We headed to the campground at Lake Louise, our next destination. The sky was particularly lovely and Hans wanted to take pictures but I was tired and cranky and just wanted to get there. I did grudgingly pull over a couple of times.
There was a strip mall with an overrun bakery but we were hungry and so stood in the obscene line for the obscenely-priced and mediocre pastries (but much-needed coffee). However, we did find a public laundry facility and I was glad to have clean clothes again, even if our rental car now looked a little silly with socks and underwear drying in the back window and clotheslines strung between the back windows.
We drove back to the parking lot for the Fairmont Lake Louise that also serves as public parking for trail access. The hotel is placed slap-bang right on the edge of one of Alberta’s crown jewels of natural beauty, Lake Louise itself.
We did the Path to Six Glaciers hike that took up to an old historic teahouse that has been serving hikers tea, lemonade, and various food faire for over a hundred years. Supplies are brought in daily by horseback. Okay, it is exactly part of what Hans calls “Prada Point”, but I had to appreciate the quaintness of the building without electricity, where bread is made in a wood-fired oven daily and they have teas from all over the world. Hans was extremely annoyed by the crowds but I was trying to make the best of it and enjoy the scenery. We continued on the trail (at which point there was considerably less people) up to a glacier viewpoint. While Hans waited for me to catch up a bold ground squirrel stood right next to where he was sitting and posed for a picture. It was satisfying to be high up in the mountains and see how miniscule the Fairmont resort looked, as bold and imposing it was made to look.
A sideways bloom of fireweed
Hans is trying not to make
eye contact with the tea house
The resort doesn't look
so bad from here...
Hans' friend
The campground was a little disconcerting. One has to drive over a cattle grate and enter through an electric fence that runs along the perimeter. Poor camp hygiene and a relatively large bear population prompted its installation. Even though it is meant to keep the bears out one cannot help but feel we are being kept in. Ground squirrels leap through the narrow gaps between electric lines with practiced precision. Their burrows are strategically placed within easy crumb-snatching distance of the picnic tables.We had an excellent (though, expensive, like everything else in this town) dinner at a youth hostel of all places, washed down with some Albertan brew.