Turquoise lakes, glaciers, and teahouses

 

I am writing to you from inside the first official time we have popped the top of the big blue truck! And after the most incredible week in Banff National Park. We were very prepared for some summertime camping--complete with a fan, very light bedding, and of course the ability to pop up the truck cap for airflow. Turns out it gets pretty chilly at night in Banff. So we kept the truck cap closed for warmth, bought two more blankets (we couldn't agree on the color we wanted so we each got our own) and I wore the winter hat I packed for summiting snowy mountains to sleep each night. We were a little cold, but boy was it worth it.

On our first full day, we decided to hike to one of the many famous lakes Banff has to offer. It was super nice to be able to make a nice breakfast and have coffee at our campsite before heading out on our short drive to the Bourgeau Lake trailhead. You actually had to enter this trail through a giant metal gate (not intimidating at all) so that bears stayed in the forest and didn't enter the highway area. We were met with a steep climb through thick forests of tall, thin spruce trees dripping with bearded moss and were rewarded at the summit with pristine Bourgeau Lake surrounded by a snowy rock amphitheater. Its water was perfectly clear and shone a bright turquoise blue. From the lake, we decided to continue up Harvey Pass for more mountain views. There were some snow-covered parts of the pass that required very careful footing--Ashley did not love this, but Matthew wasn't phased at all. Views of jagged mountains topped with snow stretched as far as you could see, but we didn't spend too much time up there because of some rain and wind. After a safe hike down we headed into downtown Banff for a beer and a snack. What a treat! Banff is a resort town at its very finest. We could have snacked on any cuisine we wanted-- Indian, Mexican, Poutine, Fried Dough, if you can dream it, you can eat it in Banff. The streets were lined with shops of all kinds as well and surrounded by a beautiful mountain view no matter where you are in town. You are also surrounded by people, lots and lots, so we headed out to our campsite to make our own tasty dinner over the fire and called it a day.

After a tough hike the day before, we decided to do some driving around different areas of the park and check out some shorter hikes along the way. Regardless of what area of the park we were in there were so many roadside stops- campgrounds, creeks, lakes, viewpoints, and animals! So much wildlife! We started the day seeing 4 or so giant deer-looking guys munching on the side of the road and had fun identifying which animal we thought it was based on the pictures we took. Because they were brown with a darker brown neck and white rump---we decided they were elk. We're pretty much experts now. My favorite stop of the day was the most unreal looking of Banff's lakes called Peyto Lake (pictured above). We learned that the turquoise color comes from something called "rock flour" in the water. Pieces of glacier from the mountains above fall down the mountainside and carve off silt and rock creating a delta where sediment fills the stream leading into the lake. This sediment then flows into the lake where the smaller pieces are suspended in the water. Sunlight then reflects off of the sediment and causes it to look its famous turquoise color. (Ashley really likes reading all of the plaques along the side of the trail with information on them). We ended this day by seeing our very first glacier in person! We were able to hike right up to the Athabasca Glacier which was pretty incredible. In the photo it just looks like a big ol' mound of snow-- which is pretty much what it is, but we learned the difference between a pile of snow and a glacier is that the glacier has snow from 400 years ago in it!! While our New England pile of snow which sometimes feels like it may never go away eventually does.

This next day was my favorite hike for a lot of reasons. If I'm being perfectly honest---It didn't start that way as we had to wake up at 4:30am in order to attempt to get a parking spot and the lot we were trying to get into was already full by 3am!! What kind of crazy hikers are getting there by 3am!? Anyway, it worked out fine because we parked in a different lot with availability and did a different hike. Luckily our truck has a bed in it, so we slept for a few more hours in the parking lot. Lake Louise was magical as well and had that same signature aqua blue color.  Our hike started by walking around Lake Louise and heading to Lake Agnes, which was special to me because this is my great-grandmother's name. It was a steep incline until we got there with relentless switchbacks through the woods. Lake Agnes was nestled into the face of several mountains and had a teahouse where you could grab a snack and some tea on your hike. There was actually another teahouse on this hike, so we waited to grab something tasty at that one. From Lake Agnes, we headed up a trail called Big Beehive that was again steep with neverending switchbacks, but this time we were treated to views of both Lake Louise and Lake Agnes from the top. Simply beautiful, the kind of view that you could stare at for hours and not even realize the time passed by. We had a nice snack here and then headed on to the Plain of Six Glaciers trail. The teahouse was just the coolest! It was tucked into a valley, next to a stream of glacier water, and surrounded by mountains. The sweetest waitstaff served us a cool glass of lemonade and homemade biscuits with strawberry jam (YUM!). The perfect snack after a long hike. After this lovely stop, Matthew filled up his drinking water in the stream and had some fresh glacier water to drink for the rest of the hike. It didn't stay cool for long though, because it was toasty in the sun on the exposed trail we took to check out several glaciers in the distance. This peak was enclosed by five mountains, each with its own glacier (and one with two). 

On our rest day, we did laundry in Canmore and Matthew found us a disc golf course with mountain views. He wanted to make a bet that the loser of our game did the dinner dishes, but I have yet to win a game of disc golf against him so we bet a round of beers instead. I bought the beers at Grizzly Paw Brewing and we liked their Raspberry Wheat Beer so much that we took some home with us. Canmore was a very cool town about 30 minutes outside of Banff, so it had a lot less people and was a bit more low-key but still had a ton to offer.

We did yet another epic hike on Thursday, this one was through the Larch Valley and up Sentinel Pass for a spectacular view of the ten peaks that surround Moraine Lake. Moraine Lake had that same mesmerizing aqua color and drew in many people to kayak, swim, etc. Our hike started steep, but then flattened out through a valley of larch trees. This view was gorgeous as the mountains peaked out over the top of the trees. Apparently, this hike is best to do in the fall when the larch trees all turn a lovely golden color which is unique because the Larch trees are conifers and would be like our Pine Trees in New England all turning golden in the fall. Sentinel Pass was wild. You could see its switchbacks cutting a giant 'Z' across the bowl of a serious mountainside in the distance. People hiking across looked like tiny ants they were so high up. Again there were snow-covered areas, so it was slow going, but the view did not disappoint. Mountains extended from both sides of the summit and the beautiful valley below made quite the picturesque scene. The way down got interesting... We watched a rather adventurous family send their kids down what looked like a luge track carved into the bowl of the steep mountainside. They sat on their pack and slid down it like they were sledding. The kids picked up some serious speed, enough to flip them around from their backside to their belly. Matthew immediately said, "We're doing that!" and Ashley immediately said, "Not a chance we're doing that!" You can probably guess what happened from there. Ashley put her big girl pants on and realized that this would maybe be the only chance in her whole life to luge down the side of a giant snowy mountain on her bum in Banff and Matthew just went for it. It was crazy fun and a lot less scary than it looked. I giggled like a little girl all the way down. Really the only negative was a cold, snowy backside for a bit. I'll try to include the video I took of Matthew here. I hope it works because it is so cool :) Once off the mountain, we spent our afternoon at Herbert Lake where we took a very chilly lake shower and set up our hammock for a sunny lakeside nap.

We are slowly making our way down to Glacier National Park, MT for more adventures next week. Feeling grateful and in awe of nature's beauty!!