Rocky Mountains // Banff Nationalpark // Lake Louise

Parker Ridge

Our plan was to stay at the Icefield Center for only one night and pack up our stuff to hitchhike to Lake Louise, the next biggest town in Banff Nationalpark.. until.. Ellen offered us some hot tea. I was the only one receiving it since my body craved something warm after the hike to the Athabasca Glacier in the morning. Yep, we weren't as well prepared for this camping trip. The boys wanted to keep it adventurous and wanted to do stuff like: camping wild, making our own fire, using soup cans instead of pots.. didn't work out that well I'd say.

But anyways, so at the end, we stayed one more night and Ellen gave us a ride to Lake Louise. Again, we were really fortunate to meet her because she even offered us to stay at her place when we would arrive back in Vancouver. Crazy, huh? So, it's always better to not plan and just go with the flow..

The day we drove towards Lake Louise, we stopped at several sightseeings and did one short hike, which was manageable for my swollen and blue ankle. First, we did the 2hr, 5,4km (with return) Parker Ridge Trail which brought us to the amazing view of the Saskatchewan Glacier and the Saskatchewan River. Then, we stopped at Peyto Lake, which has this incredible ice blue color. The third stop we did was at Bow Lake, which was just amazing and beautiful. I loved it there because you could also walk by the water and not only stand on a platform to look at it.

Peyto Lake

Bow Lake

Num-Ti-Jah-Lodge at Bow Lake

Since we spent so little time in the Jasper Nationalpark, we decided to stay the rest of our trip in Lake Louise. At first, we really had a hard time finding a space to pitch our tent because it is high season right now and the campground here was full, but for the first night everything turned out fine because the Hostel in town had three spots left. It was kind of expensive but at that point (it was early evening again) we would take anything. After checking in, we went hiking shoes shopping and although it was super expensive, I was happy with my purchase. That day we did not do much and were glad about a hot shower and some warm food. You really get to appreciate it. The next day, we got up early and hoped for a spot at the campground. Again, we had luck and booked three more nights there. Funny thing, when we walked to our site, there was a stick on the table, which turned into my hiking stick and it was just perfect for my ankle..

Mount Temple

Mount Fairview to the left at Lake Louise

The first day, we hiked from the campground to Lake Louise, a 4km + hike, which would be our little warm-up for what was coming. Arriving at Lake Louise, it was really crowded and touristy so that we decided to hike further to Mirror Lake. When we arrived there, we were like: Well, it's actually not too bad, let's hike up to the Tea House and to Lake Agnes. In total, we did something like a 14 km (with return), 400m elevation gain, hike. So, at the end it took us pretty much the whole day, but it was totally worth it, hope you enjoy the pictures!

Mirror Lake

Lake Agnes

Yes, my very first pair of Hiking Shoes!

The next day, we rested a bit for our big hike coming up.. We wanted to conquer Mount Fairview because Ellen recommended to us: if you guys only had one day in Lake Louise, do Mount Fairview, 5.1km to summit, 1013m elevation gain, 5 to 6 hour roundtrip. And yes, although a bit handicapped, I wanted to do it, too! 

The German neighbours, there are so! many travelling :)

A new post, only for the Mount Fairview Hike is coming up the next days, so stay tuned for more beautiful pictures! 

And the pictures underneath were taken after the big hike at the Hostel in Lake Louise. After three nights of camping and lots of hiking, we decided to volunteer and work there to stay for free. We wanted to relax and one night, I got to listen to some elders of the First Nation, they talked about their culture, how they had to adapt to the West and what they would do when seeing a bear. I had a blast that night!