Banff to Lake Louise

 Today was a relatively late start for what was slated as a short day. We were to take a motor coach past Lake Louise and climb into the mountains, make three brief stops, then end up back at the Fairmont Chateau at Lake Louise.

The all-aboard time was 9:05, a far stretch from the early calls of the past several days. We bid farewell to Banff and travelled west on Highway 1, the Trans-Canada highway. The route took us past the Lake Louise exit and we climbed and climbed, past looming mountain peaks, crossing back into BC (Banff is in Alberta), to a roadside parking area where we could almost see the “spiral tunnels” that provided us rail access to Alberta just two days ago.


Somewhere up there are two tunnels in a figure 8 path, designed by Swiss engineers and built by over a thousand Chinese workers who blasted rock from both sides of the mountain and successfully met on target in the middle.


A topographical model gives visual reference to the construction of the spiral tunnels.


From there, we travelled briefly to Emerald Lake. It was a half-hour stop which was just long enough to work our way from the tail to the head of the line at the refreshment stand for an overpriced drink and a bag of pretzels. (Note: I have no pictures of Emerald Lake except for this group selfie, taken on the way to the refreshment line.)



Then it was on to the Natural Bridge, the sight of an internment camp for German Immigrants to Canada at the beginning of WWI. Unlike the Japanese internment camps at Minidoka (Idaho) during WWII, these camps no longer exist.

The Natural Bridge is actually a rock dam under which water has eroded a path for the fast moving water at the mouth of the lake.


The bus then took us to the tour desk at the hotel, a monstrous edifice on the shore of Lake Louise. 


The combination of too many hotel rooms and too many tourists passing through makes this a luxurious must-miss over-priced tourist attraction, IMHO. I was here as a visitor on a motorcycle in 2017 and remarked about the size of the crowd of people on the shores of this beautiful lake. I hoped at the time that it was an enigma. Now I know it is a constant.




I often take the advice of Robert Frost and take the road less travelled. A paved path started around the right (north) side of the lake, turned eventually to dirt and leading to the far west end of the lake.

End of the line?

Looking back toward the crowded shore of Lake Louise


From this vantage point I was able to get today’s Where’s Waldo picture. Can you spot Waldo?

The evening ended watching several youngsters (and an adult or two) roast marshmallows for (apparently) the first time.



Tomorrow is our journey north along the Ice Field Parkway. Don’t miss this (I hope my pictures capture the incredible scenery.)





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