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[jeremystravels]

Just curious if anyone knows the best way to get from Lake Louise to Moraine Lake without a car?

I'm flying in May 13 and leaving on the 18th and my ideal schedule is looking something along these lines. I'm just now trying to see how feasible it is:

Day 1 - Arrive Calgary, shuttle to Lake Louise
Day 2 - Lake Louise area
Day 3 - Moraine Lake and Lake Louise area
Day 4 - Lake Louise to Banff, explore Banff
Day 5 - Banff area
Day 6 - Leave Banff, Depart Calgary

Is this possible by a local shuttle or is hitch hiking / making friends my only option if I do not want to rent a car? I suppose I could renting a car would make things easier, but it might be a bit more expensive than the shuttles once gas is factored in and I'm trying to go cheap.

I'd like to get up to the Ice Fields too, but I am thinking that might be too expensive / time consuming to be a realistic idea.

[findingnine]

Wow we sure dropped the ball answering your questions on this one.
Whenever I go to the mountains, I drive, so have never had to seek out an alternative.

What did you end up doing?

[jeremystravels]

No problems. I couldn't find any public transportation that actually went to Moraine Lake w/o paying huge taxi fees. In fact, the Lake Louise area only seemed to have 1 taxi driver. Since I went in mid-May and the lakes were frozen over, I didn't bother going to Moraine Lake and took a tour up to the Columbia Icefields on the second day instead. The funny thing was that the road to Moraine Lake had just opened up, literally, the day I got there. So the rest of it was pretty good though!

[findingnine]

How was the Ice Field tour? I've never done that.

[jeremystravels]

I liked the tour for what it was, but it was awfully expensive. I think I appreciated the scenic drive up to Jasper from Lake Louise more than the actual Icefield Tour. Mostly because you don't actually see the Icefield, just a glacier that is coming off the actual field. They talk it up pretty big about how massive the Icefield is, but you can't even see it.

[findingnine]

Hmm, maybe I'll skip that.
I bet a plane ride over would be more fun!
I know there is (was?) a place in Golden that offers rides over the mountains. That's fairly expensive too, but fun for a different perspective.
Did you blog that leg of your trip? You should post a link here if you did.

[jeremystravels]

I would have paid a considerably higher amount of money to actually go on the ice field. The size of it is astounding.


I did blog about it! I need to upload pictures to it still. Probably will be doing that right now:

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/jerem...els/8/tpod.html

[aopaq]

Nice blog Jeremy! From your picture, I was amazed to see how much the Columbia glacier has receded since I last went by there many years ago.

I think the main reason why you can't access the actual Icefield is the difficulty to drive there. I agree with Keith that a view by air would be the way to go and definitely by helicopter. But as you noted about the cost of everything, I think it would be way too expensive for most folk and therefore not a profitable venture.

The other thing about going on the Icefield I think would be the danger factor related to crevasses. I am curious, were you allowed to walk on the glacier and leave the glacier buggy at all?

What did you think of the blue ice? I have spent time flying over and hiking by glaciers of various sizes in Northern BC and am always amazed at the colours. And of course drinking freshly melted glacier water is the best!

Sounds like you had a most enjoyable time in the Canadian Rockies!

[findingnine]

Loved your blog! So interesting to see how something that feels so local seems to someone from further away.
Glad to read you took some hikes. That is my favorite thing about the mountains. Just 6 weeks till I go to Canmore. You've got me all excited now.
I can't believe you didn't LOVE poutine! Ah well. Try it in Montreal.

Added note: liked how you included prices of things. Never thought of that, but it is helpful info for sure.

The bear sighting was lucky too. Never seen one that close. Crazy pics.

[jeremystravels]

Thanks for checking it out!

I agree, getting to the actual ice field is a big endeavor. We saw some people doing the hike up to the top of the glacier and the amount of gear they had was unreal. I think a helicopter ride would be amazing but, unfortunately, not many people would pay for it. We were allowed to get out of the buggy and walk around the glacier for a little bit (20 minutes). They have a small area carved out that people can walk around that is pretty far back from the actual joining point from the ice field. Still was pretty neat and great water to taste.

Poutine was... eh.. just not to my liking. I think it was the gravy that was added. I like having a more acidic bite to my fries than what poutine has. I hear Montreal is the place to go for good poutine so I might try it again if I go. We were shocked to see the bear on the way back from the Icefields trip. It was randomly in a tree literally right next to the road just eating leaves. The bus stopped so we could get pictures and a car came up behind us, honked, and freaked the bear out. Kind of funny.