Canada - Day 8 - 28th June

The sun was up early today, thanks to the endless blue sky. We had a good nights sleep in the massive bed.

After breakfast we decided to take a hike to Hamilton Lake, high up above Emerald Lake. The couple from Texas had already told us this was a tough, challenging track, so we just had to do it.
The route up was very steep in places, with many fallen trees across the path. After about two hours hiking, we hit some snow fields. John had his Merrell walking sandals on which did not protect against the cold of the deep snow.

After half an hours of walking in and out of snow fields, we reached the lake. Wow!! Two thirds of the lake was still frozen. We were the only people there and the silence was simply wonderful.

We sat on a large flat rock and had lunch. We saw some Marmot’s on the other side of the stream as well as numerous red squirrels.

After lunch we began our decent back through the snow fields and down to Emerald Lake. In all the hike took just over five hours and was well worth the effort.

After a quick shower, we took a canoe out on the Emerald Lake. The lake is so named due to it’s amazing colour, caused by the microscopic rock dust the is constantly washed down from the rockies. The water was calm and the breeze helped to take the edge off the high temperature.

After the canoe trip, we still had itchy feet, so decided to walk around the lake. This took just over and hour and took us through all types of terrain.
Emerald lake is fabulous, amazing scenery, good food and very peaceful. We are leaving tomorrow for our next destination, Jasper.

Canada - Day 7 - 27th June

Today started with sparkling blue sky and sunshine. We had an early breakfast, packed the car, checked out of Buffalo Lodge and popped down to Banff town to get a few photo’s in the sun.

We said goodbye to Banff and began our journey to Emerald Lake, not too far away from Lake Louise. The trip was problem free and within an hour and a half we arrived at Emerald Lake Lodge.

We tried to check in, but we were too early, having arrived at 10.30 AM. So, we left some bags at check in and drove to Takawka Falls. These are the second largest water fall in Canada and was very spectacular. The melting snow helped to put on a good show.

Lake Louise was next on our list, as we had planned to check this place out as a potential ski venue for next year. When we arrived the temperature had gone through the roof. We took a look around and decided to walk the 6 Glacier trail. The route goes down the right hand side of the Lake and then high up to the end of the valley, where there is a tea house.

The walking was quite challenging with some wonderful waterfalls and a few, small snow fields. The rock faces were vertical along the side of the lake and several climbers were doing their stuff. After two and a half hours of solid up hill walking we came to the tea house. This small chalet served very nice, cold lemonade!!

We discovered you could take an additional 1.6 km track to the very base of the glaciers and we could not resist. The views of the glaciers and of Chateau Lake Louise on the Lake were wonderful and well worth the extra hiking.

It took another few hours to get back down to the car park. We arrived back at Emerald Lake Lodge tired but exhilarated. The lodge itself is wonderful. We have a lake side room with amazing views. This place is quiet, stunning and just about perfect.

We had a very good meal in the main restaurant preceded by a drinkie in the sun on the lakeside.

After dinner, we sat in the outdoor fire pad, where we got chatting to some Americans who were toasting marsh mellows on the open fire. They were a nice couple from Texas, who loved Paris!!