Calgary to Lake Louise, Yoho, and Icefields Parkway

 We got off to an early start on the Monday morning (July 7).  We basically had to go all around the outside of Calgary, from the south-east to the mid-west:

We followed the dark blue line. It seemed to be a long time to get away from Calgary. It was cool to get a glimpse of the Olympic Park though. 

Then you go through a bit of a boring stretch. You can see the mountains though, kind of like greyhounds chasing a fake rabbit in a race.

Look at that big, blue sky!

(Link to Paul Brandt's "Alberta Bound", which references the big blue sky, but while he's going into Alberta, we were kind of on our way out).

We made it to Canmore and needed a bathroom break. Lucy selected "public bathrooms" on Apple Maps and it directed us to a public bathroom in what seemed to be downtown Canmore. It was hard to get a lay of the land from the back seat. 

The bathrooms were clean and designed for vandalism prevention. A little questionable--is vandalism an issue there? Across the lane was a plaza with a bakery. The kids went in and got some items. Megan got an entire baguette! We had butter in the cooler but that wasn't very practical while driving. Our AirBnB was just across the river, on the main road that runs between train tracks and the highway. 

We got back on the road and headed for Lake Louise Ski Resort and summer gondola. This is also where the Park 'n' Ride is for the Canada Parks shuttles (and probably other shuttles too). The parking lot is huge, so expect to have to walk a bit. Also, there are signs saying not to leave food in truck beds or exposed trailers--the birds are smart. We walked over to the place where you scan your online tickets (buy in advance online and save 10%).  However--I couldn't get cell service strong enough to get the email to load. One of the kids found there was free wifi, so used that. So don't panic!

We walked to the building and inside. We looked around, saw the bathrooms were downstairs, so went there to use them. But then we weren't sure where to go. We could see two gondolas moving, but then one stopped. We assumed we had to go to the one that was working. It wasn't very clear, but then again, there weren't a lot of options.

We waited in line behind a small family, who opted for a gondola--you have a choice. Then it was our turn--we were going to take the next gondola (there's about 1 gondola and then 3 or four chair lifts). As we were about to get in it, the Australian girl working suddenly realized there was 5 of us, and only 4 "fit" in the gondola. Really? We could have all fit. So me, Lucy and Hugh took the gondola and Megan and Rob took the following chair lift. 

It was a nice ride up--I've been on some that were quite swingy, but this one was calm. I think this was Lucy and Hugh's first time in a gondola, though I'm sure we did a small chair lift in Quebec when they rode a ride at a small ski hill theme park/water park one summer. 

At the top, we saw a bear gate, and signs for a hike!  There didn't seem to be anywhere we could eat lunch, so we thought maybe we could find a rock or something.  The gate was a little scary, as it said to only touch the blue parts, but the colours were really faded and muted. We could see it, but Hugh is colour blind, and he wasn't sure if he could really distinguish between the blue and green--but he figured the handle was the logical part to touch.

The hike signs did say to hike in groups of 3 or more, though we did see some couples. And a family with two young kids in onesie pajamas LOL.

It was more like a gravel road than a through-the-woods hike, but that was fine because we weren't geared up for actual hiking.

I believe that lake is Lake Louise!

As soon as the trail got into the woods, I noticed something really cool.  It smelled like pine tree car air fresheners! For real! We have pine trees here, and yes, if you go hug one, you can smell it--but this was the AIR around us that smelled like pine trees! It was amazing! 

We walked a bit, then spotted some logs just off the trail. I KNOW you're not supposed to go off trail, but we were careful, and left no trace though we did see some litter. There just didn't seem to be rocks to sit on! 

Enjoying our Sobey's sandwiches! 

Is there anything more Canadian than swatting bugs, in a pine forest, while eating a sandwich from Sobey's?  Between this, and the rainbow picture, maybe I should start working for Sobey's advertising!

Refueled, we decided to continue up the mountain to the mid-point of the hike (it's a circular hike). However, after going just a short distance, it became evident that I couldn't continue. I'd been coughing almost non-stop for two weeks, often very short of breath. I really wanted to get to the top, and it didn't seem far, but my family decided that it was not going to happen. If I ever go back, I'm going to the top!

We walked back down to the top of the gondola, and took a look at the observation platform. 

Lake Louise

We opted for the same groupings on the way down. The website says the ticket is for one round trip, but there wasn't anyone actually checking the tickets, if I recall. When you get off, you have to walk through the restaurant patio area. A bit odd. Kids wanted to go to the gift shop. This took forever. Then, we were done shopping and someone who had been waiting, and not shopping, decided they needed the bathroom. So the rest of us waited. We went upstairs, where again we wasted a lot of time--getting pictures with the bear, someone else needed the bathroom, etc. We did find a bottle filler, over to the left side beside a counter. We took so long that we decided to not see the wildlife exhibit and get on the road.

The plan for the day was developed entirely out of the frustration of getting shuttles from Lake Louise (the lake, the village, or the ski hill) to Moraine Lake. I had seen in a video when we first started looking at Banff, that we'd "need to book the shuttle a while in advance."  I didn't know exactly what that meant. In mid-April, I got to finding out.  Parks Canada operates a shuttle from the Park 'n' Ride (at the ski hill) to Lake Louise (lakefront) and Moraine Lake. No personal cars are allowed at Moraine Lake unless staying at the lodge. Parking at Park'n'Ride is free; parking at Lake Louise lakefront is $37/day and fills up by 6am. I looked into getting shuttle tickets. Then I found out they had already gone on sale, and were totally sold out. Only 40% of tickets are released, in mid-April. Throwback to when I tried to get tickets to the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and ended up spending a ton more than I wanted. 

Further investigation revealed that the public transit system, ROAM, operates a route to Lake Louise lakefront from downtown Banff. You can pay $50 and reserve a time to and from (compared to the $8 for the Parks Canada shuttle).  This ticket also gives you a ride on the Parks Canada connector between the two lakes.  However, tickets weren't going on sale until June 2, at 9AM Mountain time. I marked it on the calendar, at got online at the precise time. However, already the early trips, and the late afternoon return trips were sold out. I got tickets for Tuesday, July 8, mid-morning to mid-afternoon. Not ideal, considering the time needed to line up and wait for the connector. 

So I decided I would plan this day with going to the gondola first thing, as it's not open in the evening. It's the mid-priced gondola in the area, and supposedly the best for wildlife viewing. We saw nothing but a ground squirrel. Then, we would go up the Icefields Parkway, as far as we tolerated, and hopefully time it right to get back to Lake Louise lakefront at 7pm for free parking.

We got back on the road a bit later that I had hopped, but I was trying to go with the flow. We headed towards Highway 1, towards British Columbia. I had read about the Spiral Train Tunnels and wanted to see them. We stopped at what I think is the Lower Spiral Tunnel viewpoint. 

You can just see a train coming out of the tunnel. They really need to trim the trees LOL.

So, in a nutshell, the train goes into the mountain at a higher altitude, loops around, and comes back out nearby, at a lower altitude. Then it crosses the river, and does it again, I think this time ending up higher again. It's an engineering marvel, considering when it was done!!

We were going into British Columbia, but no one noticed a sign! Also, we didn't see a sign for the continental divide! What?! Oh well, we kept going towards Field. 

I had read that Field was a quaint town with a good lunch spot, but we were past lunch. It's hard to see but it's near the bottom left corner. The Kicking Horse River runs through it, and you can tell it must get crazy in the spring!

We really wanted to get out into the river, but it was hard getting down from the bank anywhere where it was shallow. It was freaking cold!

This was at the Yoho National Park Visitor Centre. I wish we had gone in. I didn't realize it was a NP Visitor Centre!

There is a tiny beach area by the end of the parking lot. A couple kids were in.

And by kids, I mean kids other than Rob and I.

I had packed a "magic" towel when we went to Barcelona and never used it so brought it just for these sorts of adventures. Of course, I couldn't find it in my bag of too many pockets.

If you scroll back up to the map, in the top left is a bright turquoise lake, Emerald Lake. I found out later that it is easy to get to.  I had taken a lot of notes of places to see, but hadn't gotten a chance to really organize it, and once on the road, just totally abandoned it. If I had known it was right there, we would have gone!

We turned back to the Icefields Parkway. We passed Bow Lake and said we'd get it on the way back. Next, we came to Peyto Lake ("Pee-to"). We parked and headed to the trail. It said it wasn't too long, so we took the plunge because I had heard it was a do-not-miss.

Well. Again, the hike was too much for me. We took the "easier" route and it was not easy. It is steep, all the way. At one point there was a bench and I had to take a rest. I couldn't believe it. There were all sorts of people going up and down! We even saw a woman coming down, pushing an elderly woman in a wheelchair!!  I was so frustrated. If we ever go back, I'm not sure I would bother doing this hike again, but it's tempting.

Finally we made it to the top. Recently, I was wondering what the elevation was, and I wasn't shocked to find out the lookout is at 6785ft (2068m). So, that's pretty high! The lake itself is at 6100ft (1860m).  No doubt the altitude was affecting whatever condition was affecting my breathing and making me cough.

It was worth it though. Incredibly turquoise! 

I played a bit with my camera's functions. The picture below is with the Vivid Colours function, if I remember.

Even without the vivid colours setting, this lake is a bright turquoise.

Looking cool and calm and not like she's about to cough up a lung.

That's the glacier on the left. It's pretty cool to see it on Google satellite. It almost looks like there's a dam as the end of the lake is straight across. 

I was trying to express how my chest hurt. If you look behind me, you'll see all the people that ignored the "Stay on the Trail" signs. This really irritates us. I wish there was more enforcement.

You probably can't read that. Basically, the glacier grinds rocks into a dust called rock flour. This ends up in the water but doesn't sink, it stays near the surface. The sunlight hits the water and blue lightwaves have the longest wavelength so they bounce off the particles and are reflected back to our eyes.  Some lakes in the Rockies have been losing their turquoise colour due to the glaciers melting away from the lake.

I saw this "art" and just thought it was an interpretation of the glacier, a piece of art. Megan realized you could line up the outlines with the features and compare the change of the glacier. Cool.

We continued up the road to the Saskatchewan Crossing, and the Crossing Cafe. Don't go in if you don't need to. The bathrooms are "for customers only" and everything is very expensive. 

These noodles are about $1.50 in a regular grocery store.

Triscuits for $10, when $3 is the max at home. A small jar of peanut butter was $13. It was really crazy. I know it's sort of isolated, but really, it's not that far back to Banff or Canmore, or even Calgary really. I also noticed they had opened packages and were selling items not labelled for individual sales (like instant oatmeal packets). I think that's a violation of some sorts!

There is a cool historical information installation out front though.

We decided to head back at this point. Though looking at the map now, I wish we had gone the extra 30 minutes to the Columbia Icefield. But, that's a whole other hour in the end. 

On the way back, we stopped at Bow Lake. It's accessible from a parking lot right off the road. Getting down to the lake though took a bit more effort and I didn't go down. It was nice from the top anyway.

Apparently if you go to the Bow Lake Lodge, you get easy access and good views. According to Google Maps, there's even a cafe there. And if you go a bit south of the main lake lookout, there's another one for the Crowfoot Glacier. I think Bow Lake is another one that is starting to change colour. 

We got back to Lake Louise and looked up our dinner options. There's not a lot in the village. The first option seemed pricey, so we went with Lake Louise Village Grill & Bar.  It was still a hefty bill, but we got an appetizer and drinks. The website mentions Asian dishes, but that section on the menu was pretty small. Megan got the garlic shrimp (appetizer) and a dish of rice on the side.  Rob and I got a BLT that also had ham. It was actual ham, like a thick slice, not thin slice deli meat. Lucy got chicken tenders, and Hugh got a burger. The food was fine.  It was VERY quick! Megan said the rice was awesome. There was a large Asian group finishing up when we got there, and after we ate, we kind of wished we had chosen the Asian items but they just didn't have much in their descriptions. The ginger beef sounded good, but for $29, I would hope it was just more than meat. 

We were actually in and out much quicker than I expected. We headed over to Lake Louise lakefront, as it was 7pm and parking would be free. As we approached, it was hard to read signs; there were staff directing vehicles but we didn't even know where they were directing us.  Rob asked one staff as he waved us through if parking was free. The man sort of grinned and said "Maybe, but I didn't say it."

We pulled into the busy lot and followed the one way arrow towards the lake, and turned to come back up the other lane. There was a large, black SUV stopped in the lane. They had their signal on, and were waiting for a family to load up and pull out of their spot. Okay, it was a nice close spot, but they were blocking the entire lane! Cars were backing up behind us! We waited, and finally they shimmied over enough for us to continue through and head towards the more empty back of the lot. A lot of people were leaving, but also, a lot of people were showing up. 

We headed towards the lake, stopping at the bathrooms--kind of messy and dirty by this point in the day. 

The lakefront was busy. People were good about taking their picture and moving along. We can't say we were wowed though. It's beautiful, yes, but a bit of a let down after Peyto Lake. I feel un-patriotic saying this!

It was still way too early for the sunset, but the lighting was still nice. No one was interested in getting up at 4am to come for the sunrise. The parking fee starts at 3AM!

The Chateau Lake Louise was not what we were expecting. We all thought it would look more like the other Fairmont Chateaux like Banff and Chateau Frontenac (Quebec City). This one reminded me of the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Florida.

We didn't spend too much time here. We were tired. We walked the lakeshore trail for a bit, then turned around.  We spent about an hour, including the time spent parking and the bathroom. We headed back to Canmore.

We found our AirBnB and followed the direction for the underground parking. We had spot 81 and the instructions said there were two spots, tandem parking. We didn't know what that meant exactly. It means there's two spots, end to end, so one car is blocked in by the other. Not an issue for us. However...OMG. Other people are so inconsiderate. This was the set up (the lane was a tad bit wider, but still was only one lane)....

The blue SUV to the right was on an angle. The spot behind it was empty. They could have backed up. Directly across from our spot was a large pick up, sticking out into the lane. There was no way to pull into our spot. Backing in would be the only way. The lane was narrow and one way, and no way to turn around anywhere so Rob had to go past the spot and back it in, around the concrete pillar. Oh, that was a tense 5 minutes of tiny maneuvers. 

We found our way to the unit, which was called Rocky Mountain Gem-3BD Condo Downtown Canmore. I really struggled to find a place in Canmore. The girls agreed to share a room, but not a bed, and no one thought Hugh should have to sleep on a couch just so the girls got separate rooms. This unit had one room with a king size bed and a shared semi-ensuite, one room that shared that bathroom and had two single beds, and a room with a queen bed and it's own ensuite. Rob and I always want a king size bed because we have a queen at home, but I kind of wish we had taken that room instead of the king room. Hugh went in there and barely ever came out LOL. 

The windows were open but it was pretty warm. There's no AC. Most places I looked at didn't have AC, but Rob walked around the area later and said there were units with AC. We got all the fans set up but it was still very warm. The weather in Canmore is not usually this warm!  The kitchen was very well equipped with even a turkey baster and potato masher! What a nice change from the last place, and it was a shame we weren't going to be eating in more (especially given the cost! Canmore is cheaper than Banff, but it was still very expensive--for us). 

The location of the condo was very convenient for our needs.

Canmore is interesting. There's the obvious old part, with straight streets on a grid. Then a probably not so old part (top left) that is mostly straight streets, and then there is to the south and on the east side of the highway that is all new. The condo is in a pocket between a main road and the train tracks.  Just on the west side of that main road (Railway Ave) is the river. I wish we had time to explore more! Our view from the condo looked out at Safeway, Canadian Tire, and Sav-On-Foods. You might think that's not very interesting, but it was very handy for us! And, we could still see the Three Sisters Mountains.

The Three Sisters. This was at 9:40pm!

The moon finally showed up, this was 10:06, and still plenty of daylight left. We could have gone and done the Grassi Lake hike but we were all tired and I had read that it is steep and many people have trouble (though it's a walk, not a hike). Next time?

Is this not the most iconic Canadian Tire ever? I'm sure it's been in ads. Rob and I walked over to the grocery stores to get sandwiches for the next day but they were pretty much sold out. Lucy said she'd go in the morning because she also wanted to go to Starbucks.

So that was a very long day! We didn't need to rush out the next morning, but we still had a timeline to follow so we all went to bed.