What, no bears? - Canadian Rockies Road Trip Aug/Sept 2019 - Day 6

[pinkrose]

Index is here

Day 6 – Friday 30 August 2019

Revelstoke – Lake Louise

We woke slightly later today at 7.20am. It looked like the benefit of the time difference was now starting to wear off. Again, breakfast was included in the room rate. It was a standard buffet of cereal, fruit and toast and sausage, bacon and scrambled eggs.

We checked out at 9.35am and called at Subway for a sandwich. With the Sat Nav programmed we pulled onto Highway 1 towards Lake Louise. Once again the scenery along our route was stunning.

At some point along the road we saw a sign warning us to move our clocks one hour forward so we changed our watches but the clock in the car which worked on GPS didn’t change. So some of my timings here may be out.

Just after we had passed through Golden the Gypsy app picked up our location and sprung into life. It had a man’s voice so we nicknamed him Cooper which was the answer to one of the questions on the Hollywood Game Night show that we had watched the night before.

I had planned a further two stops during our journey today and, apart from a brief comfort break at Rogers Pass National Historic Site in Glacier National Park, we drove straight to the first one which was Emerald Lake. We were now in Yoho National Park. There was a 50km/h speed limit on the road that links from Highway 1 to the lake and it passes by Natural Bridge. We decided to head up to the lake first and visit Natural Bridge on our way back down to the highway.

We arrived at Emerald Lake around 12.45pm so sat and ate our sandwich on a picnic bench nearby.

After lunch and photos of the lake we left at 2.55pm and headed for Natural Bridge. The Kicking Horse River has carved its way through the limestone to create the bridge.

We re-joined Highway 1 and soon reached our final detour of the day - the turn to Takakkaw Falls. There was a 30km/h limit on the road to the falls and we stopped briefly to see the “Meeting of the Waters” where the Yoho River and the Kicking Horse River converge. The Yoho River has a more milky colour due to the amount of glacial sediment in it whereas the sediment in the Kicking Horse River has had chance to settle in a series of upstream lakes leaving clearer water. Unfortunately it was not as easy to see as the Fraser and Thompson Rivers were and, although I tried to get a photo, the number of trees surrounding the rivers made it very hard to show the difference in colours.

As we headed further along the road we encountered the switchback. There is a three-tiered S-curve in the road which comprises two very tight switchbacks. Regular-sized vehicles don’t have much problem negotiating the two 180-degree hairpin turns but for those driving a motor home you need to be rather skilled at driving in reverse to negotiate through them as we witnessed.

The Dodge Charger had a very poor turning circle so DH only just managed to pull it round one of the tighter bends. If you want to see how it works watch:



According to “Cooper” our guide we were now on the west side of the continental divide which marks whether water flows east or west depending on which side of the divide it falls.

We reached the car park for Takakkaw Falls at 3.45pm and, after a visit to the Pit Potty for me (as I had now nicknamed them), it was a short mostly flat walk to the base of the falls. At 380m the falls are the 2nd tallest in Canada and are fed by the Daly glacier above them. The noise of the water was tremendous.

We set off back down the road again at 4.15pm listening to “Cooper” telling us the history of the Palliser expedition and how the Kicking Horse River came to be so named as we drove.

This is when we had our second wildlife sighting. A small animal with a tail similar to that of a beaver crossed the road in front of us. Again it was too quick for us to get either a good look at it or a photo.

We reached Highway 1 and crossed into Banff National Park at around 4.55pm. By 5.02pm we were on the Bow Valley Parkway heading towards Moraine Lake. I had planned to stop here before we reached our hotel in Lake Louise but had also pencilled it in to our plans for tomorrow afternoon if we couldn’t get up to it. Unfortunately the road to Moraine Lake was closed but you can’t turn around here so you have to carry on to Lake Louise car park before you can return back down the road. We drove around the car park at Lake Louise and came back down again by which time they had re-opened the road to Moraine Lake so we turned in. We reached the car park at 5.28pm and had to queue briefly for a parking space.

Once parked we followed the path up around the rockpile to get an overhead view of the lake.

The lake is surrounded by the Valley of the Ten peaks and I was stunned and awed by just how beautiful a setting it is. This was and still is my favourite of all the lakes that we saw. We also saw our first chipmunks on the rockpile.

We wandered along the shoreline of the lake taking more photos and then walked back to the car park at around 6.15pm. “Cooper” told us that the lakes are fed by glaciers which give them their “blue” colour.

It started to rain as we made our way back down the road towards Lake Louise. The sky was very overcast and grey and the temperature was now 12c.

We checked in at Lake Louise inn at 7.05pm and drove round to our room. At check in we found that we had been upgraded for free from a standard room with two beds to a deluxe one bedroom suite.

Best of all though was the Jacuzzi bath which would come in very handy the next day.

By now it was raining heavily so we had to make a dash for the room and unload our cases later when it slowed down.

Lake Louise Inn reminded me a little of Old Key West in terms of layout. There was a main building that had the reception, swimming pool and the restaurants and then several three storey buildings where the rooms were.

Our suite was on the ground floor so we had a patio but the weather wasn’t fit enough for us to use it.

We decided to eat in the hotel restaurant. They have two restaurants and a pizza and pasta café. We chose Explorer’s Lounge which was a bit like a sports bar. It was Friday and they had a two for one special offer on Fish and chips so once again we both ordered the special and a 16oz Coors Light each. We each had two haddock loins served with fries, coleslaw and homemade tartare sauce and the bill was an amazing $36.76 CAD (sorry no photos).

Then we went back to our suite to relax and do some planning for the next day.

[Gunna]

Moraine Lake was my favourite too, stunning scenery.

[jocat]

You saw so much today - I loved our time in YOHO and you got the same luck that we did with the road to Moraine Lake opening up as you were going past. It must be a good time of day to try.

Moraine Lake is so stunning isn’t it? The colour of the water has to be seen to be believed. There’s a common theme with it being a favourite for so many of us!