Lake Louise Trailer Campground, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. Odometer – 6788
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It started raining sometime during the night, but that did not stop us from sleeping until 9:30am. We wanted to get an early start, but since it was still raining and we had no idea how long it will continue, we took it easy.
Happily for us the weather improved and by the time we got to the Lake Louise parking lot, the sun was peeking out through the clouds and it was not so cold anymore. We set of for an ambitious hike to Lake Agnes, 7.2km in and out, the most popular hike in the Canadian Rockies. The elevation gain is 400 meters and we felt the climb from the very beginning. It was noon when we started the hike from Lake Agnes (which is breathtakingly beautiful).
Luckily (or not) since this is such a popular hike, the trail is very wide and pushing the stroller up was rather simple most of the way. No technical climbing, just pushing against gravity. Ron did surprisingly well in the first stretch, and we rested for a snack after about 45 minutes of climbing. The snack turned to be a mini lunch as we ate fruits and cheeses to our hearts content.
As we continued climbing, first Orr, then Shir fell asleep. After 2.5km we reached the first significant milestone, Mirror Lake. This relative pond is also fed by glacier water, so its waters are also turquoise. From Mirror up to Agnes was another 800 meters to the left, or 900 meters to the right. W took the shorter path, which proved to be a mistake in retrospect. The path was very steep and at times nearly impassable with the stroller. With good teamwork, Paola and I managed to get the girls through most of it without waking them up. Towards the end, an Israeli family we met on the trail also helped pull up the stroller.
We got to Lake Agnes around 2:30pm, tired, hungry and very happy. The lake is very pretty, surrounded by snowy mountain peaks all around. Another bonus is a quaint wooden teahouse that serves light meals to weary hikers. Of course we tried the food, which was ok, but way overpriced. That’s the advantage of their location…
After spending and hour at the lake and teahouse picnic table, we started back down. This time we took the longer, gentler path back to Mirror Lake, and on the way saw the pretty waterfall Agnes creates spilling into Mirror Lake.
The rest of the way down was a piece of cake compared to the hike up, and we were down at the starting point by 5pm. Ron walked the entire way by himself. Kol HaKavod! We lolled around Chateau Lake Louise for a bit before returning to the RV. This is a very classy hotel, owned by the Fairmont chain, and peeking inside at the shops and people, it’s hard to bridge the gap between the natural beauty outside and this opulence inside. It seems out of place to me.
We drove to our campground, a few km away, and for some silly reason had to wait in a line of RVs for half an hour just to check in. The kids were fine though, they were watching Curious George on the DVD.
In the evening I took Ron to a nature talk at the campground amphitheatre where we learned about 2 endangered species here, the caribou (a kind of moose/deer) and the wolverine (not related to a wolf).
Good Night,
-Hemi
This entry was posted on Saturday, July 14th, 2007 at 6:20 pm and is filed under Alberta, Big Trip, Canada, North America RV 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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