Wednesday we started early so we could park at the lake of Lake Louise. We got there about 9:15 am, with few spaces left at the parking lot. The viewing area on the eastern shore of the lake, by the Fairmount Lake Louise, was already mobbed.

We started along Lake Louise Lakeshore Trail but decided to escape the major part of the mob and hike to Lake Agnes and the Lake Agnes teahouse instead. The roundtrip is 7 km (4.5 miles) with an elevation gain of 400 m (1300 ft) to an elevation of 2135 m (7005 ft). The route also goes past Mirror Lake and the impressive Beehive mountain.

Lake Agnes was crowded as well, but nothing compared to Lake Louise. The teahouse had both indoor and outdoor seating, and we snagged an indoor table. We had wraps and tea and lemonade. By the way, the crew packs the food up and the garbage down. After lunch we headed back down.

Next we drove to Lake Louise Ski Area north of the town of Lake Louise. We took gondola/chairlift to the top (both are on the same line and the rider can choose). We wandered around a little. The initial plan was to walk to one or both of the two lookout trails, but we were tired and the views were dimmed by smoke anyway. We did walk a little (through the bear electric fence around the viewing area) up one to the left looking at the mountain.

After coming back down, we drove to Canmore, did more shopping, and made chicken with fennel and onion and lemon for dinner.

Lake Louise area
Lake Agnes Teahouse
Lake Louise Ski Resort