Golden, Lake Louise, Banff, and Kimberley

On Thursday, Kathy and I had a continental breakfast at the Alpine Meadows Lodge, and were headed down the long dusty gravel road to Banff by 9:30 AM. As with the previous day, we had a short, 3-4 hour drive, so we planned to stop off and see some of the sights in the Yoho National Park.

We were happy to see when leaving Golden that the accident from the night before had been cleared, and there were no 20-mile-long lines of tractor-trailers blocking Highway 1 to Banff. In fact, the road was remarkably clear. Our first turnoff was at Emerald Lake, just outside the town of Field.

The parking lot was full, with more people than were at Meadows in the Sky yesterday, but we easily found space on the side of the road and ambled up to the lake. The lake looks like its name sounds; it’s turquoise and emerald, and very popular. There were a lot of people canoeing. The path around the lake is more than three miles, but we had at least one more stop before Banff, so we just walked part way. 

After making our way to the car we got back on the highway and drove about 15 miles east to Takakkaw Falls, which is one of the highest falls in Canada at 833 feet. This time we were lucky enough to snag a spot inside the parking lot, even though there were more people than at Emerald Lake (probably because it was later in the day.)

We walked the one kilometer to the base of the falls, which were very impressive. They were loud, and it was wet and cold. Everyone was trying to get as close as possible to get a picture. 

When we got back to the parking lot it was after 3 PM and we were both hungry, so we turned off the road in the town of Field to get lunch at the Truffle Pigs Bistro and Lounge, which was touted in our Moon Canadian Rockies Road Trip guide book, but we both thought that the food was a little too fancy for our taste. We shared a Cobb “not a salad”, which included things like duck breast and pickled pearl onions. It was more like an antipasto plate with Cobb ingredients, instead of a regular salad.

Because we were in the Rockies, I wanted to try trout, but instead of lake trout, I got a piece of steelhead which seemed pretty much like salmon. Kathy ordered the pork schnitzel with spaetzle, which we both remembered fondly from out trip to Wolfsburg, Germany several years ago. It too, was not what we expected, so, all in all, the meal wasn’t that memorable. 

In fact, most of the recommendations I’ve gotten from guidebooks lately haven’t really lived up to my expectations. We find that we’re relying more and more on the recommendations on Google Maps, with a 4.0 as our cutoff. In Italy this summer we ate at a place and only noticed it was a 3.1 after we sat down. It was quite disappointing, and since then, I’ve been much more aware of low ratings.

We reached our hotel in Banff (the Dorothy Motel) a little before 5PM. The Dorothy features a self-check-in procedure, but the instructions that they emailed me involved downloading an app and registering for an account. That was more than I could face after a day on the road. Fortunately, we found a helpful human at the Caribou Lodge, down the road, which owns the property, and we got into our room before 5 PM.

After we got settled in our room and had a cup of decaf, we drove downtown to look around. Commercial development in Banff is highly regulated, with almost all commercial establishments confined to a 4 or 5 block section of Banff Avenue, and the streets parallel to it. There are restaurants in many of the hotels, that are out of this section, but that seems to be the only exception.

As a result, driving downtown and finding parking is really a nightmare. After a half-hour we found a parking space, and walked through the park down to the river and over the bridge. This part of town was not crowded; most people seemed to be walking on the main drag, looking in shops, or standing in line to get into Starbucks or the ice-cream store.

Friday: Lake Louise and Moraine Lake

Friday morning we signed up for a shuttle to take us to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. We got up early and left our motel before 7AM, to catch the bus at 9AM at the tour-bus depot behind the Mount Royal Hotel on Caribou Street. Our motel gave us two three-day bus passes with our room, so we caught the local bus which dropped us off right in front of the Starbucks, where we had breakfast. We wanted a sit-down breakfast but none of the ones we found opened before 8 AM. 

After Starbucks, we stopped by Subway and got a sandwich. Again, the Web and the sign in the window said that they opened at 7AM, but a second sign said they now opened at 8AM. It looks like Banff is full of late risers because we had the place to ourselves. We caught our tour bus—really a Transit Van—a little before 9AM, and a half-hour later, were dropped off at Lake Louise, for an hour and a half.

The lake was beautiful, but crowded. At the top of this section there is a photo I took by standing at the bottom step going into the lake, and using the pano feature on my iPhone. It looks just beautiful. However, if you step back just a few feet, it looks like this [with a whole lot more people yet to arrive].

We walked around the lake for a little more than an hour, snapping photos with all of the other tourists, lined up and waiting our turn. Despite the crowds, it really is awe-inspiring.

You’ve probably seen the inspiring photos of the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, similar to this one. When you’re actually at the lake level, instead of in the hills above it, it is not that impressive at all. It looks a little like a monster Motel 6. None the less, when we got back to Banff I looked up the room rates; they start at $1,250 a night. Location, location, location.

Since we only had an hour and a half at each lake, we headed back when we were half-way around the lake. Back on the bus at 11:30 AM we set off for the half-hour drive to Moraine Lake.

Lake Louise has a definite “whiteness” to the color of the water, but Moraine Lake seemed bluer. Perhaps it was the time of day, since they are both glacier fed, and both are beautiful. We walked around the lake and found a ledge with some tree roots to sit on, where we ate our picnic lunch.

Moraine Lake was definitely less crowded than Lake Louise. Still, it was not as pristine as Kathy’s picture (above) would make it appear.

Here is the same photo, at the same time, only a couple of steps further back.

At 1:30 PM we met the van in the parking lot and drove back to Banff, which took a little over an hour. On the way we had a conversation with a young lady, Gretchen, who works for Boeing in Denver, updating aviation maps for pilots. We also talked a little with our driver, Kenny, who has been here in Calgary for two years, after emigrating from Hong Kong. Finally, we met Andy, a water engineer, also from China, who is starting his PhD at Brown next week. It was really refreshing meeting so many different people.

We got back to our motel by 4:30 after navigating the insane crowds mobbing Banff Avenue, then walked a few blocks to the Chili’s in the Fox Lodge for dinner. 

Saturday we slept in, and checked out of our motel just before 10 AM. The plan was to drive for a little bit and stop for breakfast. Once we turned south on Highway 93/95 though, the sign on the highway said “No Services for 105 KM/ No cellphone service”. We thought about stopping in Radium Hot Springs (which reminds me of Radiator Springs in the movie Cars), but the cafes didn’t look inviting. So, we kept on driving until we reached Invermere at 11:30 AM where we had breakfast at Huckleberry’s Family Restaurant. 

One thing both of us really like are old-fashioned drive-up motels. The North Star Motel in Kimberley BC is our last stop in Canada, and both of us love it.

I especially like the fact that we can back right up to our front door, and avoid carrying our luggage up and down stairs. These are so cool. Kimberley is one of several small towns near Cranbrook in the East Kootenays, about an hour from the US border, and two and a half hours south of Banff. 

After unpacking, we read for a while and then went out to dinner at The Shed, located on their pedestrians street, called the Platzl, in the center of town. The Platzl boasts Canada’s largest free-standing cuckoo clock. We had a wonderful barbecue dinner of pulled pork. After dinner, we went over to the Snack Shack and spent the last of our Canadian cash on ice cream. Tomorrow we’ll be heading for Kalispell, Montana to meet with more good friends.