For the third night of our Canada adventure we spent the day in the Lake Louise area. This beautiful region of the Rockies is only about 1 hour from Banff, but be sure to take the Bow Valley Parkway rather than highway 1 as the drive is so much prettier on the backroads. This is also how you get to Johnston’s Canyon which I spoke about in my last post – again, this is well worth the stop.
There are a couple of other stops along the Bow Valley Parkway that we did, the first of which was the Morant’s Curve Viewpoint which is a lesser known stop on the side of the road but offers fantastic views of the Bow River meandering through the mountains.
The second viewpoint we stopped at was a little disappointing to be honest. It was called the Spiral Tunnels where a railway track winds its way through the mountains, but you can’t really see much unless there is a train coming which doesn’t happen very often. We stayed there for about half an hour and saw nothing, so I personally wouldn’t bother stopping here but if you’re particularly into trains and are prepared to wait then I’m sure you’ll see something eventually!
Although Lake Louise is the famous lake, there is also a lesser known one just 20 or so minutes down the road, Emerald Lake. I would argue that this is an equally pretty (and much quieter and less touristy) than Lake Louise. We spent the afternoon/evening wandering around the lake and surrounding woodland and just taking it all in – you can see how it got its name as the water is a deep green colour from the reflection of both the trees and the minerals in the water. Please please please visit this lake if you are in the area, it is a beautiful place, I could just sit there for hours looking out into the water. You can also go kayaking on the lake if you so wish.
Now for the main event – Lake Louise. Don’t get me wrong, it is a beautiful place, but the whole of the world knows that so it gets super busy especially in the holidays. Your best bet is to get there as early as possible to secure a parking space, which unfortunately we didn’t do. After getting redirected about 5km away to another car park, we had to queue for a shuttle bus that would take us to the lake. This took about an hour in itself and, as we had an activity booked in the afternoon, meant that we didn’t have a huge amount of time at the lake. However, we made the most of it by again going for a wander around the lake and taking lots and lots of stunning shots – Canada is so beautiful it really is.
We decided to eat at the Mountain Restaurant where the girls enjoyed a delicious Thai red curry bowl, I genuinely think it was the nicest curry I’ve ever had. All of the food looked really good though, it was so hard to choose! I can’t fault the place at all and, best of all, it has the most wonderful view out the window, a perfect way to end the evening.
We stayed overnight at the Mountaineer Lodge in Lake Louise which was near the lake and also offered a buffet breakfast included in the price which we definitely made the most of! One thing that this hotel did offer and should have made the most of was its complimentary shuttle to the shores of Lake Louise, because it would have solved the parking situation! This is definitely something to consider when looking at hotels in Lake Louise because, unless you get there as the car park opens, you’re not going to have much luck getting parked there and end up spending $5 each to get on a shuttle from another car park.
At about midday we set off for the next leg of our adventure, find out more in my next post!
Happy travelling!
Zoe and David
Written by Zoe
Not-So-Trendy Travellers 