Columbia Icefields, Lake Louise and Banff
june 12
Today, the plan was to head up the glacier by foot and by bus. When I woke up however, it rained. I took a look outside my tent, and saw what I had allready feared: the weather did not look good at all. Not only was it raining, the cloudbase was so low that you could only see the lower edges of the glaciers. The mountaintops and the rest of the glaciers disapeared inside the clouds.
I decided to head up to the visitors centre and the glacier itself anyway, to at least take a look at it. Once up the small area you can walk on without a guide, it became clear that it would be useless to spend more time and money here to get futher up the glacier. Instead, I packed up my tent and headed for a slow drive with many stops to Lake Louise, including a stop at a very pretty view over Peyto lake. I tried to get to a campsite next to a waterfall a bit west of Lake Louise, but the road up was closed. I did manage to catch a train going through the famous figure 8 tunnel, build to decrease the slope of the rails. You see the back of the train going into the tunnel, while the front is comming out at almost the same spot but quite a bit lower. Very nice!
I ended up staying in the Lake Louise hostel. Staying in Lake Louise is expensive! Although the hostel is very nice, I find it a bit overpriced really. However, since the campsite was expensive too, and it was raining, I opted for the hostel anyway.
June 13
I had a good nights sleep, and got up early to beat the crowds at Lake Louise (the lake itself) and lake Moraine. It must be said: the lakes are beautifull. I may try to back on a better day however, as the much of the mountains around the lakes were still in the clouds.
I wend back to the hostel to check out and get my gear, and make a reservation to go rafting in the afternoon. The trip would leave from Banff early in the afternoon, so I took the old, scenic road from Lake Louise to Banff. Here I saw more elk (at leat, I think it was elk). I arrived in Banff with plenty of time to spare, so I wend to go look for a nice campsite right away. I ended up staying at the beautifully located site of Two Jack Lakeside. With a spot overviewing a lake surrounded by mountains, I was more than happy.
The rafting was very cool! The whitewater on horseshoe canyon made for a thrilling ride. We even had the the opportunity to jump a cliff into the river, several meters down. I took the plunge, of course, but it was quite scary to be honest!
The afternoon was passed when I arrived back in Banff, where I first wend to get something to eat and then headed back to the campsite. A bit of reading and a couple of cups of tea later, I wend to sleep.
Today, the plan was to head up the glacier by foot and by bus. When I woke up however, it rained. I took a look outside my tent, and saw what I had allready feared: the weather did not look good at all. Not only was it raining, the cloudbase was so low that you could only see the lower edges of the glaciers. The mountaintops and the rest of the glaciers disapeared inside the clouds.
I decided to head up to the visitors centre and the glacier itself anyway, to at least take a look at it. Once up the small area you can walk on without a guide, it became clear that it would be useless to spend more time and money here to get futher up the glacier. Instead, I packed up my tent and headed for a slow drive with many stops to Lake Louise, including a stop at a very pretty view over Peyto lake. I tried to get to a campsite next to a waterfall a bit west of Lake Louise, but the road up was closed. I did manage to catch a train going through the famous figure 8 tunnel, build to decrease the slope of the rails. You see the back of the train going into the tunnel, while the front is comming out at almost the same spot but quite a bit lower. Very nice!
I ended up staying in the Lake Louise hostel. Staying in Lake Louise is expensive! Although the hostel is very nice, I find it a bit overpriced really. However, since the campsite was expensive too, and it was raining, I opted for the hostel anyway.
June 13
I had a good nights sleep, and got up early to beat the crowds at Lake Louise (the lake itself) and lake Moraine. It must be said: the lakes are beautifull. I may try to back on a better day however, as the much of the mountains around the lakes were still in the clouds.
I wend back to the hostel to check out and get my gear, and make a reservation to go rafting in the afternoon. The trip would leave from Banff early in the afternoon, so I took the old, scenic road from Lake Louise to Banff. Here I saw more elk (at leat, I think it was elk). I arrived in Banff with plenty of time to spare, so I wend to go look for a nice campsite right away. I ended up staying at the beautifully located site of Two Jack Lakeside. With a spot overviewing a lake surrounded by mountains, I was more than happy.
The rafting was very cool! The whitewater on horseshoe canyon made for a thrilling ride. We even had the the opportunity to jump a cliff into the river, several meters down. I took the plunge, of course, but it was quite scary to be honest!
The afternoon was passed when I arrived back in Banff, where I first wend to get something to eat and then headed back to the campsite. A bit of reading and a couple of cups of tea later, I wend to sleep.
posted by André Somers at 1:42 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home