As I’m writing this entry, the Weather Network informs me that it’s -13 degrees in Lake Louise. When we were there after our drive down the Icefields Parkway in July, the temperature was closer to 13 on the positive side of the thermometer. Temperature swings like that make me appreciate Toronto’s (and thus Dodgeville’s) more temperate weather.
When we were planning our summer trip, a discount code supplied by one of Risa’s friends allowed us to book a night at the Chateau Lake Louise for about the same cost as a lesser hotel in town. We paid a slight premium for a room with a lake view, and I have to say, it was totally worth it. I mean, look at that view. Imagine arriving to that after a full day in the car, and then waking up to it again the next morning. It was our only night of luxury on the trip. It’s not that the other hotels were ratholes or anything—all of our accommodations were quite satisfactory—but the view and the service at the Chateau Lake Louise convinced me that any future vacations must also include at least one night in a really nice hotel.
The only problem with Lake Louise is that the entire area around the lake is controlled by the hotel, and the activites are priced to match. As Risa said, the hotel has its own little ecosystem there. There are lots of free things to do, but if you want to eat, rent a canoe, or go for a horseback ride, you’re going to pay Fairmont rates whether or not you’re staying at the Chateau. When you count our two meals and a canoe rental, the room itself totaled less than half of our one-night tab. Still, I’m really glad we stayed at the Chateau rather than in town, which is actually several kilometres away from the lake and nothing to write home about.
Reluctantly leaving Lake Louise behind, we drove down to Banff, where we had arranged much more modest lodgings; no Banff Springs Hotel on this trip. Even though Banff feels much more crowded and commercial than Jasper, there are still some nice spots that are surprisingly deserted.
My strongest memories of coming to Alberta as a kid are the view of Sulphur Mountain looking up Banff’s main street and going to McDonald’s in Edmonton. I know that we went to Lake Louise, Jasper, Drumheller, Frank, and about a million other places, but I have little or no memory of them. But as much as Banff (the town) stood out for me last time, I have to say that I was a little underwhelmed this time around. Certainly after coming from Jasper and Lake Louise, Banff was a bit of a letdown. Oh sure, it’s beautiful and all that, but the town is a little too busy for its own good. Streets were crowded, restaurants were impossible to get seats in, stores were packed to the gills, and I always felt like I was in someone’s way. Every restaurant we went to was too busy to serve us, and we spent way more time waiting than eating. I could have forgiven it all had the service been decent, but it wasn’t. As I said at one meal, the service was shockingly rude even by Toronto standards. Fortunately, we spent most of our time outside of town where it felt a little less hectic.
Anyway, read on for the second-last (and quite belated) gallery from this year’s vacation.
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- That's not Lake Ontario.
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- The views are astounding wherever you go in the Chateau Lake Louise. Of course you can wander around the hotel, belly up to the lake, and hike all around without having to stay at the hotel.
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- It's almost impossible to take a picture of Lake Louise without another photographer getting in the way. After numerous failed attempts, I eventually gave up. So here's one of about a jillion pictures I have of other people taking pictures of Lake Louise.
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- This guy was just one in a line of several photographers all waiting to take pictures of the sunset. As lovely as Lake Louise is, I don't think it's going to have particularly spectacular sunsets on a regular basis; the geography is all wrong.
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- Ah, finally, no other photographers. And no canoeists out on the lake, either. Don't let the light blue sky fool you; this picture was taken around 9:30 p.m.
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- Risa is contemplating whether she wants to rent a canoe and go for a paddle. Risa hates water. Risa hates boats. Risa hates cold. That she was even contemplating going out on a cold lake on a canoe speaks to how beautiful the setting was that day.
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- Holy crap! I got Risa out on a canoe! For all of you that know her, you'll know what an achievement this was.
As Risa said, Lake Louise is like a big bathtub. The colour makes it seem less like a lake and more like a pool when you're out on it. You have absolutely no way of gauging how deep it may be and your sense of scale can get pretty out of whack.
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- After 45 minutes in a canoe, Risa was ready to kiss solid ground as she crawled back onto the dock. She suffered the effects of motion sickness for the rest of the day, but it was so worth it. I'd canoe on Lake Louise again in a second. Risa, I'm not so sure.
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- This is the former swimming pool at the Chateau Lake Louise. It was filled in many years ago and had then been used as an outdoor ballroom of some sort, but was closed off and in pretty ratty condition when we were there. This could be a spectacular space with a bit of cosmetic work.
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- Where else are you going to pass a harpist on the way to breakfast?
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- Sonny, the director of pet relations (yes, that's his real title) at the Chateau, was taking a break in the lobby. If you're staying at the hotel, you can book him for walks around the lake. According to the concierge, Sonny is a failed guide dog: he was too frightened by traffic to graduate from his training, so he retired to the Chateau where he lives at a slower pace.
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- One of the hiking trails leads to a spectacular lookout over the lake. The most surprising thing about Lake Louise is that the hotel is packed, the roads are packed, the parking lot is packed, the relatively short boardwalk along the lake is packed, yet in an hour on this well-marked and easy trail, we only encountered about a half-dozen people. I don't understand how so many people can come to a place like Lake Louise and not want to explore a bit.
Anyway, that was our day in Lake Louise. We continued on to Banff after our hike and canoe, following a brief stop-over in town for lunch.
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- It's hard to sum up the town of Banff. Beautiful, yes, but also kitschy and somewhat fake feeling. The stores are odd combinations of tourist traps and upscale, way-too-expensive boutiques. Too much Yorkville and not enough Danforth. Fortunately, you don't have to go far to get away from the worst of the crowds.
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- One of our stops was the Cave & Basin National Historic Site, the location of the original mineral hot springs in Banff. It's just outside town but was completely deserted when we went. The pool is no longer open for bathing, which severely limits its tourist appeal. But that was fine by us, it was a good way to get away from the crowds at the busier sites.
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- We broke for our usual lunch—PB sandwiches—before heading down to the Sundance Canyon trail for an afternoon hike.
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- The forested view along the trail to Sundance Canyon from the Cave & Basin site occasionally opened onto spectacular vistas, here of Mount Edith across the Bow River.
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- A covered wagon shuttles weary hikers along the trail to Sundance Canyon. Other than being passed by this wagon, much of the trail felt a lot like the Don Valley: a wide paved path surrounded by a young forest. Nice enough, but relatively unspectacular. As we continued walking, one woman coming back from the other end told us that the view was very disappointing and that we shouldn't waste our time or energy going the rest of the way. We reached what looked like the end of the trail a few minutes later and I had to agree, it was pretty underwhelming.But we quickly discovered something that the woman had obviously missed. This wasn't the end of the Sundance Canyon trail, it was the end of the trail leading to the Sundance Canyon trail. The canyon lay ahead of us, rising 150 metres from our feet to the top. We continued, our hour-long walk along the mosquito-infested trail suddenly worth it.
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- And it's a good thing that we continued walking. The canyon was pretty much the definition of a hidden gem. I wanted to run after that woman and tell her that if she'd just kept walking for a few more minutes, she wouldn't have been so disappointed.
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- Sundance Canyon had a perfect mix of grand vistas and small pleasures.
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- Risa and I split photography duties on the trip. We tend to focus on different things and it was interesting to compare our pictures afterward. We also ended up with many meta photos, pictures of people (frequently us) taking pictures of other things. Here, Risa's taking pictures of some pebbles.
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- A young couple was hiking at about the same pace as we were along the entire route, so they were rarely more than a few dozen metres above or below us. Boy howdy, were they ever touchy-feely. I really wanted to tell them to get a room.
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- Risa loves horseback riding, so we went for a trail ride on our last day in Banff. A photographer here is taking a picture of Bow Falls on the Bow River, not too far from the Banff Springs Hotel. We didn't stay in the hotel, but we did use their very nice washrooms.
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- There's just something wrong about riding a horse in a quiet forest and realizing that the clearing on one side is a golf course. It seemed out of place in Banff.
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- Also out of place was this "No parking" sign beside the hiking and horse trail, quite some distance from the road.
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- My first water crossing! I've only ridden horses a few times, but I have to say that crossing the river on horseback is my favourite horse activity so far.
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- Risa rides all the time, but this was her first water crossing too.
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- We did it once, and now we get to cross back to the other side again. Two water crossings in one day. Weee!
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- Keep going, buddy. Just follow the horses in front.
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- Risa guides her horse across the second water crossing with ease.
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- In Banff, horses don't stop for red lights. Which is good, because I wouldn't know how to stop a horse if I wanted to. The beautiful thing about trail rides is that the horses all just follow the leader and you don't really have to steer or brake or have any idea what you're doing.
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- Okay, confession time: those other pictures look pretty good, but I have to say that it's really hard to take pictures on horseback. After a couple of futile attempts at actually composing pictures, I settled for holding the camera in one hand, pointing it in some direction, and rattling off a few frames, hoping that one would be sharp and somewhat interesting. Of the 200 pictures I snapped with this method on the trail ride, only a few came out well. The vast majority looked something like this one. This would have been much harder without digital cameras; I can only imagine trying to load a roll of film while lumbering down the trail. I'd also like to thank the unsung geniuses who invented auto exposure and auto focus.
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- One of the things that you always hear about Banff is that it's crawling with wildlife. Well, this ground squirrel and his friends were the full extent of wildlife that we saw while we were in Banff. No elk, no bears, no deer, no moose, no nothing but a colony of ground squirrels in a park outside the Banff Springs Hotel. Oh well, maybe next time. And with that, we were ready to head out of Banff to Calgary, our final stop before heading home.
Our next (and final) Vacation 2009 post: Dodgeville takes on Calgary.