When we were (loosely) planning our Canada trip, the one thing I was certain I wanted to do was the Teahouse Challenge - a walk at Lake Louise linking the Plain of Six Glaciers and Lake Agnes teahouses. Unfortunately, I had now also contracted the Canadian (wo)man-flu and wasn't entirely sure I could manage a long hike.
We decided to check out the Lake Louise gondola instead (lured by the promise of bear sightings), and were happy to discover that the $30 fare got us two rides each. We scoffed at the option of a closed-in gondola, and instead jumped on an open chair and spent the ride scouring the hillside for wildlife (and taking in the awesome view)(but mostly looking for bears).
Hard to focus on bear-watch with this view as a distraction
View from the top - Lake Louise is the tiny blue patch in the middle of the photo
Our first trip up and back resulted in several abandoned-hat sightings, but no bears. So we jumped straight back on and hit the jackpot close to the top, spotting two bears playing in a patch of snow further up the hillside. Having already checked out the view at the top on our first ride, we stayed on our chair and caught the bears a second time on the way back down.
Success!!
Feeling somewhat rejuvenated (or just too stubborn to
pass up my planned hike)(good chance it was the latter), I convinced Ryan that I was feeling well enough to
take on the Plain of Six Glaciers, and we headed back to Lake Louise.
Our goal beckoning from the far side of the lake
The shore was once again teeming with tourists, but it
didn’t take long to leave the masses behind once we started on the trail. I was so glad we decided to hike - the scenery was amazing. The track took us to the far side of Lake Louise and up into the snowy valley at its head, where we ascended between snow-capped peaks, flowing with cascades of run-off from the melting snow.
Opposite view to the photo above - looking back to the iconic Fairmont Chateau
I was once again stunned at how hot the day could be, yet
there we were walking through substantial patches of snow. There were plenty of
other walkers, and we passed a variety of characters, from shirtless teenagers,
to a guy with two cans of bearspray in a holster around his waist, to
a hot and dehydrated American who begged us for some sunscreen.
This cascade is water at the top and snow at the bottom
Looking back towards the lake from further up the valley
View up the valley
Walking on the moraine
We had to traverse a substantial patch of snow
(it may not have been melting much, but it was definitely very slippery)
Back in the trees as we neared the teahouse
The limit of the track was the Plain of Six Glaciers
teahouse, perched on the mountainside overlooking a massive glacial moraine. We ate our packed lunch to the accompaniment of a distant roaring avalanche (heard but not seen) and the much closer (and cuter) squirrels.
Plain of Six Glaciers teahouse
Our lunchtime view
This guy scampered away from me to hide behind this rock, then happened to pop his head up at just the right moment (this photo makes me smile...)
We detoured onto the Highland trail on the way back,
which cut across to the Lake Agnes teahouse. We didn’t visit the teahouse itself,
but skirted around the Big Beehive and stopped at Mirror Lake on the way down.
Here a brave (?) bikini-clad young woman was having a dip. Watching her, we
could almost convince ourselves we had stopped at some kind of tropical oasis
(if we ignored the patches of snow on the nearby banks). From there, we made the final descent back to Lake Louise, making a total of about 14.5km.
Descending back down the switchbacks to the teahouse
Highline trail paralleling the track we originally walked up in the valley below
View across the valley
Last open ground before we entered the forest
Walking in the forest above the lake
Mirror Lake (and more snow)
The Big Beehive
(don't know how it got it's name...)
One last squirrel
From there we drove the final section of the Icefields Parkway to Canmore, where we checked into our hotel and finally got to see Rachael who happened to be working the front desk (and was the whole reason (excuse) for our trip in the first place). She had managed to upgrade us several times, and our room was pretty cool (from the granite-topped kitchen bar to the shower which was so technologically advanced that it required its own remote).
Clearly roughing it
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