Bonjour Lake Louise!

The sun came up early (around 5am) and Kevin was busy taking pictures of Janet waking up from a restless night of bear fighting. Janet knew it wasn’t a pretty sight! You’ve got to love a photographer (Janet is getting payback from all the unwanted pictures she’s taken of people!). We packed up camp and headed off to breakfast. We ate at a small café in Fairview Hot Springs where there was one waitress for each table…seems everywhere we go in Canada there is a “Help Wanted” sign. When we asked what kind of bread they had, the young woman explained that they had either white bread or brown bread. This is a good way to explain it! The breakfast was good and the bread was especially tasty. We gassed up our car on the way out of town, paying about $1.20 per liter, which comes out to about $4.00’s a gallon. It looks nice on the sign since they show it in liters but it’s expensive to fill up. You have to pay inside at most stations but at least here you can pump your own gas. Kevin had a hard time resisting the fireworks they sell…you can get lots of serious stuff here.
Off we headed for Lake Louise. We turned off on highway 93 and quickly had to stop at the park kiosk where we were greeted in French by the woman running the booth. Bonjour! That will be $17 to get a park pass. Merci!!! Off we went. Right away we realized that the price was worth the scenery. It was so beautiful! We were in a canyon with a gorgeous river on one side and tall rock walls on the other side. We passed by a hot spring which seemed to be a hot spot. In hindsight, we wish we would have stopped but it was early morning and we had a lot to see. Lake Louise was about 60 miles away and we knew it would take us a long time because we’d be stopping to take pictures along the way. We stopped numerous times to take pictures of the amazing snow covered peaks. They were everywhere and it was hard to resist stopping and taking a picture of each one. We pulled the car over when we saw another car stopped taking pictures. Always a sign that someone has found something good to photograph! Sure enough, there was a group of mountain goats grazing on a hillside right above the road, no more than 50 yards away. As they moved across the hill, they sent rocks flying toward the car, but it was worth the risk of rock fall. Kevin got out the big telephoto lens and was able to get some great pictures of goats walking around on the steep terrain. We continued on our way toward the lake and at one point a bicycle race flew passed on the other side of the road. There were police leading the way and all the traffic on the other side was backed up for miles. It was fun to watch the racers go by and we felt very lucky to be on our side of the road rather than the racers side. When we got about 10 miles from the lake when Kevin decided to take a cut off because it was a smaller road and the potential for better photographs was expected. Within a minute of being on this road, two mature grizzly bear ran right out in front of our car and crossed the road. Kevin stopped the car and asked me to hand him the camera. Right then, two grizzly bear cubs ran out in front of us and crossed the road to their mother. She stood there with the two of them, staring us down to let us know not to mess with her and her bear cubs. Kevin was able to snap off a few pictures. Although he wasn’t exactly happy with his picture, it turned out pretty good. What a rare occasion that was! Janet told him that he had little chance of talking her into the hike he wanted to take once we reached the park, now that she had seen the bears. This time these were no phantom bears. The last thing you want to do is to mess with a momma grizzly around her cubs.
We reached Lake Louise shortly after, and were really fortunate to find a parking space. Apparently parking spaces at the lake are at a premium at this time of year. We changed into walking shoes, packed a picnic lunch, and headed over to the lake area. Wow! This lake is truly picturesque and worth the trip. The water takes on an aqua milky blue color from the glacier runoff, and the snowy mountains surrounding it are magnificent. The Chateau Fairmont is located at one end of the lake and a boat house that rents canoe’s sits on one edge of it as well. There are so many visitors though, that it looks like a ride at Disneyland. We took pictures of it and then decided to get started on our planned hike. There were so many people there that we didn’t think bears would be a problem on the trail. They weren’t! But the hike was extremely strenuous and Janet’s heart was beating really fast. We started the hike at 5600ft and by then end of walking up 3 kilometers to Mirror Lake, we had climbed 1000 more ft. to 6600ft. Janet was beat and we were able to sit and eat our lunch before heading back down. It was a really pretty hike and it was great to get our exercise in for the day. We took more pictures once we got back to Lake Louise and then headed out of the park. There are so many snow covered peaks that it’s easy to get oversaturated by them. Many looked like a chocolate cake with powdered sugar dusted over the tops of them, while others had huge mounds of snow on them that looked like they could break loose at any minute creating an avalanche. Avalanche signs are posted all throughout the highways in this part of the park. As we drove on, we entered Glacier National Park of Canada. There were many glaciers, waterfalls, and mountain peaks to see. We also went through tunnel after tunnel after tunnel which reminded us of the tunnels we went through in the Italian Riviera. It was a beautiful drive! But it was getting late and Kevin was getting tired, so Janet took over the driving. Since we were coming down a steep mountain, she drove pretty slowly. We arrive in Revelstoke around 7pm and since it was late and raining we decided to check into the Best Western. We found a channel on TV that showed our entire motel parking lot on camera, so Janet went out and moved the car directly under one of the cameras. The surveillance camera helped us get a good night’s sleep knowing that the camera was pointing at our car and bikes, recording any crime that might occur and hopefully detour thieves.