The lakes of Canada
Lake Louise, AB Canada
We took the alternative 1A highway, the Bow Valley Parkway to Lake Louise hoping to spot a bear or two, but all we saw were some mangy sheep.
The campground at Lake Louise was full, so
it was a good thing we booked. It is a much better layout than Tunnel Mountain
in Banff, where I felt like we were parked along a road. Unfortunately our
campsite doesn’t have a fire ring, so even though we have wood, we can’t have a
fire - again.
We tried to see Lake Louise the afternoon
we arrived, but the traffic was horrible and there were no parking spots to be
had unless you wanted to walk a kilometre or more and seeing as we wanted to do
a long walk to the Plain of the Six Glaciers; that really didn’t appeal. So we
went in search of Moraine Lake and thought we would have the same issue there
as there were cars parked along the road before we got even close. Luckily they
had people managing the flow of traffic in the car park and we were called over
to jump the queue and given a spot as soon as we arrived. Lindsay’s choice was
the Consolation Lakes hike, at 5.4km return; it wasn’t one of the ones I had
investigated as I only look at the easy ones that are less than 4km! There was
a big sign at the start that said it was recommended that people
walked in groups of four or more for safety reasons because of grizzly bears.
If they say it’s mandatory, then you can be fined for not complying. So we
got our bear spray from the car. Along with 50 million mozzies we probably
complied with the recommendation. We are going to take insect repellant on all
our walks from now on. Twice people offered me their walking sticks which I
took (do I look like I need help?) and have now realized that I’m actually
better off balancing over rocks with nothing in my hands, so will be declining
any future offers. At the beginning of this walk is the rock-pile walk up to a
spectacular view of Lake Moraine, the teal blue colour is beautiful and is
supposed to be better than Lake Louise.
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| Lake Moraine |
The township here is extremely small and
touristy, not really a town at all. We should have stocked up more in Banff
with groceries at Safeway.
This morning we were able to turn the
heater on with the remote control before we got out of bed – perfect. Yesterday
I asked the person on the entrance booth what the weather forecast was, in
short it sounds like you can have everything in one day, so it’s not surprising
that this morning is raining and we can hear the occasional thunder clap. We
were hoping to see Lake Louise before the crowds arrived but there isn’t any
point photographing it in the rain and Lindsay won’t go on a 7 km walk without
a camera and more to the point doesn’t want to get his feet wet. We drove up to
Lake Louise when the rain had reduced a bit and walked partially around the
lake and both our legs got completely soaked. It’s not as pretty as Lake
Moraine, admittedly it was overcast so it is probably not showing the lake at
it’s finest. The colour is not as deep as Lake Moraine but gets brownie points
for the glacier behind it. The town was over-run with Asian tourists but most
of them don’t venture too far, so the crowds tend to thin out the further you
walk. Canadians can take their pets on the trails here, so we have seen many
dogs and even a cat! Unfortunately a few owners have left the little black
doggie bag on the trail, you would like to think that are they coming back for
it.
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| Consolation Lakes |
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| Lindsay, Duncan, Clinton and Brenda |
The next day I wanted to go back to Lake
Moraine to get some more photos as I didn’t have my lens hood on my camera the
previous day and I got sun spots on my pictures. The parking was a fairly empty
but there were just as many people who frustratingly dawdled up the steps in
front of us. We weren’t sure if we would be able to see any of the sights/sites
up the Icefields Parkway with our 5th Wheeler, so we did some of them
today: Crowfoot Glacier, Bow Lake and Peyto Lake. All of these had plenty of
parking for large rigs so we didn’t go any further.
The trailer is a lot quicker to pack up
than our camper trailer at home because we don’t have all our stuff unpacked
and strewn everywhere. What is different is that we have to fill up with water
and empty our tanks. We were a bit extravagant with our water usage this time,
with a number of wash ups, longer showers and even some clothes washing and
were nearly out of water in three days.
Travelling back up the Icefields Parkway,
we were able to miss the first few sights/sites that we covered the day before.
I would have liked to stop at the Tangle Falls but I didn’t give Lindsay enough
notice and he couldn’t pull off into the turnout in time. It was on a long
steep hill and he was concentrating on keeping the car and a 4½ ton trailer
from going out of control.
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| Icefields |
The tour I had chosen for the Columbia
icefields turned out not to go on the actual glacier, so we gave it a miss. I
had read about a walk that was 3-4 hours wearing crampons but I thought I would
have trouble walking for that long at this altitude and apart from that I did
not see any sign of them. We drove to the base of the Athabasca Glacier where
the carpark was very tight and managed to fit in a parking place for RV’s after
a bit of maneuvering. We walked up to the glacier noting along the way the year
markers where it had receded. It has been receding since the beginning of the
last century at about the same pace as now, long before global warming could
have started. Walking up the steep hill in high altitude left us both a bit
breathless, so there was no way could we have done a four hour walk.
The last stop was Athabasca Falls where we
managed to park in the bus area. It was very nice and like most falls around
here, the water rushes down a canyon and there are numerous lovely trails
around it.
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| Athabasca Falls complete with rainbow |
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