Lake Louise-Day 1 & Lake Moraine

I was going to combine Day 1 and Day 2 at Lake Louise, but decided there were so many pictures that I want to post that I would be better off breaking it into two. So depending on how long it takes me to do this tonight, I may do two posts. We will see how this goes.

To begin with, I was delighted to wake up to a blue-sky day after so many cloudy days. It was really chilly here, but other than that, beautiful. We planned to take the gondola to the top of the mountain at Lake Louise and this was a great day to do it.

If I show you pictures of mountains that I have already photographed before, it's because I was so excited to see them without clouds on the tops that I may have doubled up on them. Regardless, they are still beautiful.

 

 

We were pleased when we arrived at the Lake Louise Gondola and Ski Mountain.

There was a beautiful, very large log lodge where we bought tickets for the gondola ride.

Then it was on to the ski lift. We opted for an open chair in order to take pictures more easily. Besides, they advertised that this was the best place to see grizzly bears. Didn't want to miss that! So up we went. It was about a 15 minute ride to the top where you can see almost to the end of the earth.

 

From the top we could see across the valley up into the mountains on the other side and could see Lake Louise and the hotel. Note the aqua colored spot in the middle. That is the lake. There is a large glacier in the background. The hotel is pretty hard to see in this picture.

From up here, Don commented that this was the most beautiful view he had ever seen. And it is. Unfortunately, there is no way the camera can do it justice.

For one thing, it would take an extremely wide lens to get the width of the view up there. However, I will attempt to show you some of what we saw from the 'top of the world'.

Then it was time to start back down. That is when we realized how steep the mountain really was. We discussed our favorite daughter-in-law, and how she would have reacted to this ride down. It is possible that it may have been the scream heard 'round the world... But maybe not.

As we rode down, we kept our eyes peeled for grizzlies. They are supposed to be so all over the place, that the parking lot and lodge is surrounded with electric fencing to protect guests from big furry surprises.

So we arrived at the bottom with no sign of bears. When mentioning it to the lift operator, he offered to tie a steak around Don's neck and send him into the woods. He seemed to think that would guarantee seeing bears. We'll take a rain check on that.

After our ride on the gondola, we went up to Moraine Lake, about a seven mile drive that goes out near Lake Louise. It is an amazingly gorgeous drive, ending up in a crowded parking lot and a small lake at the top. This lake doesn't get much press, but with the exception of the big fancy hotel, rivals Lake Louise for beauty.

Then we saw the lake....

After hanging out there for a while we started back toward camp, catching one more quick shot on the way down.

One of the things I have forgotten to mention, is that a lot of the snow you see in the mountains is actually glaciers. When glaciers melt, the water is a beautiful turquoise blue and we see this color is both lakes and streams. The color stands out more when the water is deeper, as in the lakes. As if it wasn't beautiful enough here, we also get turquoise water everywhere. This is an amazing place!