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!

 

 

 

 

When we left Calgary, we returned to the United States and Glacier National Park in Montana. Our first two nights were at the Many Glacier Hotel, the only hotel on the eastern side of the park. It’s quite a few miles inside the park, and there are multiple hiking opportunities nearby.

The hotel opened in 1915, and although some renovations have been made over the years the original rustic nature of the hotel and its rooms remain. When we reserved a room last October, we got the last room in the hotel, but were told to call back two weeks before our arrival to see if a lakeside room opened up. Luckily, it had, and we had a lovely view of Swiftcurrent Lake. Sadly, it was too chilly and windy to make use of the balcony. The room was very small and quite basic, but the hotel itself has a wonderful air of elegance.

We hiked around Swiftcurrent Lake as well as two adjoining lakes–Josephine and Grinnell. My favorite hike here was to Apikuni Falls. It was a cloudy, misty morning, but great for photographs.

The main attraction at Glacier Park is the Going to the Sun Road which crosses the park east to west. The highest point is Logan Pass.

We stopped there to hike to Hidden Lake. No one was allowed to hike down to the lake since grizzly bears were feeding on the fish in the area. 

Unlike most of the trails we hiked, most of this one was a boardwalk, created to protect the delicate alpine environment.

On our way up we spotted some mountain goats.

But when we got to the end of the trail there were quite a few goats very close to the trail. You’ll notice their collars. The goats here are part of a research study tracking their movements.

Hidden Lake from the top of the trail. Although I’m sure the trail down to the lake would have been lovely, it would have taken the better part of the day to have done the whole trail. We went on to hike two other trails off the Going to the Sun Road.

We spent that night in Whitefish, Mt. which we loved. It’s a ski center in the winter. The next day we drove to Missoula, Mt. It’s a beautiful drive past Flathead Lake, the largest fresh water lake west of the Mississippi.

We spent the better part of a day back in Glacier at Two Medicine hiking to Aster and Rockwell Falls, and then driving on to Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada. Waterton is actually an extension of the same mountains as Glacier but on the other side of the border.

One of the most striking hotels we saw was The Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton. Like Many Glacier it was built in the early 1900’s.

This is the amazing view from the hotel. We couldn’t afford to stay there, but we did have a lovely dinner in the bar sitting at the window looking out at this view.

We also took the boat tour to Goat Haunt which is actually back in the United States. You can see the boat in the photo above. It was a fascinating tour, and we learned a lot about the geography, climate, and plant and animal life in the area. One of the most interesting things we discovered was the cut line.

You can see a stone marker just above the shoreline. It indicates the 49th parallel which forms the border between the United States and Canada. A cut line is maintained from the Pacific Ocean to the Great Lakes marking this border. About every 15 years a crew goes through and recuts the line. Who knew?

 

 

It’s time for a few posts about our fabulous trip to Calgary, Glacier National Park, and the Canadian Rockies. It was a trip we’d planned a few years ago, but we really didn’t have any idea how much we’d enjoy it.

After a few days with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb we flew to Calgary. I was very excited about being able to go to the Calgary Stampede, one of the largest rodeos in the world. I’ve never been to a rodeo, so it was all new to me. And it didn’t disappoint!

There’s a lot of pageantry involved. Some of the prominent riders were “dropped” into the stadium via cables from above. None of my photos of that were clear enough to share!

This is one of two large, and excellent, bands that performed before the rodeo and during intermission.

Of course, it’s the bronco riding that folks come to see. Actually the most exciting event was the calf roping where world records were set. We were too far away from that end of the stadium to take good photos, but the video screens around the stadium made it easy to see every event.

The Stampede is much like the state fairs here, with midways and lots of exhibits. 

 

I always knew the Clydesdales were huge, but seeing the groomers on stools really brought it home.

I loved this image of the sheep in the wagon, off to a different venue.

One of our favorite exhibits was that of the First Nations. We spent quite a bit of time there. There were traditional tepees to visit, and my favorite, dance competitions.

I’ve always admired bloggers who can keep track of numbers during the month. I’ve never managed to do it successfully, but made a big effort to keep track during our trip. So here they are—our trip in numbers.

    2, 585 miles driven (in a rented Ford Escape, which we loved)

    76.5 miles hiked on 23 different trails

    14 (unusual for us) animal species, including 4 bears, 4 elk, many loons, mountain goats, and 
    big horned sheep, 2 coyotes, and 2 spruce grouse

We always keep an eye out for license plates as we drive along. This year we spotted 45/50 states, 7/10 Canadian provinces, and 1/3 Canadian territories. We drove in five different states and 2 provinces (Alberta and British Columbia).

I took 1,177 photos, about half with my DSRL and half with my iPhone. I edited about 130 to share with friends and had 70 printed to add to an album.

We’re already planning another trip to the Canadian Rockies. There were hikes we didn’t get to, and an aborted trip from many years ago up the coast of British Columbia we’d like to do.