530am beep beep beep, we were up and ready to go. We ate the breakfast burritos in the car that we made the night before and headed towards the Lake Louise Ski Resort.
No cars are allowed to park near Lake Moraine, so we had to reserve seats on a shuttle, (which are hard to come by so book early)! Our shuttle departed from the Lake Louise Ski Resort at 7:30am sharp.
While on the shuttle we got to see a grizzly bear (who we later found out was named Chloe by park officials) walking along the side of the road. Our first grizzly sighting!! OMG!!
We got to Lake Moraine and could see a tease of the aquamarine lake water through the trees.
We started off with the RockPile trail which takes you on a short climb to a look out above Lake Moraine. The amazing color is caused by fine rock dust called “Rock Flour”, which is produced by massive glaciers rubbing against bedrock, and the rock flour stays suspended in the water, reflecting light and creating the turquoise colors. Just WOW!! No filters were used in these photos! The Lake colors we witnessed today were like no other.
On the way up we also saw a bear sign, which basically recommended on certain trails to hike with a tight group of 4 or more people, due to this being grizzly country. If you were found hiking solo, you could face a fine up to $5000. Thankfully we had bear spray too!
While up on the RockPile hike, Christine’s phone dropped from the tripod and smashed to smithereens. She handled it so incredibly well, and we carried on, taking photos for her and strategizing how to get her phone replaced since this was the very beginning of our trip.
We then took the shoreline trail and enjoyed spectacular views all along the way, which ended up at a glacier river that runs right into the lake. Gorgeous!! The water was crystal clear!
After our hike we took the shuttle back to the Lake Louise Ski Resort and rode the summer ski lift up the side of the mountain for views of Lake Louise in the distance. On our way up, we caught a glimpse of another grizzly bear (which we found out later was named Olivia) foraging in the meadow below us. Unreal! How lucky are we?
Since today was a shorter day to ease ourselves into the mountain elevation, we used the time at the end of the day to drive back to Calgary, hit the Apple Store before it closed at 6pm (we got there at 530pm) and Christine was able to get a new phone. Whew!
We got back into Canmore, grabbed some A&W onion rings and went back to the room to map out tomorrows plan of attack.
A beautiful first day out exploring a piece of Banff National Park. So much more to see tomorrow!!
Animals sightings today: 2 grizzly bears, two elk and several cute chipmunks
📍 Indigenous lands of the Stoney Nakoda Nations, the Blackfoot Confederacy, the Tsuut’ina – part of the Dene people, Ktunaxa, Secwépemc, Mountain Cree, and Métis.
Byrds On A Wire 