Banff and Lake Louise!

Banff/Lake Louise: With Toronto and Calgary in the rearview mirror, we are now embarking on our Rocky Mountaineer journey! Our first day involved an early pick-up by bus to begin our visit to the Canadian Rockies! We made several stops, including a boat ride on Lake Minnewanka, located in Banff National Park. The lake is one of the largest in Alberta and has a town buried by waters redirected when a dam was constructed. The water was an interesting color – impacted by “rock flour”, a combination of chemicals, rocks, and other elements that determine the color of the water. The lake freezes in winter, but draws lots of visitors in the summer! Here’s a quick pic or two!

The lakes here in Banff National Park are either influenced by rock flour or are "glacial" lakes - the light blue water attributed to the capture and melt-off of glaciers throughout the Rockies.

Our lake visit transitioned to a visit to Banff, Alberta, CN. Banff is an adventure sports town, as evidenced by the stores that line the main street with snowboards, skis, and other winter weather equipment. It’s not very big, but houses many hotels including two significant resorts: the Fairmont Banff Springs, and the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. We took a tour of Banff, including riding its world-famous gondola up into the Rocky Mountains, providing lovely views of the Sundance Valley and Banff itself, as well as the Fairmont Banff Springs!

With our day completed, we headed to our hotel for the next two nights – the lovely and world-famous Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. The hotel is lovely, with an outstanding view of Lake Louise and the rapidly diminishing Victoria Glacier. The service, shopping, and accommodations are everything you can imagine at this resort; we spent the day roaming the grounds, watching the lake, and visiting all the shops. We also attended “high tea” – a tradition here at the Chateau, which was superbly done, with unique sweets and savory treats! We can’t believe how fast our time here has gone as tomorrow is our first day of the Rocky Mountaineer train. We have an early call, so I’ll be adding my pics and saying good night!

Off to the train! More soon!