Lake Louise

Leaving Kalispell, MT, we drove north into Canada. Betty tried to take us on another adventure, but a "local" steered us onto the best route. It was a beautiful drive through rolling pasture lands with occasional ranches (and really not much else) along the way. We stayed in Canmore, about 30 miles outside of Lake Louise. Canmore was a great little town with lots of restaurants, completely dominated by rugged mountains on all sides. It wouldn't much matter where you stayed- you would have a mountain view! Our hotel had one of the best restaurants in town- wonderful food! We had our first restaurant-style fondue (broth with shrimp, chicken, salmon and beef) since our honeymoon in Portugal.

We took a day off from site-seeing and played golf at one of the local courses. We again decided to walk the course, having been assured there were only a few hills on the back nine. It was a bit more than that, but not too bad. What was bad was the rough (forget your ball if you missed the fairway, and sometimes even when you hit the fairway), and the horseflies! For some reason, Dale the "bug-magnet", was not much bothered, but I ended up with bites all over my ankles.

We headed out to Lake Louise the next day. It was beautiful! The lake is not all that big, but is surrounded by high peaks, some with visible glaciers, and is an incredibly beautiful deep blue color. The color, we are told, comes from "glacier flour", which is very finely ground rock particles that are washed down from the glaciers during the spring melt. The rock is so fine, it remains suspended in the water, absorbing all color except the brilliant blue, which is what we see. Truly amazing! We also drove out to Moraine Lake, about 6-7 miles from Lake Louise, as we had been told that it was more beautiful than Louise. Again, the color was amazing- and we agree, more beautiful than Lake Louise. We ended our day with a picnic in the park in Banff, on our way back to Canmore. We plan to head for Vancouver (with an overnight stop on the way), tomorrow.