Day 14: Lake Louise

Lake Louise

Today we had the opportunity to directly start hiking from our camp spot so we took it, no drives needed. Our first goal for the day was Lake Louise (We are currently staying in Lake Louise Town/City). The Lake itself is around ~4 km and 200 m of elevation gain from the City and the campground.

For the way up we decided to go with the Tramline Trail, which was used by Tramways in the past. It has therefore a relative smooth climb.

Lake Louise itself was then crowded, but it’s understandable because it’s a really beautiful Lake and provides some great views to Mt. Victoria.

We had a light lunch there (granola bars) and then decided to try to get to Lake Agnes. In the tourist information we were warned that there are still snow patches and it can be dangerous.

Lake Agnes & Teahouse

An additional motivation was that there is a Teahouse next to Lake Agnes which can only be reached by trail. As we started the climb, we hoped to escape the crowds a bit. But after around 2 km of hiking, there were still countless people on the trail, so we realized that we probably stay with the crowd today.

On the way up we then came by Mirror Lake, which we used for a quick stop, before we tackled the final ascent.

After the last push we reached Lake Agnes and I was really baffled by the amount of People that hiked up here. It’s not an easy hike with nearly 500 m of elevation gain, but there were old and young and all sort of people. Even though we didn’t manage to escape the crowd, it was nice to see a big variety of people that like hiking (or they at least pretend to like it).

Teahouse

With that many people, we had to queue up for the Teahouse. The wait wasn’t too long to get a Table but we then had to wait quite a bit for the food. But it’s a really remote place and everything they need is carried up by the Staff that works there (except 2 helicopter shipments a season).

We had Banana Bread, PB+J Sandwich, Vegetable Soup and Tea.

After we got some energy back, it was time to go back down. From Lake Louise onward we took this time the Lake Louise Creek trail, which is a bit shorter but steeper.

In total we did 16.95 km and 614 m of elevation gain, it was a really nice hike and once again we were lucky with the weather. It was mostly cloudy, but we even saw the sun here and there. And there was no rain at all :)

Campground

One interesting fact about the campground is that there is a electric fence running around it to prevent bears (and other wildlife) from coming too close. On first sight it seemed a bit scary, but the reasons for it sounds logical. It helps to prevent that bears are getting used to people and loosing their fear. This would then probably cause more issues and would in most cases end with a dead bear…

Dinner

For Dinner we went again to the Outpost Pub (again), Nicole had Quesadillas and i went for the Goulash. Both was really good and we then had some drinks before it was time to go back to the campground. There was some rain during the time we had dinner, but since we are back now and sitting in the tent, it’s cloudy and could, but no rain.

Pictures

Activities

Hike: Lake Louise and Lake Agnes