Lake Louise

The morning dawned cool but promised to warm up a lot. Yesterday it got up to 75!

We loaded the bikes onto the Jeep and drove up to the town of Lake Louise and then on up to Moraine Lake. This beautiful aquamarine blue lake- 'the jewel of the Rockies' -- is surrounded by 10 peaks on a sawtooth ridge. It was pretty awesome to look up and see all those spires. This view used to be on the Canadian $20 bill. We took a short walk along the lake to a small but noisy cascade at the far end of the lake and enjoyed the quite solitude of the forest except for the noise of all the other hikers. This is a very popular spot to visit. All the signs say "Limited Parking 10 AM to 4 PM". We arrived at 9:30 AM with only about a dozen spots open.

We then drove down to the train depot and got on the bikes to ride up, and I do mean UP, 5 km to the actual Lake Louise. It was on an old tramway trail that was used back in the day of mules and wagons. The lake is fed by the glacier on Mount Victoria (over 10,000 ft). We ate our lunch while admiring the scenery and watching the mobs of people walk by. We then toured the fantastic and elegant Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. Of course, the ride down was easy.

After naps and showers we headed into Banff for wi-fi and a fancy french dinner.