Day 5 Lake Louise

Yes we managed to get ourselves up and out of the Lodge by 8am and headed off to the Chateau to meet our next guide: the beautiful Bruce - he has a Ned Flanders air about him (this by the way was pointed out to us by another guide!) Not religious but just soooo verrrry nice - you know? Your favourite uncle that you just love to hear stories from. Wearing a more traditional guide attire - check out the photos - he drove us to Johnston Canyon which is heading East towards Banff passing Castle Mountain and gorgeous views of Pilot Mountain. Getting a little history along the way - like passing over the railway that runs from coast to coast in Canada and the little towns that sprung up from the making of said tracks etc. It was just after this that both Bruce and I (being in the front seat) spied a moose in - would you believe - Moose Meadows!!!! Very exciting moment and Bruce being the expert guide he is reversed the car to a good vantage point and gave us binoculars to better see what he called a young male with small antlers - he was bloody big to us but hey he's the guide!!! After a few moments we moved on and about 10 minutes we arrived at our destination of Johnston Canyon. It was a balmy -24 degrees celsius outside the van when we attached these little rubber soles with spikes to our boots to head off at a very spritely pace (who knew he'd be an energetic bunny???) Passing some gorgeous terrain and scenery and another tour party!!!! Seriously this man could walk - people whinge about how fast I walk - nothing on this man I'm telling you!

Megs Typing

To avoid the crowds and believe me it was getting crowded with tour groups that had come in from Banff for the walk.  Again we were very lucky and it was just the three of us.  As I was saying to avoid the crowds we passed by the other tour groups and at Bruce's suggestion hiked to the upper falls (larger tour groups don't usually get that far) where we stopped at the look out there and had tea and poppy seed cake.  The view from the upper falls is incredible and you can see where the ice climbers and absailers had their anchor ropes secured around some of the larger trees at the top of the falls.  The blue colouring that appear in some of the ice formations, is a result of the the ice becoming so thick in these area that the ice refracts the blue light of the colour spectrum and thus appear blue. It does add majesty to the frozen water falls.  The other surprising fact was that the water falls were still falling under the frozen sheets of ice, the top layers freeze when the temperature falls, but as the original water is sourced from hot springs it continues to run the course underneath the blanket of ice on top.

After we had our fill of the upper falls view as well as tea and cake, we continued to the more popular sections of the canyon the lower falls.  Just as magnificent - please see photos.

4 hours after our arrival we headed back to the van and returned to the Chateau, we did stop off at Moose Meadows to see if the moose was still about, unfortunately he had moved on. Time to have a late lunch and return to the lodge for some down time and prepare ourselves for Cross Country tomorrow.

Nice to see the sun - now that's not necessarily because we tend

to rise from our beds later either ladies and gentlemen!!

The sun is usually obscured by the snow clouds

So seeing the sun rise like this is just lovely

You could almost feel the warmth - sort of - it was neg 24 remember!

Railway that runs all the way to the East Coast

Moose Meadow

Ah Ha Moose 

Pilot Mountain

Cleets

Trail

View above us

View Below

and up again - this is limestone - it was the original coral

reef back in it's time

Hot underground springs keep this water running

some in areas that you can see it

As you can see - there are gaps to see the water moving

Behind the wall of ice  is a running waterfall

You can actually here it - just beautiful

Elona and view

View from Lower Falls

View from Upper Falls

As is this - the ice falls here are used by climbers a lot apparently

hard to see height - look on!

There we go - that's half way!

Notice this tree has an anchor for the absailers

Thank god for zoom!

Megs and Ice Falls

Elona Ice Falls

The Beautiful Bruce - look at that jumper and hat - bless him!

This is what is at the bottom of the shots above and apparently they join up to make 

an entire sheet of ice to climb

Imagine climbing these things??

Heading back

Waterfall underneath

One of the caves to the Ice Falls

The Ice Falls inside the cave

The base showing moving water and me angling myself right

back so you can see the perspective

This one was just so I was in the picture!!

On the way out of cave

Limestone with impression made by some form of coral

Meg's and that wonderful sun - even Bruce was excited to see shadows!!

There he is  -  we just loved him!

Pilot Mountain - commonly known here as Little Matterhorn

Snow Monster - Can you see him?

These cabins are only open in the summer and they line the creek

What do you think is to the right (your right) of Megs?

That's right an ice cream vendor

Not open in winter season!

So we hiked 1 and half mile up and back again

No winter highlights but my jacket is NOT white lined I promise!!!

Those naughty fairies have been at it again

Our last bridge to cross before the end of trail