Day 4: Lake Louise, Tea Houses, and Breweries
We had another early morning start out of the Crossing Resort… we wanted to make sure we beat the crowds down to Lake Louise. We had about an hour drive south to the parking lot. We showed up around 8:00 in the morning, which was apparently early enough to park in the lower lot. As the day goes on and the lots fill up, people do end up needing to park off-site and get shuttled in. On the eastern shore of Lake Louise stands the Fairmont Chateau… a towering, elegant building which overlooks the alpine lake, across to the peaks and glaciers. Unfortunately it was another foggy, snowy morning, so the normally majestic mountains that surround the lake were completely hidden.
Our hike on this cold morning was up to the Plain of Six glaciers Teahouse, followed by a quick stop at the Lake Agnes Teahouse. It really was a fairly easy hike to begin with. We began at the Fairmont, and started walking along the north shore of Lake Louise. Once we hit the end of the lake, we began our climb up towards the glaciers, but there really weren’t any particularly steep or difficult parts. There was one somewhat narrow section along a cliff face that might have given some acrophobic individuals pause, but it was wide enough for people to pass.
The most difficult part of the first half of this hike was after we passed the Plain of Six Glaciers teahouse and continued up towards the actual glacier… we were apparently the first to use that trail for the day, so we were blazing the trail through shin-deep snow. We ultimately reached a point where we weren’t sure if the trail ended or continued… so we decided it was the end, and turned back to the teahouse for some warm tea, a bowl of soup, and a huge slice of chocolate cake that they make right there, up on the mountain.
After the first tea house, some of the clouds started lifting, giving us views of the rocky peaks above us, and a glimpse of blue sky… but still no views below to the lake. As we headed toward the Lake Agnes Teahouse, we started passing more and more people. The Lake Agnes Teahouse is actually at a higher elevation than the Plain of Six Glaciers Tea House… and there were some steep stairs at the end of that walk which made that fact abundantly clear. We had to be careful as well, because with the snow plus the pressure of hundreds of feet, the steps and much of the trail had been compressed to ice.
The Lake Agnes Teahouse is a much shorter hike (albeit a steeper hike) from the Fairmont, and thus gets a lot more traffic, and that day was no different. We didn’t spend long here, and the walk back to the trailhead was slower due to the foot traffic that we had to contend with. I’m still amazed at some of the footwear that we saw attempting to climb the trail.
When we reached the bottom, we took a few more photos of the emerald-blue lake, then walked back to the truck. There were just too many people around at this point… and we were also beginning to get hungry… and thirsty. We drove the 40 miles south to Banff, and took a somewhat more scenic and roundabout route through town to make sure we saw surprise corner, which overlooks yet another Fairmont (the Fairmont Banff Springs) sitting above the Bow River. We just did a drive-by, so I really didn’t get any good shots… and my excuse is that I don’t want to ruin the surprise for anyone who wants to go see it for themselves!
We parked on the west end of town, by the river on Bow Ave… which seemed to be a somewhat sneaky parking spot. They’re just a bit of a walk into town, but they’re free, and good for all day, as opposed to most of the parking in town which is either paid parking in a garage, or limited to 2 hours.
Our choice for lunch was Park Distillery Restaurant and Bar, situated right in the middle of downtown Banff. We hit them at a fairly quiet time… right between lunch and dinner, so we were able to grab a couple spots at the bar and got served fairly quickly. We went with a few appetizers as well as a couple of Alberta beers to start with. This is one of the things we like to do when we only have a few hours, or a single day in a town… just order smaller, shareable plates for food. This gives us the opportunity to visit a couple of restaurants instead of just eating one large meal at one. After the wings and fried cauliflower (which were both very good) I ordered the house Gin sampler, which had two samples of their house-made Gin. One was their normal Park Alpine Dry Gin, which is created in the style of a traditional london dry, but includes hand-picked Canadian Spruce tips, which add a really nice, resinous aroma and flavor. The other was the same gin, only aged for 6 months in bourbon barrels, which really mellows out the harsher herbal notes, and leaves a nice oaky finish, with a little bit of that vanilla sweetness. A very interesting take on gin.
After park Distillery we wandered up the street to COWS Banff, a Canadian Ice Cream chain that supposedly carries the best ice cream in the country. Even though it started snowing heavily outside, we had to try it. An it really was good ice cream… think Ben and Jerry’s as an analogue in the US. I’m sure we looked pretty silly wandering through a blizzard enjoying out ice creams.
We didn’t have to wander far before we hit our next stop, Banff Ave Brewing Co., which is actually a sister brewpub to the Jasper Brewing Co. We just happened to hit them at happy hour, and poutine was on the happy hour menu, and we hadn’t had enough poutine yet in Canada… so we grabbed a couple of pints and a plate of poutine to split. This is where we got our first taste of the Walk A Mile In Her Shoes, a double dry-hopped, lagered ale. This beer was a collaboration between Banff Ave Brewing, Grizzly Paw Brewing, and Canmore Brewing to support the Walk a Mile In Her Shoes, a charity supporting the YWCA. The beer was so good… nice and light and refreshing, with a really aromatic, yet smooth hop presence. And, it was pretty low ABV, which was good, since we still had one drive left for the day… back down to Canmore, where we checked into our final lodging for the trip at the Solara Resort.
We were treated very well at the Solara. We were given a beautiful room… a suite, really an apartment complete with bedroom, living room, and a full kitchen. We even had champagne and chocolate waiting for us since we were celebrating our honeymoon. We parked our truck in the underground garage, and after deciding that we were going to fully use our room and cook in, we walked into town to get some supplies for grilled cheeses.
It was only a 2 mile round-trip walk into town, and very flat, so it really didn’t strain us at all. On our way back we made one last stop for the day, to the Grizzly Paw Brewing Company production facility, which happened to be just outside of downtown, and on our route. We enjoyed chatting with the bartenders there about their trips to Vermont and the Northeastern US and all the great beers they had on their visits. We also discussed how far Canada… especially the Rocky Mountain region in Alberta had come in terms of craft beer offerings. We had been able to spend several days driving up and down the national parks only drinking Alberta brewed beers… and most of them were really good. We finished off with one more Walk a Mile before heading back to our room where we cooked up our grilled cheeses and drank some wine before retiring for the night.
I guess you were right when you said it would be cold there. It looks fantastic!