing and we could see the hotel again. So we thought lets just go on a bit and see if we can get a better photo, we did this several times! En route we saw a trail ride out enjoying the scenery and several groups of climbers, human and animal! This kept on again and again until we found we were only about 1-1.5 km from the Plain of 6 Glaciers tea room. This was a much easier, although longer, route than the one to Lake Agnes but we had already done 5.5km according to my app and the thought of another 2 or 3 plus 5 to get back was just too much so we turned round. However we did get to see the Victoria Glacier much closer up and I remembered some of my Geography O level from the dark ages and pointed out the terminal moraine (or gubbins as my old geog teacher called it) to my dh. At this point we stopped to remove jumpers and put on sunscreen as the clouds had totally cleared and it was quite warm in the sunshine, not so much in the woods or beside the glacier melt stream. Back to the car and into the village for sandwiches before we slowly drove back down the Bow Valley Parkway. No animals spotted but we did enjoy the scenery and stopped several times at various turnoffs. Back on the main road we stopped just outside Banff overlooking Vermillion Lakes and several mountains including Sulphur, Tunnel and Rundle, which had signs pointing to them so I could identify them. Rundle used to be part of the ocean floor and is a typical thrust formation! A quick stop at Safeway for some supplies and back to the hotel where we had pork kebabs and pasta for tea before catching up on notes, reading and planning. __________________ Edited at 03:13 PM. Reason: Added photos!