Banff Sunshine Village - with rain

Mikkel joined Steen for a hostel breakfast, enjoying some bacon and eggs from the cafe on the patio. We had a quiet morning not really feeling like hurrying out on the trails. In the end we decided to drive to Sunshine village and hike up the mountain. Mikkel being a little disappointed not going up with the Banff cable car.

Arriving at the parking lot at Sunshine village it was clear that the long weekend was over. We passed by a couple of "overflow" parking lots on our way but the main parking lot was more or less empty.

Sunshine village is a bit up the mountain and the cable car was still under construction - Mikkel was now even more disappointed. Instead there was the option to take the shuttle bus up.  At CAD 30 per person we decided not to. So instead we hiked up the mountain road for about 1½ hours passing by a number of ski lifts and cable cars on our way up. They seem so much out of place when it is summer and all the hills are green.

The rain started just when we reached to top of the mountain, so we went for shelter in the cafe and waited for the weather to improve. It didn't happen. Instead we could see more and more soaked people entering and the rain pouring down outside. So much for Sunshine.

When the rain stopped we hiked back to the car, drove back to Banff, shopped for our own homemade BBQ and did good meat and veggies at the hostel. And then the sun was back again. Hope the next couple of days will be with lots of sunshine in Penticton.

Lake Louise - take #2

Left Mosquito creek early in the morning. 7:30 AM. Our second attempt to get to Lake Louise and meet Mark there.

Actually we had agreed to do the hike at Moraine Lake first since it is located at the end of a 10 km mountain road and parking is very limited. Most days the only way to get there is by shuttle bus. We were there at 7:59 - Mark arrived 2 minutes later.

The parking lot was already filling up. We did a lot of photos from the top of the hill right at the start of the trail. To get the reflections in the water - which are impressive. Especially with the sun rising and the lights changing.

We had coffee and did "hike" to the other end of the lake (which is the shortest hike possible in the world). Coffee-latte hiking is OK some mornings though :-) We just missed out on the croissants. We headed back to the now slightly more busy parking lot, left for Lake Louise and realised that just how many cars that were now parked in the roadside. At the end of the access road there was now a barrier and a guy turning cars away. Before 10 in the morning.

The same turned out to be the case at Lake Louise although it has much more room for parking. We headed a bit down the main road and found a parking space and then went to the lake. The lake shore at the hotel looked more like a beach in Southern France - crowded.

We hiked to Lake Agnes - which also turned out to be very busy and on the way down we decided to head a bit away from the main path and finally found a place that was quiet and had a great view over the lake.

Coming back in the afternoon the lake was still busy, the parking lot was still packed and it didn't really fell like any of the other places we've been to in the National park.

Mark headed back towards Calgary, we went to our hostel in Banff. First real shower in 6 days was nice, then off for beer and dinner in town before heading back for a nice sleep in a small 4 person room. No dorm tonight so presumably only our own snoring to listen to. Nice.