Banff National Park
Monday-Friday 10-14 June, 2024
Famous Lake Louise
Banff! I had heard so much about it for so many years! At last, after so many days of travel, we were here, in this vaunted place, to see the beauty of the mountains and lakes!
- Dramatic hike up to the Lake Agnes Teahouse
- Frigid temperatures at Moraine Lake
- A more comfortable but still beautiful day hiking through Johnston Canyon to the Inkpots
Banff is a popular place, making it very expensive. Before the campground reservations went on sale, I booked a hotel reservation in case I couldn't get a campsite. The price was over $400/night. I had thought that was CAD, but Expedia quotes prices in your own currency, so that was actually USD! I was very thankful when I got the camping reservation and was able to cancel that one.
The campsite was quite nice. Eric poses with Mather.
June is not a wonderful time for photography--even I am not getting up for a sunrise shoot when the sunrise is at 05:26. And the sun doesn't set until 22:00 (OK, 21:59), creating an discomfiting disruption in circadian rhythms. But even though we were so close to the summer solstice, we faced near-freezing overnight temperatures! Even with cold weather sleeping bags and heavy jackets, we were quite uncomfortably cold. I tried several times to light fires, and was left shaking my head and wondering how the human race had survived before industrialization. Eventually I saw another camper splitting the wood with an axe, an implement we lacked.
And, even so early in the season, there were still so many people! Apparently it gets much more crowded later in summer! Oh, my!
We spent a bit more time in the northern part of Banff, after some other excursions in the area, so there will be more of Banff later in these pages!
Day 5 distance: 20 mi/ 32 km, cumulative 1,347 mi, 2,168 km
Day 6 distance: 6 mi/10 km, cumulative 1,353 mi/2,177 km
Day 7 distance: 45 mi/ 72 km, cumulative 1,398 mi/ 2,250 km
On to Lake Agnes