Day 5: Word of the day….WOW!

(what3words: Joins.salvaging.banish - Yep, just the same as yesterday as I am writing this from our hotel room :))

Today we were up at 5.30 to beat the hoards up to Moraine Lake, and found the sun was highlighting the tips of the mountains with gold.

We did beat the majority - just. The sign said that the parking lot was full, but we thought we would give it a try anyway, and there were about 5 spaces empty. When we got there, there were only about 20 other people there, so they had either brought a car each or folks were staying in the Lodge.

The pictures we took are stunning - I have picked a few out to show here, but in some of them, we look as if we are standing in front of a green screen and the backdrop is fake - but I promise we were there, I even climbed up a huge boulder pile to get the high up shots

(what3words: safely,clockwork.patrons).

It was actually pretty small - it looked a similar size to Talking Tarn for any Cumbrians reading...

The water is a beautiful green colour, and so clear. There is still quite a bit of snow on the mountains, and at one point we could hear it cracking free - we are still in avalanche country after all. I had wanted a pic of me dipping my toe in the water - but having tested the temperature, I kept my boots on!

The Haliburton sweatshirt came through again today, our server in the cafe has family there, and also in Yorkshire so we had a great old chat.

We bought coffee and muffins and sat on a log by the lakeside to eat them. By this time more people were arriving so we thought it was a good time to leave and head off to Lake Louise.

Sadly, the car in front of us took the last parking spot at Lake Louise, (our barman from last night was half right) so we headed down to the park and ride place at the bottom of the mountain, thinking we would take the bus back up. Too many other people had the same idea as us though, and the next free seats were in 3 hours time!

To fill the time we opted for the Lake Louise Gondola (what3words: sportswear.surfer.rental) up to the lookout point, and as we had been up since 5.30 and it was now 11.30, it was technically lunchtime.

This is the view of Lake Louise - so I guess I did see it after all....

We opted for the Gondola and Gourmet Dining option which cost and extra $25pp but you got $30pp to spend on lunch in the restaurant, the Whitehorn, which is 4*. I dont have the what3words, but I can tell you that it is located at 6,700f (2042m)!

We both chose the Whitehorn burger which was HUGE and well worth the $30 that it was priced up as. The views were glorious… and you can go there just for coffee or a drink, you don't have to eat

The chair lift ride down was just as stunning

We tried again to get to Lake Louise, and again, the guy in front of us got a parking spot and we didn’t, sp we opted to head to another sight on our list ‘Cave and Basin’ which is an historical sight and sulphur hot spring (what3words: twig.wasps.proverbial). We mistakenly thought we could swim there - but just as well that we couldn’t as the strong smell of sulphur would have stayed with us a long time. It was ‘pretty neat’ as the Canadians say, and is a natural occurrence. It is also home to an endangered snail - the Banff Snail, which lives in the pool - this is the only area in the world that it lives, and as Banff has 9 hot springs, it has introduced a colony to 7 of them. The other two dry up in the winter so they are not suitable.

Very clear water, but stinky!

We ticked off another of our list of ‘must sees’ and called in at Bow River Fallls, which are spectacular and still in full flood and very fast flowing

We drove through Banff which was very busy, but looks fun, so we will have a day there, but perhaps on Monday after the weekend warriors have left. The deer were not put off by the crowds though, they were just in the middle of town, chowing down on tasty grass

Yep, that is deer poop!

Before I sign off, I know you will want to know - we drove on the right side of the road, literally, all day today.

What am I thankful for? I am thankful that we got up early and made it to Moraine Lake before it got busy. It was everything we hoped it would be - fingers crossed for when we try Lake Louise again tomorrow!