A short drive latter we were at the Lake head where the famous Chateau Lake Louise is (prices start at a modest $300 per night). Looking out towards the lake, Louise was everything we expected. The glacier feed lake sparkling its deep turquoise colour, those photos you see of the lake aren't photoshopped, the lake really looks that good!!
Wikipedia tells us "The emerald colour of the water comes from rock flour carried into the lake by melt-water from the glaciers that overlook the lake."
Tourists flock the lake head taking photos of each other next to the lake, we do the same. Our hike for today is to set out to Mirror Lake, Lake Anges, Big Beehive, The Plain of six Glaciers and then back along the bottom to Lake Louise, a 5 hour-ish return trip
As we start out climbing Lake Louise quickly disappears from view. We soon get to Mirror Lake, its small and pretty to look at, we see signs for little Beehive but dont bother with this trail. Some more climbing later and we are at Lake Anges, there is a small Tea House here but it looks pretty busy and we decide to head on after eating a small snack. We see signs for Big Beehive but at this point we had decided not to hike this trail. We walk on further and Lake Louise comes back into view, it looks amazing form this height. We come to the other end of the Big Beehive trail and after being highly recommended by a lady we briefly chat with we decide to head up the trail. The Beehive trail is a good steady gradient, it is steeper than the Sulphur mountain climb we did yesterday and it zig zags its way to the top.
At the top we are rewarded with even much more amazing views of Lake Louise and the Valley. We hang about for a short while up here, eat our lunch before heading back down to continue onto the The Plain of 6 Glaciers.
The Plain of 6 Glaciers is quite a popular track and especially at this time of year and it was also school holidays. As we hike we see plenty of people and we also see people on horse back. We progress further and further into the valley and climb a nice easy gradient up. We can see the vegetation changing as we ascend into the higher climate. There are a lot of people walking this trail, but we dont care because everything is so beautiful and scenic. After some time the mountains start closing in on us and we start counting the glaciers we can see ahead of us. We count 5 then after rounding a corner with see the 6th. A short walk later and we are at another Tea House.
This Tea house looks like a huge double storey tree house. We stop by for something to eat and drink. Surprised to see, the menu is quite comprehensive, there are plenty of things to dine on, though we overhead they were out of the hot chips. We enjoy a damn good cup of herbal tea and freshly baked scones. Reading about the place; the Tea house is run by a staff of 5 who live in sounding cabins in the bush. They work a week on week off and travel in by horse. Supplies are helicoptered in once a month and the staff use propane gas stoves to make everything.
After our afternoon tea we head back the way we came but then turning off to walk the lower trail that will take us to and along the Lake Loiuse Lakeshore trail. This way back was a lot quicker than the way in, this was a good thing as weather started to pack in. We managed to get back to the lake head then back to our car before the rain started falling properly. We then headed back to or accommodation very much satisfied with the day we had had.
