Lake Louise.
Now we have all probably heard of Lake Louise. The town itself only has a population of 700 people, so it’s small! And since covid, places like this have become so busy that extra traffic measures have needed to be put into place (we have faced the same issues in the UK). So, we knew that getting to see Lake Louise may be a problem and we knew there was a park and ride system in place (which needs to be booked in advance) to ease traffic problems. But as it was the end of the season, we were told by several people this shouldn’t be a problem! How wrong they were!
We were only staying about 3 miles from the lake so it wasn't a long drive. We headed up to the carpark late morning, joined the queues and then we were sent back as the carparks were full! The road to Moraine Lake was also here, but we didn’t know that it’s now fully closed to all traffic. (This started at the beginning of the 2023 season) so we were directed to the park and ride which is about 5 miles away. We headed there, parked up, went to find buses only to find that these needed booking too! There weren’t any spaces left which was a good job really as some of the return prices varied from $35-80.00 pp depending upon the time of day!
We had now sadly given up on the idea of seeing Moraine Lake. Wondering what to do next we stumbled upon Lake Louise train station, (which is also a restaurant) where there’s a free carpark and some really old rolling stock to see. This is all alongside the Bow River. With a conveniently placed bench it was an ideal place for today’s picnic!
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The sun was out, the Bow River was beautiful and there was a Skunk wandering around! It wasn't quite a lake, but it was still very beautiful.
We decided to drive back to Lake Louise and try our luck again later………
Now that we were fully refreshed it was time to head back up the hill to see if we could park. And as luck would have it there were several RV spaces. Result!! Even at 3pm you still have to pay for a full day’s parking which was around £12.00. But we had made it!!
Lake Louise was beyond beautiful, but it was really busy, even late pm! It wasn't easy to find a spot to sit and admire the sheer size of the scenery without the hustle and bustle of hundreds of noisy tourists! We had no choice but to visit on the day we did, but I’d highly recommend giving yourself choices of days/times when it would be much quieter. Anyway, let’s see how beautiful Lake Louise really was.
Stunning!!!
Back at the campground we had another fire and a glass or two of wine under the now stary skies! The day was almost a success!
The next day, we had a very short drive of just 70 miles to the Bow Valley Campground which would sadly be our last overnight stop. This almost took us full circle on this amazing adventure. It also meant that we could stop at Banff for a few hours, lunch, museums, last minute souvenirs, you know the stuff!
We needed to start the day off right, bacon cooked in maple syrup again as we needed to use up any food we had left. Well, that’s what I told myself!
The return to Banff.
Close to Banff Railway Station is a ‘free’ carpark especially for RVs, and handily it’s only a 15-20 minute walk alongside the beautiful Bow River to the Park Museum.
The Banff Park Museum is set in a beautiful timber building which was built in 1903. It is home to over 5000 botanical and zoological specimens; I had never seen so much taxidermy in one place!
Lunch was at ‘The Grizzley House’ with so much choice it was very hard to decide what to eat!
The last few miles of drive down to the Bow Valley Campground was stunning, the Campground is sat right on the edge of The Rockies alongside the Bow River, which again gives you amazing views.
We were greeted at our pitch by a little tiny, cute Chipmunk!
All that remained now was for us to pack our suitcases and then enjoy our last evening in the outside Canadian world!
The final day, and its beautiful outside!
It was just 66 miles to the Fraserway depot in Calgary and we must be there by 11.30am. It was a sad hour’s drive, the Rockies kept appearing in the mirrors getting smaller each time. It was like playing ‘Outrun’ in reverse! Until the mountains became small hills in the distance!
The return process was very easy, no damage, nothing missing, and we had unlimited kilometers, so this didn’t matter either! With nothing to sign and the feedback forms filled in we waited patiently for our transfer to Calgary Airport. For this we were in no rush as our flight didn’t leave for another 8 Hours!!
This was how we saw British Columbia and Alberta, Canada from the 11th of September to the 3rd of October 2023.
P.S. We never saw a single Bear in the wild, not one………