June 19 – Lake Louise and Agnes Lake Teahouse

Yesterday was a day off of rest and reading. It's been a while.

You can drive your own vehicle up to Lake Louise, if you get up really early as the parking lot is very small, and you are OK with paying around $40. I heard that the commercial buses charge about $45 pp. We took the $4 pp shuttle bus, again booked in March.

The trail to the Lake Agnes Teahouse is about 7.3 km return with a rise of 380 m or 1200 feet in elevation up the mountainside next to the Lake Louise.

From the elevation profile you can see that it a very constant but not a horribly steep climb.

The weather today was not bad. It was mostly sunny until almost exactly when we got to Agnes Lake. Then it became cloudy and rather cool.

Most people arriving at Lake Louise just take the classic shot from the end and walk the partway around the lakeshore trail.

We found a somewhat empty spot for our shots.

We were rather disappointed as to how plain the hotel looked when compared with the Banff Springs. Also only registered guest were allowed on the grounds.

That long, seemingly endless, first straight climb was all in the trees with no views.

Given the huge number of people here I shouldn’t have been surprised at how busy the trail was. We almost always had other people in view, sometimes large groups.

At the first corner there was a small peek at the lake.

Some rented a canoe to go out for a paddle.

The next stop was Mirror Lake with “The Big Beehive” in the background.

The photosphere.

At first Jennie thought / hoped that this was our destination.

But it was another kilometer and 100m higher. The following pictures are from the way down, as revealed by the much darker skies.

As soon as we left Mirror Lake it seemed to get much more wintery.

But also a bit more open.

We could barely see the Chateau.

Just before the Tea House there is a waterfall from the water exiting the lake.

The rest of the short way is up some stairs to climb that cliff beside Jennie.

To frozen Lake Agnes,

We found a front row rock and had a chilly lunch. Jackets and gloves on.

This very blue bird was checking the place out for food.

The Tea House only serves tea and baked good (I think). There was a long line waiting to get it.

The photosphere.

There is a trail that runs along the other edge of the lake and eventually climbs up The Big Beehive.

At the bottom there had been a sign saying the trail was closed because of heavy snow. We saw some people crossing the snow at the end of the lake and then turning around.

One more selfies before we headed back down.

On the way up we stopped a lot. Going down we only stopped briefly at the viewpoints. It was a fast trip.

We were pretty lucky with our bus timing. Both ways there was no lineup. We were the last ones on on the way up and almost the last on on the way down. No sitting or standing around waiting waiting for transportation.

Back at the Lake Louise Ski Resort The parking lot was very full. The long line of RVs have to park along the road.

This trail was marked as moderate but I was a bit worried about making it all the way up. It was actually not that much of a problem but is nearing what our old bodies are comfortable with. It was great to be back in the RV to rest.