Tag Archives: Lake Louise

Day 5 – To Lake Louise

Posted on by
Reply

We packed up our bags and checked out of the Banff Springs, to head up to my favourite hotel, the Chateau Lake Louise!

It was another hazy day as we left Banff, and took the leisurely route up the Bow Valley Parkway instead of the Trans-Canada Hwy #1. Arriving in Lake Louise, it was hazy, and the normally stunning views were a bit muted by the smoke.

We sat on the shoreline for a while, watching the busy scene unfold. There were some young girls, apparently unafraid of the cold water, swimming in the glacial lake!

Here is Nadine taking in the views.

Checking in to the hotel, we were again given our usual lake view suite. We got unpacked and ready for dinner. In all of the times we’ve stayed here, we’ve never eaten at Lago, which is the Italian restaurant at the Chateau Lake Louise. We had reservations for dinner there, and the meal was excellent, which is to be expected at this hotel.

I think this is the largest pepper grinder I’ve ever seen!

After dinner, we returned to the room to get our jackets and changed for the evening. We took the photo below from the window of our suite. It seems the smoke is starting to clear.

Nadine had signed us up for a yoga/stretching class, which seemed like a good idea to get our muscles stretched ahead of our day of hiking tomorrow. The class was offered on the canoe dock!

After our stretch class, we returned to the room to get some rest. Our plan is to be up early for a day of hiking over at Lake O’Hara.

Day 12 – That’s a Wrap!

Posted on by
Reply

The time has come to head back home. Our flight home departs at 11:15 AM from Calgary, so we need to be on the road early. We’re taking a bit of a chance booking a morning flight while staying in Lake Louise in the winter, but we didn’t want to be arriving home too late in the day. We had packed up the car the night before, so just had to pack up a small bag in the morning and grab a quick snack in the room, before heading out just after 6 AM. Next year, I think we’ll settle for a late arrival in Toronto, and be a little more leisurely departing on our last day!

We made it to Calgary without difficulty. After stopping to gas up the van, we dropped off the rental and checked in for our flight. After only a snack in the room before leaving, we had brunch in the lounge before our flight.

Below is Nadine getting settled in for the flight.

We made it safely back to Toronto, picked up our luggage, and headed home to Newmarket. It was another great trip to one of my favourite destinations!

Day 11 – Last Day Skiing

Posted on by
Reply

It’s always sad when you get close to the end of a trip. Today we awoke to fabulous weather, and it looked like our last full day here would be a great one. Our plans for today… Skiing, of course!

Here we are outside waiting for the shuttle bus under beautiful skies.

After a short bus ride, we were at the ski resort and heading up the hill. Here is the familiar view from our first run.

We spent the rest of the morning and afternoon having a great time on the slopes, and are greatly looking forward to returning again next year.

Back at the hotel, while we still had some daylight, we went for a walk by the lake.

Here are a few images from out on the lake.

It would have been great to have had these clear skies for our dogsled, snowshoe and cross country ski days.

We were slowly making our way to the back of the lake, to see the views we had on our day of snowshoeing, but with clearer skies. Unfortunately, Nadine wasn’t watching her footing carefully enough, and stepped into a big puddle on the ice surface. After stepping in water over the top of her boots, we headed back toward the hotel, which basically ended our outdoor walk today! Fortunately, the hotel has a very large boot drying machine behind the ski valet, which we took advantage of.

Here are a couple final images from our walk back to the hotel.

After getting cleaned up (and dried off), we headed down to the Alpine Social for our final dinner of this trip.