Amazing Alberta

Lake Louise is probably the most visited and photographed place in the Canadian Rockies, so we expected it to be fairly busy on a warm Sunday in August. Deep blue glacial waters sparkle against a backdrop of mountain peaks and the views are used by virtually every postcard company - with good reason.

Thinking that an early arrival would beat most of the crowds, we set off on a short drive. Our travels now took us out of British Columbia and into a new state, Alberta - and into Banff National Park.

Clearly we didn't get away quite as early as we needed to - the parking lot at Lake Louise was already full - but a stroke of good fortune and a helpful parking attendant meant we got a parking space about as close to the lake as its possible to park. Although busy with visitors, eyes are inevitably drawn to the blue glacial waters and backdrop of mountains, still carrying snow in late August.

Lake Louise

Various hiking trails lead off from the car park and away from the crowds and we opted to follow the lake shoreline, to the head of the lake. Views back are not quite as impressive - due to the architectural blot on the landscape that is the Fairmont Lake Louise Hotel - a luxury hotel that has, in my opinion, been designed by an architect singularly lacking in imagination. Even this can't take away the beauty that is Lake Louise. Somehow the crowds don't really intrude when the surrounding landscape is so impressive. At the lake inlet there were more small critters - either chubby chipmunks or a variety of ground squirrel - we were getting used to seeing lots of the smaller wildlife!

Returning to the start of our walk we ignored the hotel signs indicating access for guests and restaurant only and walked inside to see what $689 (their standard room rate) gets you. The answer, lots of expensive gift shops, bars, restaurants etc.

The restaurant in the Fairmont Lake Louise

Curiosity sated we ate our home made picnic outside, stopped a grey jay from stealing our bag of cookies and then returned to the car and drove down to Lake Louse village where we had more modest lodge accommodation booked for a night. We wandered around the village and watched some ground squirrels feast on picnicker's crumbs by the side of the Bow River and checked out places to eat, finding a 'pub', part of an 'alpine' hotel, that looked promising.

This ground squirrel wasn't going hungry

Earlier in the day we had wanted to visit Moraine Lake but the access road was closed due to the volume of traffic. I asked a park ranger if it was worth trying late afternoon and she told me it should be fine. 'Fine' meant a 15 minute queue to get into the car park - but it was worth it, being as beautiful as Lake Louise - if not better.

Moraine Lake

The traffic congestion meant a late meal - but a massive prime rib in the pub was superb. After steak and beer (Mrs B had a salad) we headed back to our lodge ready to pack up again the next day to start a two stage drive up the Icefields Parkway.