DAY FOUR - Lake Louise and Lake Moraine

Today's activity was a day trip from our hotel to Lake Louise.   We had breakfast at Melissa's, in town, and then drove 58 Kilometers to Lake Louise arriving around 10:00 a.m.  The parking lot was filling up already, but we arrived in plenty of time to get a parking place in the lot as opposed over flow parking on the highway and walking for over a mile up the highway to the lake.

Lake Louise rests at the base of some beautiful glacier covered mountains and is surprisingly similar in looks to the Maroon Bells in Aspen, except that the lake is much larger and a beautiful green turquoise caused by very fine sediment called glacial flour that is scraped up as the glacier moves and as it melts, the sediment runs down the streams to feed all the gorgeous colors to the lake.  The other difference is that at any given time, there can be thousands of people milling around, and let's not forget the millions of mosquitoes.  The Fairmont Hotel of Lake Louise, another luxury property, greets visitors to the lake.   After checking out the views around the lake, we began our first hike to Lake Agnes.   

3.4 Kilometers up the mountain later, we can upon a quaint little log cabin called the Lake Agnes Tea Cabin.

College kids live and work at the tea house during the summer.  They bake pies, cookies and bread and make soups and sandwiches for the hikers and serve them with hot tea on the porch of the cabin which has perhaps the most spectacular view a cabin could possibly have.  Supplies for the tea house are delivered by helicopter only once per season, 10,000 pounds of flour, sugar and baking supplies.  Fresh items like butter, milk and vegetables are brought up on foot daily.

This certainly would not be my choice for a fun summer job, but the kids seemed to love living here.  

YUM!  

They told us about a second tea house across the mountain.  When we expressed an interest in going there, they asked us to take a letter to the kids at the Plain of Six Glaciers Tea House.  They communicate with their friends via letter and have tourists deliver them to the next tea house.  Our hike to Lake Agnes Tea House was plenty strenuous, so we passed on the letter delivery and hiked back down the mountain and headed to Lake Moraine.

Lake Moraine is another Canada crown jewel of a lake surrounded by 10 peaks.  The water is a bright blue turquoise.  Sheryl and I crossed the creek to the recommended "rock pile" for exceptional photo opportunities, by way of a beaver dam.  We made it without falling in or busting up the damn and began to climb the huge slate rocks to find the perfect spot to take some photos.

We took a few photos and then decided to climb to the top ... just so we could say we conquered the rock pile.  The rocks were slippery which made for a difficult climb, but plenty of other people were climbing them.  So not to be outdone, we climbed to the top where we found the paved park trail and stairs to the top that came up the back side of the rock pile.  About the time we discovered "fast and easy" trail, it began to rain, so we ran down the trail and met up with Kenny who was inside the gift shop staying warm and dry.  

We are armed and ready to "break bad."

Everywhere we hiked, we found warning signs about the Grizzly Bears and Cougars and were encouraged to hike in tight groups of 4 armed with bear spray.   While at Lake Moraine, we had our first Grizzly encounter.  I bravely warded off the pesky bear with my Acme Bear Spray.  It's marketed by the same company the Coyote uses for his Roadrunner capturing equipment and I'm sure it's just as effective.

As a dear friend pointed out to me, I don't seem to be the type to "break bad" on a bear with can of pepper spray.  Sure doesn't seem like it would be the thing to use to stop a charging 800 pound Grizzly.  Then again, I guess all we'd really have to do is spray one of the other tourists in our tight group of 4 and then we could make our get-away while the bear was "breaking bad" on them.

We walked to town for dinner at the Bear Street Tavern Pizza, followed by a little shopping ... but NO Beaver tail tonight.  We ate too many sweets at the tea house and decided to use a little discipline, which is so unlike me.  

DAY FIVE - Lake Louise

We had so much fun hiking to the tea house the day before, we decided to go back to Lake Louise and hike to the second tea house, Plain of Six Glaciers.  It was a longer hike, 5.5 Kilometers, and much steeper than Lake Agnes.  But the glacier viewing was spectacular.  The hike began at lake front level for about one mile and then took a right turn through the forrest and up the mountain.

The Bear Bait Boys

We were a little uncomfortable at first because we were the only hikers on the trail.  With the grizzly warnings, the park service requires groups of 4 or more and to keep close together.  We hung out for a few minutes until some strapping young lads came by and we joined up with them ... and we let them go first.  Bear bait!  Turned out the guys were very nice.  Riley, a Chiropractor, lives in Calgary.  Matt, an engineer for Shell Oil, also lives in Calgary.  They recommended a nice hike for us in Banff called Mount Rundle.  They said it's not that tough, at 9700 feet, just an "easy scramble" to the top.  Turns out "easy scramble" means using all fours and crawling.  Pass!!

The Plain of Six Glaciers Tea House was quite nice.  Built during the 1920's, it has the original stone and logs.  It's decorated with colorful Buddhist Prayer Flags.  The girls at Agnes Tea House raved about their sister tea house, and it was quite nice, but we preferred the Agnes Tea House.  Better food and the cabin was cuter.

Made it to Plain of Six Glaciers Tea House

Today's hike kind of kicked our butts.  That and the rain made the decision to drive to dinner tonight an easy choice.  We had the best dinner of our Banff visit, thus far, at Saltlik.  The parmesan crusted halibut was cooked perfectly.  We also rewarded ourselves with our last BeaverTail of the trip since we were departing for Jasper the next morning.  It was truly the best piece of tail!

We were living large and told the BeaverTail cook it was our last night in town and to make it extra special.  She stretched the dough extra long, which made it very crispy and loaded it with Nutella and m&m's.  By far the best!

DAY SIX   Jasper

We had an amazing time in Banff, but it's time to  journey on.  We were all every excited about going to Jasper because many people told us how beautiful it is.  

The four hour drive from Banff to Jasper may be the most scenic highway I've ever traveled.  We were escorted by the rugged Canadian Rockies, glaciers, ice fields and pristine rivers the entire drive.   We made a couple of stops along the way.  One was to check out the Althabasca Glacier and ice field, where we decided to hike up a glacier.

Just kidding!

It was an "easy scramble" to the top.  

Gotta love those shoes!  

Healthy lunch after our climb.

We arrived at the Jasper Park Lodge around 2:30.  We were ready to leave around 2:35.  But after such an exhilarating 4 hour drive and glacier hike, we were too tired to leave, so we decided to make the best of it and stay.  But alas, our rooms/cabins weren't ready, so we drove in to Jasper to check out the options for dinner later in the evening and frozen yogurt spots for KB.  As we entered the down town area, all two blocks of it, we quickly discovered that our trip to Jasper may have been a mistake.  At 4:00, our guaranteed check-in time, we went back to the Jasper Park Lodge working on excuses for canceling our 4 night reservation.  Sheryl came up with the perfect excuse ... "Our friends that we were meeting went to the Fairmont Hotel in Banff.  We have to go back there to be with them."  They bought it, and since our rooms still were NOT ready, they gave us a coupon for drinks in the lounge ... a generous but failed attempt to buy our undying affection for the Jasper Park Lodge.  

 

After two iced teas, a diet coke and a virgin Bloody Mary with a limp asparagus stem, which for some reason made Sheryl and I laugh hysterically, we settled in and watched a storm come through.  The lightening show was the highlight of our JPL visit.

Around 5:00, we decided to go have dinner and then perhaps our rooms would be ready.  Sure enough, after dinner, our cabins (aka double wides) were ready.  So we settled in for the night, preparing for our get away the following morning.

DAY SEVEN  - Golf and Banff

After a very disappointing breakfast, we left for the golf course.  Jasper Park's golf course is the number one rated resort course in all of Canada.  It was nice, even with all the grizzly bear warning signs.  The hacker group ahead of us played so slowly.  It was like trying to chain a bull to a bamboo stake to keep from hitting in to them.  

We had plenty of time for photos.  

By the time we reached the last hole, I just couldn't stand it any longer.  After waiting for the group to take their 4th shot EACH on a par 4 and still not be on the green, I blasted a drive to within about 5 feet of the group.   After cheers and applause erupted from our group, I was dubbed with the title "Crush Momma."  Makes me laugh every time I hear it.  I would normally never hit into a group, and to be totally honest, I thought they were far enough away to not even get close.  It was a 330 yard par 4 and I landed a short chip shot in to the green.  By the way, the group in front of us never even noticed.  

I also picked up a great souvenir at the pro shop in Jasper, keeping with our theme of Beaver Tails, a Beaver Head Cover.  From now on, every time I pull the cover off my driver, it will remind "Crush Momma" of our time in Canada and BeaverTails.

After the last ball dropped in the cup on number 18, which, by the way, I parred, we loaded the car and headed home ... to Banff.  We checked in to the hotel and crashed for the night.