Sunday June 15, 2014 Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada

Today was our bus tour of the area.  The bus tour leaves at 8:30.  Last night I set an alarm on my phone to get up at 6 AM.  I set the alarm allowing for the time difference.  It turns out that my phone was already on local time.  I suppose because I had made phone calls yesterday.  Anyway, the alarm went off at 5 AM.  When I noticed my mistake, we tried to go back to sleep.  I set another alarm for the correct time.  NOT, we woke up again at 6:35.  When we got up it was raining and 44 outside and 55 inside.  Before I made coffee I turned on the electric space heater.  That quickly knocked the chill off in the front of the coach.  I decided to turn on the furnace in the rear of the coach before we left to keep the coach warm for our return.  I set the temperature on 68.  That furnace works on electric and I feel safer leaving it on when we are away than I do leaving the space heater on.

The bus came at 8:15.  Ben used a lottery system to assign couples to seating.  This bus was a 45’ Prevost and had a huge windshield and very large side windows.  We were in row four and had a good view out both the right side and windshield.  Our driver was Paul.  We were very lucky, he turned out to be an informative guide.  He had lived in this area for many years.

Our first destination was Johnston Canyon.  The couple we had talked to yesterday on the top of the ski lift had mentioned that Johnston Canyon was the highlight of this area.  It was a beautiful canyon with two waterfalls.  We had time to walk to the first falls, it was ½ mile.  The second fall was another mile.  The walked seemed to be further than ½ mile.  Maybe it was the up and down nature of the trail or maybe it was the altitude.  The walk went along a rushing stream and in places was pinned to the wall of the canyon.  In those spots the stream was running under the walk.  We saw several interesting rock formations and blockages caused by fallen trees.  Once the falls were in sight there was a bridge over the stream and a tunnel to get even closer to the falls.  The tunnel was low and the close proximity of the falls made a heavy mist in the air.  Getting that close to the falls was a great, although short, treat.

Elk in the Athabasca River

After Johnston Canyon we went to the Chateau Lake Louise Hotel for lunch.  There was time before lunch so Gerri and I walked out along the lake.  It was much nicer than yesterday, no wind.  Further up the lake the turquoise color was more pronounced and Gerri got a great picture.  Better than some postcards I have seen.  While walking along the lake side we managed to find a traditional cache.

At Johnston Canyon

Back at the hotel we went to one of the ballrooms for a buffet lunch.  Our group had the room to ourselves until about 12:30.  What a layout.  There were the traditional green salads and other types of salad combinations, a variety of entrees with sides and a vast selection of deserts.  Our schedule had called for brunch but this went way beyond brunch.  After we ate one of our group members, Dale, sang “Oh Canada” to us and it was an outstanding performance.

The falls in Johnston Canyon

After lunch we went to Moraine Lake.  This was another alpine lake but closer to the tree line than Lake Louise.  This lake was in an area called Ten Peaks Valley. On the road back from Lake Moraine many of us caught a quick glimpse of a grizzly bear on a trail off the road.  We made a 20 minute stop back at the campground for people with dogs to walk them.  It also gave us time to pick up our trip logs for a briefing later on the bus tour.

Lake Louise in the sunlight

A natural stone bridge across the Athabasca

On the way to Emerald Lake along Trans Canada we spotted a large grizzly bear walking along the railroad tracks.  Gerri got a good picture that even showed the tracking collar that he was wearing.  Gerri also spotted a female Elk along the road but there was no time to take a picture.  Emerald Lake itself was another beautiful alpine lake.  Of course it was emerald color unlike the others that we have seen that are more of a turquoise color. 

On the way back along TC-1 we stopped at an area similar to Tehachapi Loop in Southern California that consisted of tunnels to relieve the grade so trains could travel safely in both directions on a 2% grade.  We weren’t lucky enough to see a train go through.  A little further along the highway we saw an Elk and her calf crossing the Kicking Horse River.   A little further along we spotted a black bear on the railroad tracks, but didn’t get a good picture.

Back at the campground we had a short meeting with the group we will be parked with at Jasper tomorrow.  After that we drove to a nearby service station to check out the clearance for the diesel lane.  I wasn’t comfortable with the station so we decided to buy fuel further on even if it cost more.

Tomorrow we drive to Jasper a distance of 153 miles.  We have a stop along the way with a tour that goes onto a glacier along the Ice Field Parkway.  I hooked up the Jeep in the rain and we were blessed with more rain during the evening.

We skipped dinner because of the big lunch and called it a night at 11 PM with an alarm set for 8 AM in the morning.