Days 5, 6 & 7 - Lake Louise

Happy birthday to you, dad! We hope you had a great day!

On Monday, we left Banff (the town - still in the Park) and drove North to the Lake Louise area. We set up camp and then drove to the Lake. It is hard to describe the colors of these glacial lakes. They are such a gorgeous turquoise color. We drove to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, both fed by huge glaciers that you can see from the lakes. They were both great, but Mike and I both thought that Moraine Lake was our favorite. (I think it is our favorite of anything we've seen thus far on the trip!) Moraine Lake seemed a bit quieter and more secluded. It was beautiful!

These are all at Moraine Lake - Yep, it's real...

Tuesday (in honor of the pioneers!?!?) we drove to the Columbia Icefield. It is a huge icefield (the size of 95 Central Parks) that can't be seen without some serious ice climbing, but the glaciers that come off the icefield can be seen. We actually took the icecoach tour onto the Athabasca Glacier. Pretty neat (and really cold)...

Here we are standing on the glacier and then Abby and I
with the glacier we were standing on in the background

The drive to the Columbia Icefield itself was amazing! There are mountains all along the way with glaciers. It is a breath-taking drive.

On the way back to camp we hiked a short bit to the overlook to Peyto Lake, another glacial lake. Again, spectacular...

Overlook to Peyto Lake

This morning, before leaving, we went to Moraine again and rented canoes. We found 4 great waterfalls high up on one of the surrounding peaks. When we were rowing back to the dock, only 2 of the 4 waterfalls were still "running". It is such a dynamic area that is constantly changing!