LAKE LOUISE
Lake Louise is a highlight of Banff National Park. We planned to spend two nights at Lake Louise, which I highly recommend so that you can see everything you want in this area (Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, nearby Yoho National Park). We left Banff downtown at 8 am and an hour later, arrived and there was already traffic getting to the lake! It is no joke to come here ASAP in order to get prime parking. Otherwise, you need to park further away and shuttle over. We were lucky and were able to park in a lot close to the Fairmont Lake Louise hotel.
As a quick summary, this was what we did on Day 3 of the trip at Lake Louise:
Hike to Fairmont Lookout
Perimeter walk around Lake Louise by the hotel (FYI the hotel seemed more strict than the one in Banff in terms of access; the public can use it if they plan to shop/eat there though)
Attempted to visit Bow Glacier Falls
Visited Peyto Lake
Visited Mistaya Canyon
Day 3
We did the hike up to the Fairmont Lookout. It was a bit steep, but not terrible. Definitely knew there were animals in the area due to ‘evidence’ on the trails (meaning animal droppings, lol) but it felt safe. It’s about a mile and change one way up. When the trail flattens out and dips down a bit, you know you’re near the end of the hike and you’ll see a platform which allows you to see the lake in all its turquoise blue glory with the hotel in the back. The platform has a bench and a snack is recommended if you don’t have time for breakfast in the morning! It took us about 45 minutes to get to the top, starting at 9:45 am and we were back down by 11 am.
I also had the Lake Agnes Teahouse on my list as a possible trail to do but we ended up skipping it due to our later morning start (seriously, need to get here at like 6 am if you want to do this in peace without the hordes of tourists!). They actually ended up closing it that day too due to a nearby bear sighting! I’ve heard the teahouse hike is also long and steep so didn’t mind skipping it.
From 11 am - noon, we walked around the perimeter of Lake Louise which was gorgeous. It’s still so incredible to me that there are SO many people who come here to photograph it, yet it’s still possible to take a picture as if there is no one else here (definitely was not the case!).
Me & Lake Louise
For lunch, we had amazing sandwiches from this casual take out place at the nearby shopping center called Trailhead Cafe. The food was fresh, big portions, and so good we came back the next day to eat again!
The downtown area of Lake Louise is very small and you should definitely book a hotel way in advance as soon as you know you want to come here! I was very lucky to find room at Mountaineer Lodge back in January when I was looking. Initially almost all moderately priced rooms were sold out, but the lodge just renovated and released rooms back when I booked it. It’s going to be expensive in Banff/Jasper no matter what and I TOTALLY think it’s worth spending the money staying in the areas you want to stay in to limit all the driving back and forth. I’m so glad we stayed here due to it’s super close proximity to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, both of which are overloaded with tourists. Anyway, Mountaineer Lodge was great, very stylish and comfortable and they also have an indoor hot tub. Actually all the places we stayed at had a hot tub but we never had a chance to use them! They also include free breakfast, which was great. Another word of advice though: do your supermarket shopping in Banff before coming to Lake Louise! Their supermarket options were more expensive and tiny compared to Banff’s.
Another tip: If you need to use the restroom but can’t find a good public one, just head over to Lake Louise Gondola. This is a ski resort with another chairlift to the top of the mountain. It’s less than a 10 minute drive from downtown Lake Louise. We contemplated taking the gondola up, but the weather was cloudy and you can see the sky cam from the top broadcasted next to the ticket desk to determine if you feel like it’s worth going to or not. To us, it wasn’t so we skipped it and headed over to Bow Glacier Falls.
Bow Lake
So we never really made it to Bow Glacier Falls. I wanted to, but it’s considered bear territory and it wasn’t swarming with tourists like other trails were so didn’t feel comfortable going without any defense. However, the lake around here was GORGEOUS and reminded me very much of the mountains and lakes I saw in Patagonia! It’s great to just walk around the perimeter towards the Bow Glacier Falls trail. There is a path and you can walk as far as you want. It was also very windy here though on the day we came. We arrived here at 1:45 pm and left about an hour later.
Bow Lake
PEYTO LAKE
YES THE COLOR IS FOR REAL CYAN BLUE!
Peyto Lake is about 15 minutes drive north of Bow Lake and SOOO worth pulling over to see! Not much of a hike here, you go straight to the platforms overlooking this beautiful cyan blue lake. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a purely bright hued lake like this before.
MISTAYA CANYON
After the brief stop at Peyto, we then drove 30 min. north to Mistaya Canyon. The hike down to the canyon is less than a mile roundtrip and an easy walk but a semi-rocky trail. Canyon was cool to see but skippable if you don’t have the time for it. Also the fact I’m too lazy to find a picture of it to upload reminds me it was skippable, lol.
MORAINE LAKE - In the evening
By the time we returned back to the hotel and took a bit of a break, it was almost 6 pm. We decided to try our luck to get into Moraine Lake since traffic seemed to have lightened up. From Mountaineer Lodge, Moraine Lake was actually a bit closer to drive to than Lake Louise. We arrived at 6:30 pm to the parking lot and waited about 10 minutes before being able to park. But we were lucky! Pretty sure everyone after us had the same idea to come later in the day and the line to get into the park (by the time we left at 7 pm) was longer than when we came in. The problem though is that the parking lot is one way and circular, and people can’t see there are spots on the other side unless they risk going down that one way route and around towards the exit.
Anyway, getting a glimpse of Moraine Lake was pretty, but I didn’t get the hype. Why did everyone rave about this place? When we entered, I saw a ton of people to the left on a pile of rocks on a hill, but by then we were SO tired and I didn’t want to do another hike to see the lake from above. Also, in order to get up to the left side, it looked like you had to take this long path up and around. So we kept to the right side of the lake, which was also nice. I learned my lesson the next day though when I came back to see it at sunrise!
For dinner, we went to Peyto Cafe. The food was decent, just had burgers and fish and chips. We ate here twice as well since otherwise dining options were a bit limited in Lake Louise! It’s located inside a hostel but the service and ambience was very nice and laid back. Would recommend for an easy, relaxing dinner.