Day 5: Lake Louise

Moraine Lake

Bike ride

Best dinner

We started at a (finally!) reasonable hour on a short bus ride to lovely Moraine Lake, about three miles away on the other side of the mountain and higher up than Lake Louise. While smaller and shallower than Lake Louis (40 vs 300(!) feet deep), it is an extremely picturesque place in its own right.

Our local guide, Rhonda, was unique—a combination of a stand-up comic, a brilliant naturalist, and a zen guru. Rather than just lecture, she used props— specifically suggesting that for Moraine Lake to become a world-class destination, it needed to have a microbrewery — a void she was proposing to fill with a portfolio of beer all demonstrated with ever changing names and information on her gigantic beer bottle.

We made about six or seven stops on the crowded trail around this beautiful lake. At each stop, she would hang her beer bottle, change the label, and proceed to connect to her current topic—pika rabbits that weighs 6 oz. yet collects upwards of 62 pounds of food for the winter;


movies that have been filmed on or around Lake Moraine and the famous movie stars that were in them;


“forest bathing”, the Japanese art of improving your health through immersion in the sensory environment of the woods;

the history and geology of the lake itself including the “ rock flour” residue that gives it its color.

The last stop was a lesson about the history of grizzly bears and people living in harmony in all the national parks, but particularly Lake Louise and environs.

She actually ended with a rap that on bear rescue that was worthy of YouTube or Instagram.

Jim climbed the “Rock Pile “ trail that was originally thought to be a moraine (hence the lake name) — a deposit of rocks from the glacier that formed the lake. It is now believed to be result of a later avalanche.



Back to the hotel where Wendy and Patti went down to the pool, hot tub and steam room, and Jim went on a guided e-bike ride that took 3 hours across the Vally to the Lake Louise ski-resort for a chair lift ride up to the top. We were treated to spectacular views and a fun and challenging ride on both dirt trails and highway.




Dinner was magnificent— three couples us, Patti and Bob and a couple from California—Linda and Larry ate together. We had each gotten a full bottle of Prosecco for a birthday or anniversary and brought them all down to dinner to share. The meal itself was one of the best— fresh oysters from PEI and steak tartare made at tableside for appetizers,

and filet and t- bone steaks. Desserts finished off the meal ( and yes, the table finished all three bottles of Prosecco!)

A quick walk along this beautiful lake finished off the evening, including some daring plungers cavorting in the glacier-fed sub-50-degree water!