Friday, November 19, 2010

Lake Louise and Banff

I started this blog so I could use it while traveling to write down my daily thoughts, activities and post a few photos. In this way, I would have a record that would allow me to be able to look back on my travels and remember details. However, once I started writing, I realized that I have been on some pretty amazing trips in the past and would like to write about those too. So, basically, I am playing "trip catch-up" right now and will also use this blog to post any future trips. I will probably be posting trips not in any particular order, but rather as the mood strikes.

This was the third stop on a road trip in June-July of 2009, starting in Walla Walla, Washington, over to Glacier NP and then up into the Canadian Rockies. After we left Glacier, we headed up to Banff and Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada. We stayed at the Buffalo Mountain Lodge....a really cool place in Banff that has great wood-burning fireplaces in the rooms...nice! One of the days we were here, we drove to Lake Louise and hiked to the Plain of Six Glaciers Tea House. While it says this hike is 8.5 miles round trip, it actually seems like a bit more since you are going uphill all the way there (except the first mile or so when you walk around the lake). Let me just say that by the time we reached the top, nothing could have sounded better than some food and hot tea! We were not disappointed...it was all delicious...and, wow, what an amazing setting. Why I didn't take a photo of the tea house, I will never know! *sigh* The other full day we were here was spent hiking and canoeing at Moraine Lake...a beautiful glacial turquoise lake surrounded by incredible snow-peaked mountains. I remember that it was a Monday and I kept thinking that I wished all my Mondays could be this incredible....some day...some day.....

The next morning we got up and drove the 5 hour drive along the Icefields Parkway making about a hundred stops to hike and take photos (so it turned into more like an 8-9 hour drive). Glacier NP, Icefields Parkway and Jasper will be in other posts to come.

Plain of Six Glaciers trail head - Up, up and up we go!
View of Lake Louise and the Fairmont from part way up the trail
Another view of Lake Louise and the Fairmont
The sparkling turquoise water of Moraine Lake
Moraine Lake
Canoeing on Moraine Lake
Some of the mountains around Banff
http://www.flickr.com/photos/53624362@N04/sets/72157625306313361/

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