Lake Louise Hike

We woke up this morning at 5am, as we were heading to Lake Louise which was 45 minutes drive away. We had both read that parking at Lake Louise was limited and to ensure you got a park you needed to be there before 8am, which was sunrise. As soon as we stepped out of the apartment we were staying in we could feel how cold it was, at only a couple of degrees. A lot colder than when we were in Yosemite. I decided to take my thermals with me, although I wasn’t sure if I would need them.

We hopped in the car and were on our way by around 5:45am, and we took the freeway to Lake Louise. We noticed that everyone goes about 20km/h over the speed limit of 90 km/h. I said to Scott to slow down as I was concerned we would get a speeding ticket but then everyone overtook us anyway so we decided to just go the speed everyone else was driving at.

We arrived at the carpark and found a park fairly easily. We both put on our thermals as it was about 0 degrees and very cold. We walked down to the lake and watched the sunrise, which started to light up the mountains surrounding the lake. We had quite a big day ahead of us, around 20km so we started walking at 8am towards Lake Agnes. The track was all uphill but it wasn’t to steep as we zig zagged up to Mirror Lake. As we were at the end of the Summer season there wasn’t much water in the lake but we could see the Big Beehive behind the lake. It looked massive and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to make it up. We continued on to Lake Agnes where there is a teahouse and had breakfast. It was only a short stop as it was really cold.

We started around the lake and put on our ice cleats immediately as there was snow and ice and we didn’t want to slip over. We started on the uphill switchbacks towards the Beehive and were watching people behind us try to stay on the track while on hands and knees while we powered off with our ice cleats on. We arrived at the top and met another group who said they were climbing Devil’s Thumb, we thought we would give that a go after walking to the lookout. The views from the lookout were beautiful looking over the mountains and valley.

As we walked back to the turn off to Devil’s Thumb we met the group who said they didn’t get far as you had to rock climb and the trail was very narrow. We thought we would give it a go and found the short rockclimb section and continued. We didn’t think it was too difficult until we reached a steep, wet and slippery slope, covered in snow. I had also forgotten my sunglasses so the snow was blinding in the sun. I was also struggling up the slope on hands and knees in some sections. We stopped a few times debating whether the views would be worth it as it was taking us a long time to get to the top. We continued and at the top the views were magnificent with the mountains in the background and views of Lake Agnes and Lake Louise.

We had wasted a lot of time climbing Devil’s Thumb, so we slowly made our way down the slippery section, and to the turn off towards the Plain of Six Glaciers. We had some snacks and continued to the next teahouse which was 5km away but we thought we could stop there for lunch. As we walked downhill to the next teahouse we picked up our pace, and could see views of the Glaciers in front of us. We finally arrived at the next teahouse a bit after 2pm, and relaxed and had lunch. It was a 2km walk to the Plain of Six Glaciers viewpoint and mostly flat. We continued to the viewpoint which had a beautiful view down to Lake Louise and surrounding by Glaciers.

We then headed back to Lake Louise and on the way we even passed some big white Mountain Goats that were on the edge of the rock walls. At first we were sure what they were until couple said Sheep have brown wool so they would be Mountain Goats. We continued on the track until the edge of Lake Louise and finally made it back to the car just after 5pm. I drove on the way back to the hotel, and as soon as we arrived we quickly changed into our bathers and headed to the Hot Tub which was really nice on our sore muscles. In total we had walked 22km with a total ascent of 1,100m.

For dinner we had a Gluten Free Pepperoni Pizza which we had bought from Walmart with a salad before heading off to bed.Read more