Monday, June 6, 2016

Canadian Rockies Day 3 Lake Louise and the Tea Houses

Day 3 of our trip was again all about hiking.  This time though we mostly hiked on one long hike at Lake Louis. We started the day like the day before, with bagels coffee and oj in our room with the great view.  We were on the road by about 8 am when we took the transcanada hwy to Lake Louis.
Also just a note to anyone reading the blog as we go.  I am one day behind because we have slow internet so I need an entire day for pictures to upload.  I will try to keep up in Jasper, but our internet is supposed to be even slower.
The transcanada hwy to Lake Louise


We had our first wildlife encounter/near car accident.  There were about 10 cars just stopped on the hwy to observe this bear.  Next up we stopped in Lake Louise again for some mochas, a bathroom stop and making sure all water was filled for the hike

Lake Louise the base for our long day of hiking.  Way way way in the background you can see the glaciers we hiked to.

The start of the trail up to the Lake Agnes TeaHouse.  It was a pretty good uphill, but not as bad as parts of yesterday's hike

Big beehive once we got to mirror lake.  We are of course eventually going to hike up to the top of that.

Right before getting to the Lake Agnes Teahouse there was this lovely waterfall

We made it to the teahouse right before the made rush.  The teahouse has been there since the 1920's I believe.  It has no electricity and the staff have to hike everything in.  Even with that they have about 80 types or tea.  We had the apple crisp and a pot of black raspberry

Lake Agnes.  We hiked around it and then up to the big beehive (big hill on the left of the picture)

View of the teahouse from the other side of Lake Agnes

Yep we hiked through more snow, but thankfully they had just lifted the avalanche warnings.

The top of big beehive was totally worth it.  Here is the view of Lake Louise from the top

There was a nice little shelter overlooking the lake

Dinky's view during the hike

And time to get down from the beehive and continue to the Plain of 6 Glaciers

Good views most of the way there (and not much shade, which made it a little hot)

A few new wildflowers showed up on our hike (see google photos if you want to see more!)

Trail with the glaciers in the background

Lots of cool waterfalls like this one were along (or in some cases over) the trail

Looking back at Lake Louise before we turned the corner to the Teahouse

We got to the teahouse expecting it to be closed, but thankfully it wasn't.  We snagged a shaded table and ate the lunch of salami, bread and cheese that Zach carried.

Then we had chocolate cake and lemonade!

This cute dog was sniffing around us a lot...I might have given him some of the cheese I couldn't finish

After our little rest it was another 1-2 km to the Plain of 6 Glaciers viewpoint

It was not the most fun hike up toward the waterfall, and I twisted an ankle on the way up, but we did eventually make it.


Dinky and the rocks.  I have decided that I have no desire to hike up these loose rocks ever again.  It was about .5 km of feeling like I was going to slip and die at any moment.

Finally we started back to Lake Louise.  This time on the lower trail which eventually had some shade.

The lake is getting closer!

And we made it to the lake!

View from the lake trail walking back toward the trailhead

We were both so tired by this point.  It was about 80 degrees and we had been hiking for 7 hours covering 13+ miles


One final look at the lake before heading back to Banff

We needed more calories so we stopped for milkshakes before getting on the hwy.

Sadly we just missed the last canoe rental of the day.  So we decided spur of the moment to get back on the Bow Parkway and look for more wildlife before heading to dinner.

We went a little more than half way back to Lake Louise and stopped at all the little information signs on the road.  This is the furthest one and is a memorial to the Ukrainian (and other) men who worked in the internment camps to build the park during WW I

Castle Mountain viewed from one of the stops

Our first wildlife stopping was the canadian ground squirrel.  These guys were loud, but very cute.

Next stop was a short hike down to a pond where we saw a loon.  (I later learned they are more common here than I thought)

Pretty cool reflection of the mountain on the pond

First wild rose spotting.  Alberta is supposed to be wild rose country and there does seem to be a lot of them.

I love these birds.  They are kinda tropical looking (but I haven't figured out what it is yet)

More loud ground squirrels at another stop

Natural cave in the mountain

We set a timer so we could get our pictures taken in the red chairs.  These chairs are all over the national parks and they encourage you to sit and enjoy the scenary.

Another one of those tropical looking birds

We were almost back to Banff when Zach spotted this Elk on the other side of the road.  He swung around so we could get a closer look

Giant elk, but luckily he was more interested in dinner than us.

One last great viewpoint before exiting the parkway as it was closing for the night.  They close it between 8 pm and 8 am so the animals have some space.

Finally back in Banff for some beer and burgers at Eddies Burgers

I had the elk burger which included some amazing truffle fries and blueberry chutney

Final stop of the night was the Banff Hotsprings.  They fill it partially with the sulfur spring water and partially with other water to cool it down from the 50 degrees Celsius it starts at.  We spent about 30 min floating in the pool and relaxing the sore muscles.

And finally done for the night.  This is the view from near the hot springs as we headed back to the hotel.

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