Day 7 Trip to Lake Louise and Lake Moraine

An early start in bright sunshine this morning with a 40 minute drive down the pretty deserted Canadian Pacific Highway. There are bridges at regular intervals for animals to cross in safety (and large fences alongside to try and keep the wildlife off the road.)

It's quite tricky to keep to the 90km speed limit but luckily we've found the cruise control!

Arrived at the very large gondola car park and had a cuppa whilst we waited for our bus. We had an hour at Lake Louise so no time to do any of the walks but plenty of time for a wander along the front and to take photos of the fabulous scenery, admittedly whilst trying to avoid the crowds!

There were some very cute chipmunks too

The imposing hotel was off limits to anyone not staying there, I would imagine that they'd have fabulous sunrise/sunset views and it would be lovely and quiet once all the coach trips finished for the day. Mind you, comes with a hefty price tag of $999  - $2800 per night! 

Back on to our coach for the 20 minute drive to Lake Moraine. The road is definitely only open to commercial vehicles and there are many park staff to enforce this.

Lake Moraine is the most spectacular shade of blue. So many photos taken!

We then walked up something aptly named the "rock pile"

which had steps carved in to the rear making ascending/descending much easier. There were some lovely views from up there.

We then walked to Consolation Lakes, around 7km in total, crossing a boulder field then onto a shady path.

The lakes were crystal clear with mountains and glaciers on one side

hills and trees on the other

We saw  marmots and chip monks a plenty most were too quick or too far away for my camera, apart from this guy!

We had our picnic sat on a rock along with quite a few others, a lovely spot.

After walking back to Lake Moraine we had some very expensive cold drinks and chocolate to re fuel before walking along the shoreline,

affording us some more spectacular views.

Finally reaching the glacial melt water flowing into the lake

Caught the coach back to the carpark . It began raining very heavily and we had to make a dash for the car!  Followed by thunder and lightening as we headed back to our Airbnb for our last night in Banff. We'll be heading to Jasper for 3 nights in the morning. Fingers crossed for some dry weather as the forecast doesn't look very promising!