Lake Moraine - Banff National Park, Alberta Canada

We get up early Tuesday morning and take the drive to Moraine Lake. Moraine lake is about 13 kilometers (One of my Dad's favorite sayings was "when in Rome do as the Romans do". So yes, I could have converted it from KM to miles, but I DIDN'T - deal with it... It will be good for you neurons), south of Lake Louise in the Valley of the Ten Peaks. Fortunately, we learned from our mistake of the previous day and get up there early. There is almost no traffic and very few cars in the parking lot.

As we drive up the road, I can see the sky is clear, my worry that it will be another smokey day starts to clear with the sky.

Today is a beautiful day; the smoke from the previous day is gone; the fog hasn't quite awoken; the sun is just starting to hit parts of the lake, and the air is crisp and chilly.


To give you a feel of what Canadians think about this area, it was once depicted on the Canadian twenty dollar bill.

We go for an early morning hike, as the fog is starting to clear, around part of the lake (up to where the trail stops as the river empties into the lake).

 After coming back from the hike, the fog is still settled on most of the lake, so we decide to stall a bit, warm our insides and get a small bite. As soon as the Moraine Lake cafe opens, we head in and get a triple berry muffin and a couple of hot coffees. We finds a nice warm table in front of a big window to enjoy our coffee and muffin but were unceremoniously asked to leave (seems aforementioned table was only for hotel guest). I was hoping to just not get noticed, darn! Back out in the cold we go. We had pretty much set up camp on this great bench just feet from where the picture (at left) was taken. The only problem was... TOURIST! Jees! They kept coming down into our personal space, admiring the lake and taking pictures - what is the matter with these people?? Still, after one family asked us to take a picture of them, they were nice enough to offer to take a picture of us.

Five of the "Ten Peaks" can be seen here

While at Lake Moraine, we take a hike up to Consolation lake, which was a nice hike, much of it bordered by a creek, thru a forest,

which opens up into a lush meadow,

and then finally the lake.

Hoary Marmot we saw on our hike to Consolation Lake

Lake Moraine is without doubt a gorgeous place and has been one of the highlights of our trip.