With our tent and food loaded we excitedly set off early morning for our adventure into the Rockies. Over the next 2 hour drive the landscape slowly changed from city to rolling hills to dramatic peaks as we entered the south of the national park.
We arrived in Banff at 11am, dropped off the car and after a quick browse around the tourist information office (which is also the train station), we took a shuttle bus up to the Mount Norquay chairlift station to meet our Via Ferrata guide Kim for an afternoon of traversing the cliffs above Banff town. Luckily, no one else had booked onto our tour so we had the 4 hour session to ourselves. After a quick safety briefing, and kit out in harnesses and hard hats we were on our way up the chairlift. The next four hours were EPIC!
Our Via Ferrata course took us across gorges, scaling sheer cliff faces and up to the peak ridge of Mount Norquay for 360 views across Banff national park. It was a day where the sun seemed to come out just at the right time and the rain seemed to be avoiding us. We took in the incredible views that without the Via Ferrata routes would only be accessible to extreme climbers and mountain goats; and we had them all to ourselves. What a way to kick off our Rockies adventure – we would recommend to everyone (except CJ and anyone else with a fear of heights!!).
After an adrenaline filled few hours we headed back down the mountain to find our campsite, set some bear traps (only joking!) and headed back into Banff town to admire the Bow River before head to Bare Street Tavern to celebrate surviving the mountains, and plot our next scheme before heading back to camp to test out our $25 tent – fingers crossed!
Both we and the tent survived the night and the next day we only had to head an hour up the road to Lake Louise. First we took a short walk over the road to look at some Hoodoos. These are tall thin columns of rock that stick up out of the landscape and are usually formed of a soft easily eroded rock that is topped by a harder rock that protects the rock below from erosion. These weren’t particularly impressive, but the views of the surrounding mountains – Mount Rundle, Sulphur Mountain and Tunnel Mountain – and the Bow River valley were. We also stopped briefly at Surprise Corner Lookout, where the surprise was…. a view of a big hotel.
When we arrived in Lake Louise we were extremely glad that we had pre booked the Lake Louise camp site as the village was heaving and the national park strictly controls the amount of tourists that drive up to the lake itself, with parking space for the shuttle buses also limited. As a result, we checked into our campsite at midday, left the car there and walked the 4km trail to the lake shore. What a view! Whilst Lake Louise is busy, the view is most definitely worth it and the shore line is so long that if you’re reasonably able bodied you can walk round to find a quiet spot to enjoy it all to yourself.
Of all the hikes in the area Kim, our guide from yesterday, had recommended the one to the teahouse at the Plain of Six Glaciers. Gareth had visited Lake Louise on his previous trip to the Rockies so it was also a great opportunity to extend our walk to give him a bit of a different view of the area. By the time we had had reached the far shore of the lake, we had completely left the tour groups behind and were soon resuming our ‘clap and shout’ approach to Bear avoidance!! The route wandered gently up the valley, through forests and cliff faces, with intermittent fantastic views back across to Lake Louise and the famous hotel on its far shore.
The trees were just starting to turn autumn yellow, which gradually increased as we drifted up the mountainside and the glaciers became more prominent features. The last kilometre was steeper uphill so by the time we reached the teahouse we were in awe of those crazy first summiteers who had made it to the top of the mountains at the end of the valley. It’s impressive to think that people had built a teahouse in the middle of the mountains in 1927 and that the amazing staff still live there during the week and carry in and out weekly restocks on foot so that hikers don’t go hungry! We were therefore obliged to sample some mountain soup, stew and (of course) tea as we sat overlooking the glaciers and jumping at periodic avalanches/ ice calving (we heard and saw 3 whilst we were there!).
We got back to our campsite by the shuttle bus, which is free on the way down. We tried to get an early night, because the Moraine Lake car park also fills up quickly and the walk there wouldn’t have fitted into our day. This was helped by sharing a bottle of red wine and the relaxing feeling that we were safe from bears as this campsite had an electric fence around the perimeter.
When Gareth was came to the Rockies with his family, one of his highlights was the view from the top of “The Rockpile” over Moraine Lake and down “The Valley of the Ten Peaks”. As a result he was keen to go back and share this experience with Claire. Unfortunately we woke up to rain and grey sky, but not to be deterred and with weather reports suggesting the rain might ease off we drove up to across to Moraine Lake for 9am, just before the car park filled up. When we got to the viewpoint the lake was just about visible, but the mountains around it were still tucked under a duvet of white clouds. As we stood and looked at the lake and read all the information signs, the rain started to ease and after 20 minutes of mist and drizzle we were rewarded. The clouds retreated and we were left with a truly spectacular view!
After enjoying the view we headed off up the Icefields Parkway and on towards Jasper. That will be another post though…
Claire and Gareth go travelling! 