 Chateau Lake Louise |
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Chateau Lake Louise, also in Banff National Park, was my favorite place. The setting is spectacular. Lake Louise is an incredible blue from the glacial silt called rock flour that is suspended in its glacier-fed waters. And the glacier above is magnificent. Our room was on the flouth floor and looked directly out over the lake and up to the glacier.
We motored up to Lake Louise after a brief stop in Banff. Instead of going with our group, we had ourselves dropped off just outside Lake Louise Townsite at a trailhead going up to the Chateau. It is a wonderful hike, along the Louise River through the woods. Not too difficult, climbing perhaps 1000 feet in elevation over 3 miles. There are some lovely spots, great views of the valley below and the welcome of the Chateau at the end.
Once we'd checked in, we had some lunch and then left to hike up to Little Beehive. There is a well marked and quite do-able trail all the way up. The higher you go, the fewer people you run into. After a while the trees thin out and suddenly, you get some spectacular views out across the valley and over to the mountains on the north side of Lake Louise. Lake Louise itself is like a turquoise jewel set in the dark green of the trees. Altogether, we hiked about 10 miles that day and went up 2600 feet of elevation. Best hike I ever had. We even got a little snow around the teahouse which sits by Lake Agnes.
That evening, at dinner, I had a buffalo rib-eye. It was amazingly good, in a wine sauce that nicely accented its flavor.