The Wandering Koi

After a chilly night in our tent in Banff, we were happy to see that in spite of the overnight rain, our rain tarp held up admirably. Speaking of camping, I thought some pertinent information might be useful in case anyone wanted to recreate this part of the trip.

Experienced campers probably know this, but Little Koi learned the hard way that you shouldn’t use anything that’s impermeable to water/non-breathable as a blanket. The sweat that evaporates will condense when it hits the cooler surface of the impromptu blanket, trapping the condensation and leading to a damp and chilly morning.

On a more positive note, we were told by park personnel that all the water at Two Jack Main campground (where we stayed because a site at Two Jack Lakeside is wicked hard to get) is potable. The facilities are nice, including a kitchen area, bear-proof storage, and washrooms (still called a washroom in Canada even though there is no shower!). And the best thing about all the water being potable… the kitchen and bathroom sinks both have potable hot water from the faucet, so that even with a burn ban we were able to have hot tea and coffee!! Incredible after a chilly night.

Prior to the trip, it wasn’t clear to us that you could go to both lakes with one shuttle reservation, so we had another shuttle reservation this morning. In case I didn’t mention it last post, the shuttle leaves from the ski area in Lake Louise. Which lest anyone be confused, is not in Banff. So you will need to arrange transportation from Banff to the shuttle pick up. We had a rental car. The parking can get a little tight, and the check-in queue at the ticket counter congested, so allow some extra time for these.

Lake Louise was something special. We had great weather, with clearer skies than when we were at Lake Moraine. I was surprised at the wildflowers blooming. We didn’t see any large wildlife as there were a lot of visitors, but there were still interesting things if you took the time to look.

We hiked past the end of the trail around the lake, to the inlet of the lake where two streams meet and enter the lake. One of the streams was clearly glacial melt, laden with rock flour. It was interesting to see the two meet and flow intertwining together before they start to mix.

After the walk, we took the gondola from the hub parking lot to the top of the Lake Louise ski mountain (at special request of Little Koi). There were nice views, a very large rocking chair, and a small museum with several taxidermy exhibits.

I think you could safely skip the gondola at Lake Louise, but perhaps it would be worth it if you explored the trails from the top )which we don’t so I can only speculate).

We had an interesting time getting showers at the hot spring in Banff (which for more details see the Facebook page) before heading back to the campground for our final night in Banff.