Our Honeymoon: Day 3

We headed northwest towards Lake Louise and decided to stop along the way to hike Johnston Canyon. It's an easy shaded meandering trail along a raging river.

On the way up to the Upper Falls we passed many secondary falls in this limestone canyon.

A rail designated the trail and provided some safety from the sometimes steep canyon walls. As you might find in any highly trafficked natural area, people had carved their initials in the rail and on the trees. We noticed that part of the rail was covered in names and were touched when we realized that it was the same couple. It says "Mike V. + Michelle C. 4EVER 97." Then to the left of that it says "Mike V. and Michelle C. 1 YEAR 98." To the left of that it says "MV + MC 2 1/2 years 99." To the far left of the picture it reads "M+M 6,15,02 5 years." Finally at the far right of the picture it says "Michelle C. Will U MARRY ME" and underneath that it says "YES 08."

Finally we made it out to the Upper Falls. The walkway narrowed and turned into a metal grating as we got out on the water. The falls were hidden and could only be seen from the very end of the walkway. There was a line of people waiting to take pictures and to see the falls so we waited our turn until we could get a good look at the falls.

We hiked out of Johnston Canyon and headed further northwest towards Lake Louise. Our rental car came with a Gypsy GPS Guide, which doesn't provide GPS directions but uses GPS coordinates to automatically play commentary about your immediate surroundings. It was a pretty cool addition to the trip because it pointed out interesting sites and educated us on the history of the areas we passed by. Plus there were entertaining voices for the guides. One site that the Gypsy alerted us to is the scene in the picture below, which has been the subject of many photos. It also turns out that we will traveling along these tracks later in our trip.

When we finally made it to Lake Louise we were surprised to find it still frozen over. To Eric's right you can see the Upper and Lower Victoria Glaciers just above Lake Louise.

The melt waters from the glacier bring rock flour to the bed of Lake Louise, which gives the Lake its signature emerald color. Eric and I took a short hike around half of the Lake. We are hoping to come back in warmer weather to hike up to the Lake Agnes Teahouse when it is open.

The view of Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise from the other end of the Lake was gorgeous. We spent some time exploring, checking out some rock climbers who were on nearby cliffs, and then decided to have lunch at the Chateau.

We brought our lunch out to the Lake to enjoy the amazing view and the beautiful weather. We were joined by a very curious Whiskey Jack Bird aka Gray Jay (well at least we think it was a gray jay). He later joined us on the bench.

Our next stop was Lake Moraine, which we heard had an even deeper emerald color. It was also still mostly frozen and so the water line was pretty low. The next two pictures are from on top of the Rockpile, which is at one end of the Lake and gave us a better view of the surrounds.

The water line usually comes up to the treeline but it has receded significantly during the winter months. Eric and I were able to hike down to the waters edge. In the background behind Eric, there is a fantastic mountain-scape. Not surprisingly we are in the Valley of the Ten Peaks.

Eric made a friend when we were walking along the shore. They literally stood that way for several minutes. It was really adorable.

At this point you can imagine we were tired from our busy day. So we headed back to the town of Banff for a late night dinner. On the way home we managed to see more wildlife. This elk was eating on the side of the road.

Wow! What a busy day full of amazing sites. Can't wait to see what tomorrow holds.