Today we say goodbye to Banff, but hello to Lake Louise.  It was our first really day of rain and basically poor weather, so I suppose it was a good that it happened to be the day we were changing hotels and didn’t have much planned in the way of outdoor activities.

We checked out of the Banff Springs hotel in the morning and headed up the 1A toward Lake Louise.  We arrived in Lake Louise around noon, and were pleased that our room at the Chateau Lake Louise was ready.  The CLL is one of my favourite hotels, and we have stayed here each summer for the past few years.  We had some lovely rooms over the years, starting with a Junior Lakeview Suite the first year and a nice One Bedroom Lakeview Suite the second year.  This year, I splurged a bit (yes, even for me, who generally doesn’t spare much expense when it comes to nice hotels, meals or airline tickets) and treated ourselves to a fantastic suite for the next four nights!

We were booked in suite #703 on the gold floor, which is the Marquis de Lorne Signature Lakeview Suite, described on the hotel website as the finest suite in the hotel.  Below are some photos of this very nice room.

The main living room was in the corner of the building with two large walls of windows overlooking Lake Louise.

The bedroom also had an expansive window overlooking Lake Louise.

The suite had a spacious and updated bathroom.

We had a separate powder room off the main entrance.

After getting unpacked and settled in our room, we headed down to the Fairview dining room, where we had reservations for afternoon tea.  Since the weather was rather cool and rainy, it was a great way to spend the afternoon.

It continued raining for the rest of the day, so we basically relaxed indoors, hoping for better weather tomorrow, when we plan to get out and do some hiking.

We walked around the hotel in the evening, exploring the many retail shops.  Below is a photo we took while passing through the lovely lobby.

We went to bed excited about better weather to come.  Tomorrow’s forecast was for more cloudy weather, but the rain was supposed to stop.

The weather today was mostly overcast, so we are glad that we did our big hike yesterday when the sun was shining.    At least it’s not raining!

Today, we started with breakfast at the Lake Louise shoreline before heading out to see some local attractions.

We drove about 15 minutes west into British Columbia to the Kicking Horse Pass to see the CPR Spiral Tunnels.  Basically, when the CPR was trying to get the railway across the Kicking Horse Pass, the railway had to ascend too much elevation over too short a distance.  The narrow valley and high mountains limited the amount of area available for the railway to spread out to reduce the steepness of the track.  The solution was to build a series of spiral tunnels into the mountain sides.  Very cool feat of engineering, especially when you consider how long ago this was built!

We drove out to a viewing area to see the Upper Spiral Tunnels, and were lucky enough to see a train pass through while we were there.  In the video and photo below, you will see the train enter one end of the tunnel and exit in the other direction through the other opening.  The loud sound you hear in the background of the video is the rushing water of the Kicking Horse River below.

After watching the train pass, we returned to the car to head back to Lake Louise.  But as we were leaving, we noticed a second train coming up the valley.  So instead of heading straight back to Lake Louise, we quickly headed up the highway to the Lower Spiral Tunnels viewpoint to watch it pass through there.  On particularly long trains, you are able to see the same train in three different places simultaneously at the Lower Spiral Tunnels—first as it passes through the lower tunnel, second as it emerges from the upper end of the tunnel, and third as the train crosses the river and turns back toward the Upper Spiral Tunnels to complete another loop.

We then returned to Lake Louise to visit the ski area to ride the gondola up the mountain.  We had heard that this is one of the best places in the area for spotting grizzly bears.

Here’s a photo looking out toward Lake Louise from the viewing area at the top of the gondola.  I’m sure it would look much nicer on a clear day!

We visited the wildlife interpretation center at the top of the mountain, and then returned to the gondola for the ride back down.  Along the way, we did spot a grizzly bear!

Here are a few other photos from the ride.

After reaching the base lodge, we headed into Lake Louise village for some dinner. and then back to the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise for the evening.