On the Road-Banff-Lake Louise

September 3, 2009
Lake Louise

Lake Louise is quite famous and it could be the most beautiful lake in the world. It is a total clear light blue that sits at the bottom of magnificent mountains, some with glaciers showing. The whole area smells of pine trees. There is one hotel on the property, a Fairmount property that looks like a fairy castle. From inside this hotel you can look out at the lake and snow on the the jagged peaks of individual looking peaks.

You can walk half way along the lake and at the end of the road is a trail up the mountain.. We always meet people along the way often with the guise of getting more information about the trail or vegetation. There were some mountain climbers along the way that were exciting to watch as they look for purchase on the sheer rock and try to go up. The scenery changed as the road turned and it wall gorgeous except for one spot which was black rocks in piles as you looked down and it seemed like something that we could have seen in Peekskill. Ther was a mountain goat along the way that some people saw but we never did.

At the end of the road is a path leading up Mt. Whyte (named for a Canadian Pacific rr mogul) and it did not too steep. A sign said that it was only 3.5 km and that there was a famous teahouse at the top. I still can't get a handle on how far those km are and the teahouse looked inviting so I thought that we might try to walk it. Actually, I make a correction today to say that the path to the teahuse said 6.5 km and it was some km until you even reach that path. We had met this delightful young lady at the Lake and she was wanting to take the hike but she was catching a greyhound back to her hostle in Banff and would not time. We told her that she could walk with us and we would take her back to Banff as we had to go back to exchange a tee shirt. It turned out that both the girl and me would have turned back if we did not want to look fainthearted in front of the other one. We were hoping that there would be a road to take back from the teahouse but oh no. There is no road and their supplies are dropped by helicopter in early summer and they try to make tea there with no electricity and no plumbing. I was dying for a glass of water but they would give me a sip because their water is taken from an underground spring and then boiled for use. On the mountain as we neared the lake we noticed that the water level of the lake had risen(I don't if it was a tide or what) but we noticed because it was wetter to have to cross a bit of the road.

Banff

Banff is a beautiful looking little town. We ate breakfast and dinner there and I shopped at the great little shops. They had a gondola ride up a mountain but since we had just done that, it did hold much of a temptation for us. We were surprised that almost every hotel(all but one) had a vacancy sign and one had a sign saying "walk in and be surprised at our price." I didn't stop there but later on I got curious and stopped at the King Edward hotel and got a price for a room with a queen sized bed and bath for $85.00 Canadian. This is less than the cabin like accommodations that we had in the town of Canmore. Canmorebeing the town nearby known for cheaper rooms.