Lake Louise day 2

Lake Louise Day 2
Today was an unusual day in that is started off raining and raining so we felt no walking or sightseeing today. Then about 11:00 it stopped raining so it was off to Moraine Lake.
Moraine Lake is just about 10 Km from Lake Louise and is a glacial lace surrounded by 10 peaks or mountains and glaciers. The lake is a turquoise green blue from the flur of the glacial melt and you think it could possibly be some south pacific ocean. We hiked to the other end of the lake and it was a wonderful hike thru the pine forest and along the lake.
Next it was off to Lake Louise. Did you know that it got its name after a daughter of Queen Victoria, who later married the first governor of this area? Well it did. We had some lunch in the Fairmont Hotel. This was one of the famous Canadian Pacific Railway hotels to bring tourists to the area. They were designed after the famous hotels of Europe and were the height of elegance for the 1900’s and still are. The railway spared no expense on these. So Bev was suitably impressed that I took her for lunch there. Looking out onto the lake and glacier beyond, while I munched on a crab and shrimp croissant sandwich and Bev had a shrimp salad. For dessert they even had a flourless cake for Bev, and later eat your hearts out I found a Saskatoon berry individual pie for myself. It is easy to see why this is considered one of the most beautiful spots in the world.
The hotel hired Swiss mountaineering guides as early as 1899 to help their wealthy patrons climb the peaks that surrounded the hotel and this area because of this was considered the start of mountain climbing in Canada. It is easy to see why with all of the mountain peaks you can see just from the hotel alone. The Swiss guides were employed right up until 1955 and the chalet that they were housed in still is there today.
We walked all the way around the lake and were going to walk to the tea house at the far end of the lake except the tea house was not at the end of the lake but up against the face of the mountain where the glacier was and we had completed less than `1/3 rd of the distance and by that time it was getting very late. Remember we had started this at after 4:00 pm and it was now after 5:30 our time and we still had to get back. But we made it at shortly after 6:30 our time and we had the crock pot going in the RV so we did need to get back.
All in all a really great day after the rain stopped and tomorrow we will be going to Banff. Well enough of this blog you have better things to do than read about two wanderers in the northwest. Hope everyone is fine and maybe just maybe we might get internet service tomorrow. I hope that we find a campsite in Banff because this is a holiday weekend for the Canadians.
Lorne

Lake Louise
Mtn goats