Sat. 12th September ’26
Our son and his wife came to Canada for their honeymoon and so we asked them for recommendations. Moraine Lake was top of their list – “the prettiest lake in the world”. That is where we are heading today and it is only 14km drive. But we are not allowed to enter the road to Moraine Lake until noon. We therefore have a leisurely start and take a stroll along the lakeside path to take in our final views of gorgeous Lake Louise and the Chateau before collecting our bags and loading up the car. I enjoyed some friendly banter with the bell boys whilst Dave retrieved the car from the underground parking. The Scottish accent of one caught my attention and a quick chat about UK ensued. We were sad to leave but hope our next adventure is equally good.
The road away from the hotel had cones both sides and in the middle to direct traffic. Quite a zoo. Luckily it was only a few km to our turn off to Moraine Lake. The road was cordoned off and a no entry sign. We had instructions that we would be allowed through with our reservation details, as hotel guests are the only people allowed to bring cars into the park. Everyone else comes by coach trip, shuttle bus or bicycle for the adventurous. Once day visitors leave at around 7pm we will have the place to ourselves. The parking lot by the lake is packed out with coaches and we wend our way through to the guest car park. Although check in is not until 3pm we are allowed into the lounge where a light lunch of soup and charcuterie board is laid out for guests, win.
After some discussion we decide on Larch Valley walk for our afternoon activity. The bad news is that our legs are still complaining about the walk yesterday, the good news is that the hotel had walking poles available for us to borrow. The similarity with yesterday is that the walk is uphill out and downhill back, so we adopt the same policy of taking it slowly. However Dave can see how tired I am so breaks the walk into manageable chunks, viewpoint is only another 3 switchbacks, only 300 metres more of uphill etc. This is psychologically good, as at times I considered giving up until the point is reached when the thinking changes to “I’ve got this far and endured the pain, so I am going to make it to Minnestimma Lake”
Finally the trees ended and the terrain flattened, we had made it. We treated ourselves to our coffee and pastries from the morning buffet whilst taking in the scenery. We looked back to see the Ten Peaks and it made all the effort worthwhile. Looking past the lake we could see Sentinel Path continuing on and wind it’s way up to the top of the eponymous pass. Talking to a chap who had made it to the top, it was not as bad as it looks and the view over into the next valley was worth it. The path may only be another 1.5km but our legs are telling us no more, and it would be another 200m vertically. We are not as young as we used to be and we console ourselves that we can’t do everything. A few more photos and time to return to the hotel. It was easier downhill and we are grateful for the poles to take some of the pressure off our knees.
We are both absolutely shattered by the time we get back to the hotel and go straight to the bar for the craft beers we had been dreaming of for the last few km of descent back down through the five or so switchbacks in the path. We sat on our lovely balcony overlooking the beautiful lake supping our very welcome beers. A soak in the bath restored us and Dave went out and climbed the rock pile to prep for where is best for sunrise photography tomorrow morning. It was all I could do to descend the two sets of stairs to dinner. The only available time in the restaurant was at 8:30pm a bit late but we had filled all the available time on our first day at Moraine Lake. We have sunrise to look forward to tomorrow morning and a short stroll before having to leave the park by noon and filling our 24 hours here.