Wednesday June 3rd

5:00pm


Off to Lake Louise today! We left quite early in the morning so we might see wildlife on the Bow Valley Parkway one last time. Bidding farewell to our host and luxurious room, we packed the car full and headed off to the Parkway.

At my favourite spot, we saw the Osprey again, and two Herons – one was in flight and landed on the TOP of a tree, which I was quite surprised about – I didn’t know Herons could stay on the top of a tree! No wonder we didn’t see them before, we were looking in the wrong place!
We continued along the road stopping off at a number of places, but we saw nothing more with the exception of a duck or a goose. As we approached “Moose Meadows”, we thought we would have a good look along the roadside as this is where we saw a Moose yesterday. Fortunately, luck was on our side and we found one munching in the trees just next to the meadow, closer to us this time!

After taking a photo, we moved onto Johnston Canyon. This Canyon was pretty much like a Gorge again, but this was much larger than Marble Canyon. This was quite fun as there were paths and boardwalks along the edge about half way down the Canyon itself, so we were really walking inside it as opposed to above it. Again here, the rushing water was milky blue-green glacial water. There were a few small waterfalls within the canyon, but we soon reached the “lower falls”. We stopped here but continued on to the “upper falls” to have a closer look at those first. The walk was reasonably tiring for me, but my new crocs were working their magic and my feet felt fine and only started to ache when we got back to the car after walking 5.4km which is impressive for me, especially as the ascent was 100m, the path was continuously up and down all the way. I was quite pleased with myself as Mathew had told me the distance but NOT the ascent because he knew that would put me off! I thought the walk to the Hoodoos was much more difficult, and that ascent was just 40m! I do not understand!

Anyway, the “upper falls” were very nice, and quite high, and the spray made our clothes and hair damp. Nice though, as it was a very warm day. Making our way to the “lower falls”, we went along a bridge to get close and there was a small alcove into which you could walk and get even CLOSER to the waterfall! Wet, but fun! Again, very nice on such a warm day.


After having lunch here, we continued along the Bow Valley Parkway to the very end, seeing only some more Big Horned Sheep by the roadside again. We headed off to Lake Louise – one of the stop off viewpoints was quite spectacular. The mountains seemed to get even larger, but there were also SO many more trees. Almost a complete carpet of forest lay below the mountains here, which stopped at the edge of the Bow River. Quite spectacular.
We were only a few minutes early arriving at Lake Louise, so we decided to go straight to the Lake itself. The village looked quite small – nowhere near as large as Banff but I guess I’ll have a better look at it later. The Lake itself was quite nice – but I didn’t realise it was so close to other things, such as the (hideous!) Chateau Hotel and lots of paving for visitors to walk on. I thought it was going to be more in the wilderness like most places in Banff seemed to be.



Time to check into our hotel. We booked the “Deer Lodge”, but breakfast was extra here. From the outside it looks really nice and swanky, and it is known for being one of the priciest hotels here. We got a great deal on Expedia, although it was around £330 for 4 nights which was still quite a lot. More per night than our accommodation in Banff.

So we got the keys, found the door, in we went and. . . . oh my goodness! We had been given a tiny box room just big enough for a bed to fit into. This was the most disappointing accommodation we had on this holiday. No proper wardrobe – just a hole in the wall with a curtain, no tea and coffee making facilities – it may as well have been a cupboard! Small SMALL windows looking out onto a main road and a very noisy stream. Decor was green and cream but the wood was dark and the entire room was dark and gloomy – hardly any natural light came through the windows. The best thing about the room was the soft comfortable bed and the bathroom. And to think the original price was SO much more....! Mathew likened it to luxury camping in the Rockies. The Deer Lodge was usually 95 Pounds Sterling per night. Our Banff B&B was 95 DOLLARS a night! Hmmm.

I didn’t unpack properly of fully. I never do when I am in a place where I feel uncomfortable or unhappy with. We agreed we should spend as much time as we could outside away from here and just go to sleep as soon as we got back, late, preferably! And we agreed we should leave as soon as possible on the last morning. It was gloomy in this hotel and I couldn’t wait to leave. I only hoped that Lake Louise and Yoho National Park could make up for our lame hotel. I thought breakfast definitely should have been included – having to pay extra was quite a cheek, especially after being given such a poky little room. Most of the rest of our accommodation in Canada are B&B’s – let’s hope they are as nice as the first one! Unfortunately we had already paid for the Deer Lodge...but at least there was a questionnaire about the hotel to fill in....


10:30pm


We went for dinner at Bill Peyto’s which was basic but quite adequate for a Youth Hostel. I had spaghetti bolognaise and as usual I got some sauce on my clean white shirt! But I did get the stain out! After dinner we strolled along part of Lake Louise before returning to our tiny room, checking and writing emails on the free internet (I should think so too!!), and going to bed.