Banff National Park

07/06/07 - 07/09/07

I spent a total of four days in the area of Lake Louise. I went a little overboard and ended up hiking somewhere on the order of 50 km (Gotta do metric now. I'm in Canada, eh.) for the four days. That's 30 miles for those of you metrically challenged. Plus, many of the hikes had serious elevation changes. So my legs are complaining a lot right now.

On the first day, I spent driving the Bow Valley Parkway from Banff to Lake Louise. I hiked the Johnston Canyon Trail to several waterfalls and also hiked to Silverton Falls. In the evening, I hiked the length of Lake Louise.

I started the second day by hiking to Lake Agnes. After 3.4 km of hiking that gains 385 meters in elevation, you come to a tea house. They built the original tea house in the early 1900's to encourage visitors to hike. I didn't stop for tea, but I did notice that they wanted $7 for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. In the evening I went for a short 6-7 mile bike ride on the Bow River Loop Trail.

I took a short drive on the third day to Yoho National Park. I spent the day there hiking the Emerald Lake Loop Trail and the Emerald Lake Basin Trail. The Emerald Lake Basin was awesome. It's a hanging valley surrounded on three sides by mountains. There are several waterfalls coming off the mountains and it all collects in a stream that heads down from the valley and eventually works its way to Emerald Lake. The hike makes you work, but it's totally worth it.

On the fourth day, I did two hikes. I started the day by hiking to Fairview Lookout. The lookout gives you a view of Lake Louise. I was also able to see some rainstorms in the distance as well. The second hike was a long hike to the Plain of the Six Glaciers. This hike also had another tea house along the way. It's a long uphill climb. But again, it was worth it. You get to a valley where you are surrounded by rocks and ice. The views back towards Lake Louise are pretty cool as well.

Emerald Lake Basin
Steve Winker