Day 4: Banff and Lake Louise

Day 4... Grizzlies!

Today's Stats:Miles: 9 (walked)
Mountains Climbed: 1 (Tunnel Mountain)

Today we were slated to spend the day exploring Banff National Park which included the town of Banff and the Lake Louise area.

First stop...

Banff and a climb up Tunnel Mountain.  This is a view back down towards town and into the Bow Valley.

And Alison and I on top of Tunnel Mountain.

Mount Rundle

After the morning climb we headed into town and walked around for a few minutes... got some coffee etc.  But, didn't stay there long, we had bigger adventures to get to!  But, here's a view from town.

Next stop...

Once we got to the Lake Louise area of the National Park, we headed for Moraine Lake which is one of the big lakes created by glacial melt.  It was absolutely beautiful.  A lot of the lake was still covered in ice because we were at a high elevation, but you could still see the amazing colors of the glacial water.

We went for a good walk around the lake, and since it is early in the summer, the water level is pretty low, so you could walk out on the lake bed and get good views of the mountains and the glaciers.

With my 2 favorite people :)

From there, we headed to Lake Louise.  Lake Louise is at a lower elevation so it was full and had a lot less ice on it.

When the sun was out, the water was an amazing shade of blue.  We walked the length of the lake which had views back towards the Chateau Lake Louise.  The Chateau is a gorgeous and fancy hotel the Canadian Railroad built to draw people to the area once they finished the railroad etc.

We decided to hold a science experiement with the glacial melt water... it was so clear and blue in the lakes, but once you got to the runoff areas from the glaciers it was milky white.  So we filled water bottles with the runoff water to see if it will settle etc.

Mom made a new friend while taking a break.

As we were heading back to the Chateau, Alison thought she saw dark spots moving on some snow patches on the mountain side across the lake.  We stared at them for a while and decided they were bears, but then we lost them.  We did manage to get some pictures like this... can you see the bear?


We watched closely and found the bear again as it came down the hillside...

Turns out it was a momma grizzly and her two cubs.  They walked all the way across the valley and basically on to the trail we had been on a few minutes before. 

Finally we made it back to Chateau Lake Louise and had the best fancy meal I've ever eaten while wearing muddy hiking shoes and pants :)

Here is Dad, Alison and I enjoying dinner with a view.

And a final parting shot of the group at Lake Louise.

Tomorrow, Alison, Libby and I head up the Icefields Parkway and cover another 700ish miles to Dawson Creek, BC and the start of the Alaska Hwy.