Tuesday 9 September
This morning we’d had to adjust our plans because we’d been advised we could switch our car over to one that dind’t need an oil change. So after breakfast we drive about 30 mins drive north towards lake Louise, but only as far as Johnstone Canyon. There is a very popular walk here up into the canyon which has a pretty waterfall at the end that you get access to by walking through a small cave. The drive up was fast as we were back on the Trans Canada highway and the early part of the day was bright with a partly cloudy sun.
After this we had to backtrack back to Banff, only to hear some irritating news when we got there. There was a different clerk on the desk and he explained that they could only exchange our car ( picked up in Seattle) with a car that had USA number plates, and he dind’t have any available! He said he could try sourcing one for us from Calgary if we were prepared to wait OR alternatively he said we could check the oil on the car and if it looked OK to keep on driving with pour current car! We were pretty irritated that the guy yesterday had given us a bum steer and wasted our time. Anyway we decided to keep the car and head back north again.
The weather was closing in as we drove north, we drove straight past the entrance to lake Louise as I’d planned for us to head and extra 30 minutes west of there into Yoho National Park. I was keen to visit Emerald Lake as it is another one of those picturesque lakes up here but this one is famous for it’s green water rather than the teal blue of the other lakes. It was quite overcast when we arrived and the water wasn’t “emerald” but it was definitely green! We strolled around the lake a bit and admired the lodge that is built out on a little island in the lake.
Heading back to Lake Louise we stopped at the Spiral Tunnels. In 1884, when Canadian Pacific Railway construction crews first encountered the Kicking Horse Pass they found at the summit a staggering drop with no room in either Kicking Horse Canyon or the Yoho Valley to lengthen the line so as to reduce the gradients. To save time and money the tracks were laid in a steep descent from the top of the pass to Field, dropping 237.5 feet to the mile (4.5%). By the early 1900s increased traffic over the line made it imperative that something be done about the bottleneck caused by the Big Hill. Engineers were faced with the problems of space due to the steep mountainsides on both sides of the divide. The problem was solved by creating two spiral tunnels into the two mountains to gain the track length needed to reduce the grade to an acceptable degree. We were lucky to arrive just when one of the tremendously long Canadian Pacific trains was working it’s way through the tunnels.
After this we set our sights on Lake Louise. I’ve really been looking forward to this – My Mum and Dad stayed here in the 80’s and I still remeber seeing their photos on their return and thinkinh what a beautiful place it was. We had booked in to the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise for two nights, a real indulgence but it is where Mum and Dad stayed and has the premium position right on the lake. When we arrived the cloud hung low over the mountain but we could see the beautiful teal blue water of the lake. We checked in and had a lovely surprise, we had ( inexplicably!) been upgraded to their “Gold Floor” on the 7th floor hich came with lounge access and various perks – such a lovely surprise! The room is wonderful, it’s a corner room so on one side we can see down to the Boathouse where theyr rent the canoes and on the back window we look down across the lake.
WE dropped our bags and headed outside to see the lake. We set out up the Fairview Trail that heads up steeply from the lake and eventually arrived at a platform where you can look back down the to the hotel. It was raining lightly the whole time and a pretty steep climb but the view at the top was worth it.
Back down at lake level we wandered around admiring the misty view across the lake.
Before dinner we dropped in to the lounge to enjoy some canapes and a glass of bubbly.
I’d booked us into the hotel’s premier restaurant “The Fairview” for dinner. When we arrived they asked for our room number and after we told them “785”, the floor manager checked his screen and told us if we were happy to wait a couple of minutes he had a “wonderful table opening up” – of course we were happy to wait. We were then lead to one of the highly prized window tables – we think the magic “7th floor” room number may have had an influence. We had a wonderful meal, I had a delicious halibut and Neil had lamb ribs, washed down with a French Rose – yumm!
After inner we retunred to the room to find that housekeeping had come in for a turndown service. A nice little luxury.
Wednesday 20th September
Next morning we woke to slightly brighter skies than yesterday, it was still grey and cloudy but at least it had stopped raining. I was keen for us to do the hike up to the Lake Agnes Lake and Teahouse, so after breakfast in the lounge we set off. We took a few more pictures of the lake with a “little” bit more of the mountain visible than yesterday.
WE set off up the trail. The 7.4-km out-and-back trail is considered a moderately challenging route, it takes an average of 2 h 39 min to complete. It was pretty steep to start with and my heart was pounding a bit initially but further up the trail the incline wasn’t as bad. We just stuck with it and eventually arrived at Mirror lake, which is about a half a mile before lake Agnes. As we climbed we started to see frost on the ground and at the top there was a very slight snow fall, not enough to get us wet luckily! The Tea House was absolutley mobbed with a line of people keen to stop for tea or coffee, we were happy just to admire the lake and laugh at the group of young guys who stripped off and made a VERY brief dip in the freezing lake.
After the breathless climb up, the walk down was wonderful! We went back to the lounge to have a bite to eat and coffee to recover. Back down near the lake we stopped for a look at the Fairmonts Adirondack chairs, theirs are brown rather than red. Then we set out on another walk! This time, a much easier stroll out to the end of the lake and back – level and only about 4 km total.
The walk back along the lake was lovely, it realy is a stunning colour even under the grey skies we had today.
Back after the walk we decided to just have dinner in the lounge and an early night. We did have some entertainment watching the brides show up doen on the lake shore for their wedding photos – weddings seem to be following us around on this trip! We were also encouraged to see the skies hetting brighter before the sun went down. Tomorrow we are booked on a very early tour to Moraine Lake to see the sunrise..
Thursday 21 September
Don;t you hate it when you have the alarm set for an early start… and you wake repeatedly throughout the night because your subconscious is worried you’ll miss the alarm! After a pretty bad night I jumped up when the alarm on my watch went off at 5.50am. It was pitch dark outside as we got dressed and then headed down to the bell Desk to meet our driver. WE had no idea whether we would see a sunrise or not. However, after the 20 minute drive to Moraine Lake we could see that the skies looked promisingly clear. Moraine Lake in Alberta has been ranked as one of the best places to watch sunrise in Canada. It had been absolutely mobbed in recent years, with the carpark full by 5am and the relatively small viewing area overrun. This year Parks Canada have made the decision to block all private vehiclkes from accessing Moraine Lake, at any time of the day not just sunrise! This means you must be booked on one of the Parks Canada shuttle buses or one of the local tour company buses to get there. We were fortunate that the hotel runs their own shuttles to the lake, including this sunrise one.
When we arrived at around 7.05 am there wer already lots of people walking up the Rockpile Trail to snaffle a prime spot to see the sunrise. The lake is famous for it’s deep blue colour and it’s encircling mountains. My Dad had told me that it appeared on some early editions of the Canadian $20 bill. At dawn the sun lights up the tips of the mountains witha golden glow that works it’s way down the peaks. On a perfect day the lake is very still and reflects the view of the mountains – we were SO lucky – after the last two greay drixxly days we had the perfect morning for our sunrise.
It was very cold, below zero, and after a while we decided to walk around to warm up. We went down to the lakeshore and looked back at all the people clambering all over the rockpile and admire the reflections in the water.
By 8.30am we were back on the bus heading back to the hotel. We had another tasty lunch in the lounge and one more walk down by the lake before we checked out and left the lake. It was wonderful to finally see Lake Louise in full sunshine.
We checked out and set of to drive the famous Ice Fields Parkway… but that’s another post!