Fri. 11th September ‘26
The alarm going off at 6:15 is not a welcome sound. It seems like no time at all that I got back from my attempt at astrophotography and since I pretty much went straight to bed after getting back, that would explain it. I feel reasonably good about my attempt at astro – certainly about the post-processing about which I learned a lot. As for the planning and taking the photos, well they didn’t quite work as I hoped but I think that is at least partly because we are quite late in the season for seeing the galactic centre in the northern hemisphere. Anyway, it was new moon night, so it had to be done.
After putting on quite a few layers of clothing, we head out and join the throng of people by the lake front. At least the shoreline is quite long and so everyone is spread out and there is no need to jostle for position. Janet & I decide that we should take different angles and so we split up. That way, we are not both taking essentially the same picture. Sunset was a little disappointing in terms of colours – at least partly because the sun disappears behind a mountain long before it actually sets. Sunrise on the other hand should give us golden light on the mountain top. So it turns out to be – though we have to wait for 20 minutes after the nominal time of sunrise for the sun to clear the mountains behind us and give us the light that we want.
It’s gone 7:30, and we’ve been outside for an hour before we head in and go back to the enormous Louiza restaurant for breakfast. Once again, the service is extraordinarily good – particularly given the size of the restaurant. The waitress addresses us by name, the service is quick, the food is good (and more than plentiful) and best of all, along with the bill, we are handed 2 greaseproof bags for the express purpose of taking away a couple of (excellent) Danish pastries to have later in the day. Win!
It may not seem that way, but there is 
more to do in Lake Louise than take pictures from the lakeshore. Unfortunately, as neither of us fancy going out in a canoe, that means getting the legs going and going for a hike. There are plenty of trails to choose from, but all of them are out-and-back and all of them are uphill on the way out. Oh well, at least that means that the return to the hotel will be easier and quicker than the way out. After some deliberation, and going with the recommendation from last night’s waiter, we opt for Little Beehive by way of some lakes and viewpoints. In total about 10km return.
The way out is all uphill and, for the first part, a gentle gradient on an even path in pretty much a straight line along the side of the lakeside hill (mountain?). Here we find that our ‘tortoise’ strategy of a steady, but quite slow, pace beats the ‘hares’ who go rushing past us only to stop for a rest not far ahead. We manage a mile non-stop in a little under 30 minutes, and after an hour are at the first of our viewpoints. Mirror Lake does what it says on the tin – a small lake, perfectly still reflecting the trees and hills behind. We think that the ‘Bungle Bugle’ hump in the photo is Big Beehive.
After a sip of coffee (thanks Steve & Alexa for the coffee flask), it’s off again, the trail steeper now with more stones and tree roots to worry about. A consolation for the slower pace and more frequent stops is that we are now sufficiently high that when there are breaks in the trees we are able to look back down at the incredible duck-egg blue colour of the lake and the hotel sitting beside it.
Next stop is Lake Agnes and it really is quite busy here. There are small falls on the outflow from the lake along with whatever compositions from the lake itself – I am very pleased to have found a log lying close to the shore and managing capture all of the reflections. But for most people, the attraction is the Teahouse built here, the queue for which is very long, snaking down the steps and round the side. We are quite smug as we sip from our coffee flask! We do, however, make a strategic error. There also toilets here and instead of going together, we go sequentially. Although the queue isn’t as long as for the Teahouse, it is slow moving and we do lose some time.
It’s the last section now, a final 1.5km and because we are near the ridge, the gradient eases off a bit. It’s a bit of an anti-climax when we get to Little Beehive. We must be on top of it because there isn’t anything beehive or Bungle Bungle like to see. There are however views down to the lake and across to the surrounding mountains so we do have to take some time just to appreciate the spectacular nature of the scenery. We also take time to appreciate the delicious pastries we took away from the breakfast buffet. A reward for making it this far.
There’s less to say about the trek back down. We were significantly quicker, mostly because we needed fewer stops for rests or pictures. Also, we just wanted to get back, our legs were telling us they’d done enough walking for one day. There were very few pictures taken save for when I spotted some fungi growing on a fallen tree and thought that the autumnal colours made a change from all the greys and greens of rocks and conifers – and a preview of the colours we hope to be seeing in October in Eastern Canada.
Needless to say our legs were very happy to be back at the hotel and definitely thought that a hot tub was a very good idea. We had seen that there was an outdoor spa area with hot-tubs that had been steaming in the frosty air first thing this morning. Sadly, not only was the spa by booking only, but also it was chargeable. Imagine that for a high-end hotel. (Actually, that is our only complaint about the Fairmont at Lake Louise which was uniformly excellent, especially when it came to service). There was, though, a free pool, steam room and hot-tub which we made use of – in that order and in increasing duration!