Summer Trip (Part 3): Plain of Six Glaciers

Number One on our wish list of hikes was The Plain of Six Glaciers. This was the longest single hike we did during our vacation, over 9 1/2 miles. Although we expected to do this hike while staying at Lake Louise, we ended up driving to Lake Louise from Banff when we saw a wonderfully clear day in the forecast. We didn’t want to take any chances on the fickle weather!

Here we are at the shore of Lake Louise, early in the morning. The young couple who took our photo were also on the trail and we crossed paths several times during the day. 

One of the smartest things I did before leaving for the trip was to purchase some good hiking sticks. My knees really appreciated them on the trip down! You can tell it was pretty chilly early in the morning. By mid-morning our fleece jackets were in our backpacks. You can see the main glacier in the background, and you’ll see it get closer and closer as we hike up the trail.

The beginning of the trail is paved, flat, and loops around the side of Lake Louise. Once the trail starts up it looks like this most of the way.

This photo is looking back at Lake Louise from the trail.

About 85% of the way up the trail, you arrive at the Tea House of the Plain of Six Glaciers. The staff who work here hike in for five day stints, and then carry the garbage out with them when they leave. All the baking and cooking is done on wood-burning stoves. The pastries, sandwiches, and soup are wonderful! Originally, we thought this would be the end point of our hike, but once we’d been refreshed by our tea and pastries, we decided to continue up the trail.

Now you can see the tea house in the distance looking back from the trail.

Here I am, getting closer to the end of the trail. Amazingly, neither Tracy nor I have a photo from the end of the trail. You can see the folks ahead of me. I still do have a ways to go. 

Here’s Tracy (second down in the red shirt) as we headed back to Lake Louise. You can see the Chateau Lake Louise at the end of the lake.

And here we are back on the lakeshore trail, looking at The Chateau Lake Louise. The Chateau is an amazing place. Like The Prince of Wales in Waterton, it’s very pricey, but we had a lovely dinner there later in our stay when we had moved from Banff to Lake Louise. 

We hiked some 23 trails on the trip, but the Plain of Six Glaciers stayed at #1 when we rated them at the end of the trip. It was just an awesome day!