Canadian Rockies

Thursday we left our bed and breakfast and headed towards Lake Louise. Our B&B at the right was a wonderful place, but not quite as nice as it looks, as we were in the basement. But all in all, it was close to town, and a great place to stay.






On the way toward Lake Louise, we stopped at Athabasca Glacier. Each year this glacier is retreating several feet, but it's still very impressive. You can walk right up to and out on the glacier, but it's *surprise, surprise* amazingly slippery. I think part of that was because we were there in the morning early, so it had frozen over night.



After that we were on to Lake Louise. For what was probably the most amazing hike of the week, mostly because of the tremendous elevatoin change. We started at lake side and hiked all the way up to Big Beehive about 1500 feet above the Lake. The hike winds it's way up to Mirror Lake and then to Lake Agnes and the teahouse, before continuing around that lake to Big Beehive, a nearly straight up hike with more than a dozen switchbacks. The view from the top is more than worth it.


To the left is a picture of Big Beehive, still very daunting from Mirror Lake, which is already half way to the top. At the right is a picture of Lake Agnes, just in front of the teahouse, and the beehive is around the lake and to the left.






This picture is from the back of Lake Agnes, looking back at the teahouse as we got ready to make the hike up to Big Beehive. Luckily the weather was nice, with a slight overcast... a great day for hiking.








And this amazing view from the top. You can see the blue/green Lake Louise, with the beautiful Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise at the bottom. From here we hiked back down, and headed for Johnston Canyon Cabins for a repeat stay.