After Banff we continued north, stopping along to hike to Boom Lake, an easy 10km round trip. We were the first ones in the trail, starting the morning at a crisp 1°C at 10am, with a light dusting of snow covering the ground and trees, making everything a pretty sight. After completing this we made a little picnic spread in the park and then decided to make it to Lake Louise for another walk.
We got to Lake Louise and parked down at the Fairmont Chateau to begin our hike around the lake and the surrounding mountains. The water of the lake is this milky aqua colour that shifts through an array of blues and greens with the changing light. The rugged mountains, alpine forest and white snow create a stunning backdrop and it’s pretty hard not to be in awe of the area upon first sight. From there it only got better as we hiked around the lake and then up to the Plain of Six Glaciers Tea House, back and up to the Big Beehive and down the back around Lake Agnes, Mirror Lake and returning to the Chateau starting point. This was another 14km of trail, totaling a day of around 24km hiked. Needless to say we were pretty tired by the end.
The whole hike provided increasingly stunning views up the valley and down onto Lake Louise and the Chateau. Lots of people were out walking the trails and we alternated between no snow, frosted trees and ground beside the trail to full on crunching through a few inches of snow as we changed elevation and rounded sides of the mountain that don’t get much direct sunlight. In the distance over the small (very small) town, you can see the front slopes of the ski resort, all bare at the moment. Coming down the back side of the mountain from the big Beehive to Lake Agnes proved to be quite challenging in runners. The trail switchbacked down and was covered in ice and snow, meaning I pretty much crab walked on my hands and feet all the way to the bottom, slipping and sliding the whole way. Day 1 in the Rockies absolutely did not disappoint!!
The next day, as we left the hostel in Lake Louise we had quite a bit of snow coming down and it continued as we drove out to Moraine Lake lookout and then was on and off all morning as we kept north. We battled the throngs of people from tour buses up the short walk to the lookout. This view is supposed to see the valley of the ten peaks but we had too much cloud cover to see much more than the lake itself.
The next stop was at Peyto Lake where we walked up the snow-covered trail to the lookout. Along the highway there were numerous other stopping points for views over the lakes and mountains and we finally stopped for a hike at Bow Glacier Falls (9.2km return) to see where the water melts down from the Wapta Icefield and creates the start of the Bow River. We also stopped at the Columbia Icefield Glacier Discovery Centre in the afternoon to view the Athabasca Glacier.
After a night in an eco-lodge (no showers or electricity) we were back on the road and soon stopping for an early hike at Sunwapta Falls which was an easy 2.3km from the top falls down to the bottom. The rushing deep blue waterfalls and forest was made even more beautiful by the falling snowscape. After this we had a few viewpoints to stop at such as Athabasca Falls and then pulled into Jasper town to find a hotel and some lunch. It’s thanksgiving long weekend in Canada and so we found out that accommodation is difficult to secure last minute. We got a private room in a hostel and then travelled out of town to another hike at Maligne Canyon (4.5km return) and then continued driving to beautiful Medicine Lake and Maligne Lake. The day was a hit, with meeting some of the furry locals a highlight.
The next day we got out to hike the Pyramid Lakes Loop (5km) which although great fun in the snow, didn’t provide its customary scenery over the surrounding valleys and mountains due to more cloud cover. After the last few days of driving and hiking we decided that we would treat ourselves to some hot springs and so drove up to Miette Hot Springs for an outdoor soak while the snow sprinkled everyone’s heads. We then took off out of Jasper and back south to stay a little outside of Lake Louise at the Mosquito Creek Hostel.
That day and all night we got quite a bit of snow and woke up to about six inches covering everything outside. I had to use my thong to scrape the snow from the windscreen before we could make our way very slowly along the highway back into Lake Louise where I checked into my new accommodation. I’ve got a private single room in a 5 bedroom apartment with shared kitchen and bathroom. The building is a sprawling log cabin style, three stories tall. Now that I’d checked in, the next items on the agenda were food shopping back in Canmore because everything is very expensive in Lake Louise. So that’s pretty much the end of our road trip. We’re currently back in Calgary for the night as we had to get some linen and bits and pieces that were cheaper in the city. Plans for today (October 11th) are to go have a Canadian Thanksgiving back in Banff with some friends before I have orientation tomorrow.
