Today was one of the days that Jay and I were most stressed about because of the logistics involved in seeing the two most popular lakes in Bannf. We almost booked shuttle tickets through a local company, but Jay did a lot of research and ended up getting us park-and-ride shuttle tickets to Louise and Moraine. No personal vehicles are allowed at Moraine Lake at all! He had to go online 2 days prior at a specific time when a limited number of tickets were released (a similar theme on the trip). Fortunately, we got them, which saved us a lot of money compared to booking a private tour! So, we drove about an hour to Lake Louise ski area to catch the shuttle with no issues (as Jay likes to say, we “nailed it”).
When we arrived at Lake Louise we understood why it is so popular! The teal color of the water is really neat to see! We started on the lakeshore hiking trail as a family, but eventually Jay and Brooke went a bit ahead because Beckett was too distracted by the lake to walk along the path at a reasonable speed. I hung back with Beckett where he was far more content staying put and tossing rocks in Lake Louise than continuing on the trail. It gave me some time to watch the color of the lake change as the sun shifted in and out of the clouds!
Within an hour of arriving it started to become very crowded. The crowds didn’t matter too much since we were taking it easy and ended up letting the kids play on the shore and dip their feet in the water. Our bus driver announced that swimming is allowed, but I think our kids were the only ones who bravely put their feet in the water all morning. It is a glacier-fed lake so remains very cold year-round!
We took the shuttle over to Moraine Lake and at first sight, Jay knew this was his favorite lake of the trip. The color was absolutely beautiful. I think they need to name Crayola color after Moraine Lake!
We climbed a trail called Rockpile, but unfortunately Beckett took a minor fall and Jay ended up carrying him up all the stairs to the top. It was quite a steep, dusty trail! Brooke sat on a huge rock at the top and had the best viewpoint. The top was crowded, so we only stayed long enough for the kids to have a snack and take a few pictures and then we hiked back to the bottom. Jay and the kids found an empty spot with rocks/driftwood and hung out there while Jaclyn quickly checked out the gift shop. Eventually the kids went in the water and played around, so know they can say they went in both of the famous lakes in Bannf!
Finally we headed back to Lake Louise ski area and got a drink at the lodge while enjoying the beautiful day. It was a nice spontaneous decision to find a spot away from the crowds and soak in the views. We don’t normally have extra time in our itinerary to add in stops like this but I’m glad we did!
After a full day of sightseeing and the hour long drive back to Canmore we were pretty tired, but knew we should stock up on groceries before going to Glacier National Park which is pretty rural. We had an easy dinner back at the AirBnB, bathed the kids and put them to bed and got the laundry and dishes taken care of. It was nice to catch up on things! I regretted not heading out to enjoy the last night in Canmore, but we also needed to start preparing to check out of the AirBnB and I had to figure out the details of my plans for tomorrow while Jay works remotely. Not to mention, blog writing…I’m sure we’ll love having this done as a little memoir of our trip, but it can be quite time consuming. There are a lot more pictures to shift through than the ones chosen for the blog 😂.
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