Banff NP, Alberta --- Lake Louise & Moraine Lake

This morning after making a quick stop outside a coffee shop in Banff to pick up the wi-fi and wish our dads a happy Father’s Day (Have a great day, Dad!), we headed north to the Lake Louise area.  This area has some of the most scenic hiking in the park, for sure.  Here is the view from one of the shorter trails at Moraine Lake, a glacial lake nestled in the Valley of the Ten Peaks.  From high above, you can really see the effect of glacial silt that gives the lake its emerald hue.

I was concerned that the overcast and rainy weather would diminish the world-famous blue coloring of Lake Louise; I needn’t have worried.  On our way up to Agnes Lake, we caught several glimpses of Lake Louise from high above and the water was a spectacular Caribbean blue.

The weather today could not make up its mind – one minute it was sunshine and rainbows, the next it was angry gray skies and pouring rain.  We had decided to hike the Lake Agnes trail, anyway – rain be damned.  There are a couple lakes along the trail, and the sun came out as we reached the first one – Mirror Lake.

As we climbed higher and higher along the steep trail, Mother Nature threw everything she could at us to try to get us to turn back – rain, freezing wind, slushy snow and ice on the trail.  But we pushed on, all the way to the trail’s end at Agnes Lake.  It was lovely, but bitterly cold up there at 6900 feet compared to down at the base of the trail by Lake Louise (around 5750 feet).  Lake Agnes was still about half covered in ice.

One of our motivations for getting to the top was that we knew there was a teahouse up there.  Happily, it was open for business selling sandwiches, hot chocolate, and baked goods.  The sun came out just as we grabbed the only available table outside on the porch.  Then right after we ordered, the cold rain started up again.  Hot chocolate has never tasted so good.  Oh well, at least the hike back down was easy.