Heading north from the town of Banff we were excited to see Lake Louise. We had tried to book a spot at the nearby provincial campground but they were completely booked. So instead we were going to be staying in a lodge for the second time on the trip. There are two lodges at Lake Louise, the famous Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise and the much less expensive and only a five-minute walk further, Deer Lodge Hotel. As we did not want to pay $500+ for 1 night we found a room in the still pricey but lower priced Deer Lodge. We were all set to go!
Lake Louise
On the drive from Banff to Lake Louise I had reminisced with Julie about my time at Lake Louise back in 2007. I told her that I had driven from the highway up and up the mountain till it seemed like you were at the top. There was a close parking lot and you strolled to the emerald lake with the Chateau next to it. I could picture it so clearly. Back in present day the picture now was a little bit different. Lake Louise it seemed had gotten quite a bit more popular than it was back in 07’.
Miles away from the highway we started to see signs for parking lots near the highway that you were able to hop onto a shuttle to get up to the lake. Once off the highway and onto Lake Louise drive we hit stop and go traffic. Where once I had enjoyed a leisurely drive was now changed by a flood of people, no parking signs and police directing traffic. We tried to jump off the road to go to another lake (one that I thought was even prettier on my previous trip, Lake Moraine) but this lake was so crowded the police had closed the road. At this point we were pretty relieved that we had reservations at Deer Lodge, as at least we knew that we would have a parking spot.
We eventually made our way up to Deer Lodge and checked in. Our room wasn’t ready yet but that was no problem. It was about 1pm and we wanted to go check out the lake. As much as I might have complained about the traffic and crowds the lake was still the stunner that I had remembered. It took about 5 minutes to walk from our lodge to the lake. Through a parking lot, a small bit of forest and then the lake appears. Compared to the greens and browns of the forest, the greys and whites of the mountains a turquoise lake appeared. At first it almost appears unnatural. How can a lake be this color? But as you get closer you see that yes, it is real and boy is it spectacular!
We walked along the promenade on the east side of the lake, dodging people as we took pictures. We watched people row by in red rental canoes whose color really popped against the turquoise color of the lake. We then started on a path down the side of the lake. The further and further we went the fewer the people got until we reached the other side of the lake where only a few people had made it. We walked out to the water looking back towards the Fairmont, now looking quite peaceful from a distance away. On the other side of us stood a ravine, which climbed up into the mountains. We had read that in the early days to get people to come out to the lake the Canadian government had hired Swiss guides to build teahouses, which are still in operation to this day. We asked two hikers if they had been to the closest teahouse and how far was it. They told us that they had gone but we would need some warmer clothes if we wanted to do the hike as the trail got pretty snowy about halfway up. We then thought tea should probably wait.
We hiked slowly back taking the views of the lake from every angle that we could. Once back to the populated east side of the hotel we decided to check out the famous Fairmont. White it was still a nice hotel it didn’t wow us like the Fairmont from a few days prior in Banff. We did find the bar area which had an enormous window that looked out over the lake where we sat and enjoyed a post hike beer. From there we walked back into our lodge, took a shower and headed to dinner at our lodges restaurant.
After dinner we decided to take a walk. As it was getting later and in this part of Canada it wasn’t getting dark until 1130pm or so it wasn’t a problem. We walked back to Lake Louise and this time the crowds were gone. The lake had changed colors as well. It was still turquoise but with the changing lights the shades had changed as well. Gone was the light, in your face color and in its place a more subtle, soothing shade of blue. We walked around watching a few families as well as a couple of monks taking pictures (random I know). The views here with hardly anyone around is something that everyone should try to experience at least once in their life. It was a great end to a fun day!
Jasper National Park
The next day after a quick breakfast in the hotel and a stroll back over to the lake we jumped into Bubbles and headed north into Jasper National Park. (Lake Louise is part of Banff National Park. Also as a side note there are 8 national parks in this area of Alberta with Banff & Jasper being the 2 most famous. Moving on…) As we drove north the crowds dissipated and something weird happened. We encountered lakes almost as blue as Lake Louise. We thought it was a bit strange how one lake can be so famous and attract such crowds when there are lakes maybe an hour north of Lake Louise which are almost as blue and beautiful yet we had them almost to ourselves. It was really cool!
Columbia Ice Fields
One of the main attractions in Jasper is the Columbia Ice Fields. Ice fields are another name for glaciers and this area of the park there were 6 of them. These glaciers in this area actually are all connected as part of the massive Athabasca glacier. As these are extremely close to the roadway they are the most visited glaciers in the world. Julie and I knew they were popular but were not ready for the crowds…again. It had started raining when we arrived in the ice field area. While the edge of one of the glaciers is close enough to the road and parking area to go and touch the big trip to do is to sign up to ride one of the massive snow busses to take you further up onto the glacier itself.
We parked and walked into a building that served to sell tickets for the bus (as well as other glacier tours), a gift shop, restaurant and hotel. As it was rainy everyone and I mean everyone was inside. We went from being in roomy Bubbles to fighting our way through crowded halls like you do in New York City trying to catch a subway car. It was pretty nuts. Julie had her heart set on getting onto a glacier but as tours were almost full and it was raining harder now, it just wasn’t going to happen on this trip. It was still pretty cool to see so many glaciers so close. We wandered into the gift shop area picking up a postcard before we ran back through the rain to Bubbles and continued our way north.
Town of Jasper, Alberta
We were now headed north near the town of Jasper. Like national parks in the USA, there were plenty of campgrounds in the national parks in Canada. Unfortunately for us on this day every single one we passed was full. We could not find a single campground that had a spot available. So for the first time in two years because campgrounds were full we would be spending two consecutive nights in a hotel. We searched Jasper for one that could accommodate a van of Bubbles size (the first thing we have to do when searching for a hotel), found one and called and reserved a room. It might have all been for the better though as it had rained a lot that day and as anyone that has camped knows, camping in the rain isn’t the most fun time.
After checking into the hotel and the rain was slowing down we decided to take a walk around the small town. Jasper was much different than Banff. It was much smaller and did not have the wealth that Banff did. We really liked it though. In walking around we learned some pretty cool facts about Jasper. Because it is located in a national park the size of the town can never increase. As just about every house in town was spoken for the population was also never going to increase or decrease by a vast amount. The most interesting fact though was that in order to buy a house in Jasper you had to either have a job or own a business in town. You could not buy a vacation property in town. This was very different than Banff, which had houses and condos for sale everywhere we looked.
We walked around the town a bit more stopping for dinner at an Indian buffet restaurant called Jasper Curry Place before going back to our hotel and calling it a night. Before going to bed we turned on the TV and on almost every single channel had coverage of the Toronto Raptors winning the NBA championship. We thought this was pretty neat as 1. Toronto was about a 37-hour drive away from central Alberta and 2. The entire country was cheering for them and celebrating. This would be like if the Buffalo Bills had won the NFL championship and the entire country was rooting for them collectively. When your entire country has only one team though, they are every town’s home team.
We woke up the next morning to a surprise call from my Dad. It was almost the weekend and he wanted to come visit for a few days. This was pretty exciting, as he had never joined us on the road before. My Mom had been with us through Idaho, Mississippi & Alabama and Julie’s parents had visited in California & Texas. As we were going to be heading to Edmonton the day after anyway we pushed up our schedule a day and said that we would meet him in the city later on that day. We checked out from our hotel and took a second stroll around Jasper.
This time we checked out the Jasper Park headquarters before taking a loop around the small downtown. We then hopped back into Bubbles and headed a few hours east to North America’s largest northernmost city of Edmonton.
Next up…a fun filled fathers day weekend in Edmonton!
