Lake Louise

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Trip Start Sep 03, 2007 Previous
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  Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada
Monday, October 8, 2007

Lake Louise is only a couple of hours drive north from Banff and as we cruise along the Trans Canada Highway we are edged by high peaks with thick fir forests rolling down to the roadside. There are waterfalls tumbling out of the slopes and filling lakes next to the road. Impressive - that's cos I'm trying to find alternatives to "Awesome" !

This 7 day tour has been organised by Brewster, Canada who have booked all the hotels so its a case of seeing what we get.

One of my reasons for choosing this area was to see Lake Louise, "The Jewel of the Rockies". This is a glacial lake at a height of 6300 feet and is fed by glacier melt. The water running into the lake carries "rock flour", the tiny particles of rock that the glacier has ground down over centuries. This "rock flour" stays suspended in the lake and prevents the water from absorbing the blue light spectrum waves, hence the water appears a deep turquoise. This is most striking when the sun shines on the lake.

We arrived at the lake and checked into the hotel, this where I died and went to heaven !!!!
My opinion is that if you could stay anywhere in London - it would be at the Ritz; in New York - at the Waldorf Astoria. In Canada the place is the "Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise" - a fabulously grandiose, enormous hotel that was built by the Canadian Pacific railway in the early 1900's to bring tourists into the area. With its 500 plus suites and rooms it looks somewhat out of place in this setting but we got a room there !!!!!!! Now this is what you call real style.

Sadly it was 5pm before we reached the lake and even in the overcast evening it was still a magnificent site.

Trans Canada Highway 1

That's another dream fulfilled. We read the bear warnings and cautiously walked along the north side of the lake towards the infeed stream and saw squirrels feeding in the trees and running across the path. We could see icicles hanging over the cliffs as the edge of the high glacier melted to feed the lake. Canoes were quietly gliding on the lake, joining the few Loons (Canadian duck) before they all went in and let a calm descend with the twilight. We could hear, but not see, birds in the surrounding fir forest which added an aromatic scent of pine in the fresh lakeside air. On the return path a squirrel, sitting on top of a broken tree stump at the side of the path, ignored us and continued to eat his pine kernel until he'd finished and then scampered off into the surrounding forest. Fantastic.

It was still Thanksgiving and we reserved a table in the steak restaurant (we'd done the turkey bit) and spruced ourselves up. Cosy setting, a range of Canadian style tapas for starters including fresh salmon in a dill sauce, although I wasn't convinced about the mixed beetroot salad that had peanut crunch candy in it !!

Norah's steak came somewhat burnt, I know she had asked for it medium but there was enough of it edible not to have to send it back. My Bison steak was really tasty, something else different. We finished by having to have the bill checked, as they had overcharged for the 65 dollar wine - yes, 32 pounds sterling and still overcharged. Maybe heaven isn't all its cracked up to be !!!

Tuesday 9th. I was up at dawn as I wanted to spend the most time possible by the lake. In the early cloudy light I went and found a quiet spot and sat on a rock at the side of the water. I have never meditated but this was close. The stillness of the deep blue water and the majesty of the cliff face supporting the glacier in the steadily lightening day. Magically peaceful.

A family of Loons swam quietly across the rippleless lake, as if to wake it up and I felt something under me on the rock. I looked sideways and saw a tiny stoat (?), fawn coloured and six inches long scurrying hither and thither in search of his breakfast. There are a very few moments in your life that you just wish you could hold forever - this was one of mine.

Time to go for breakfast. We order poached egg on toast, which took ages to come and then the eggs were still raw. Talk about not being able to boil an egg! Perhaps this was heaven's way of returning me to earth, letting me down gently without me feeling too bad about leaving it !!

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Trans Canada Highway 3	Trans Canada Highway 2	Athabasca Falls	Lake Louise 3
Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise	Our hotel room	Lake Louise 1	Supper !
Lake Louise 2

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