Day 4 - Sunday 9/17/2017 - Hike Moraine Lake and Larch Valley
With the goal of make it to Moraine Lake and it’s golden Larch Valley, we woke up at 6:00 AM. We had told Amy, the lady running our B&B, the night before that we wouldn’t be making breakfast the next day so she had coffee and juice staged downstairs for us along with some fruit. We met Scott down there about 6:30 after we finished up packing. We dropped our keys off in the box by the door and was on the road by 7:15 AM or so. We headed to Lake Louise with the idea (hope) that being there before 8:00 AM would allow us to park at Moraine Lake itself. Unfortunately, the road up to Moraine Lake was already closed so we headed back out of town to the overflow parking lot. We were able to catch the second shuttle of the day up to Moraine Lake so not bad at all. A group of church friends from Minnesota were on the bus. They drove the 24 hrs from Minnesota straight and were camping the entire time.
The view from Moraine Lake was everything it was said to be, simply outstanding even though it was slightly overcast. Scott and I ventured out over a log jam to get some photos of the classic view of the lake. There was apparently a path up the moraine itself for the view without having to walk on a log jam so use that and don't do what we did… We were just too enamored with the view itself to use the actual path…
The view from Moraine Lake was everything it was said to be, simply outstanding even though it was slightly overcast. Scott and I ventured out over a log jam to get some photos of the classic view of the lake. There was apparently a path up the moraine itself for the view without having to walk on a log jam so use that and don't do what we did… We were just too enamored with the view itself to use the actual path…
We started up the trail about 9:25 AM. The switch backs climbing up out of Moraine Lake was steep and plenty of breaks were taken. Once we got to the top, we took a short break. There, the trail splits to Larch Valley and to Eiffel Lake which we will explore both.
We started with Larch Valley. Larch Valley is a very popular hike in the fall since it is full of Larch trees that turn golden yellow with the colder temperatures. As we started into the hike, the trees slowly started turning more and more yellow and were gorgeous! The sun was behind a bank of clouds most of the day but it really brought out the yellow when it did come out. We saw a few deer at the end of the valley by the small lake. We braved the cold to venture up to a larger lake at the base of Sentinel Pass. The lack of trees once we got out of Larch Valley really made the wind bite into us, but we got to see the steep trail that zigged and zagged up to Sentinel Pass and if it wouldn’t of have been so windy and cold, we probably would of done the hike up to the ridge and the pass. There was a slight snow on the ground up here. This point also gave us a great view down into the golden Larch Valley and the mountains that make the Moraine Lake region famous.
We started with Larch Valley. Larch Valley is a very popular hike in the fall since it is full of Larch trees that turn golden yellow with the colder temperatures. As we started into the hike, the trees slowly started turning more and more yellow and were gorgeous! The sun was behind a bank of clouds most of the day but it really brought out the yellow when it did come out. We saw a few deer at the end of the valley by the small lake. We braved the cold to venture up to a larger lake at the base of Sentinel Pass. The lack of trees once we got out of Larch Valley really made the wind bite into us, but we got to see the steep trail that zigged and zagged up to Sentinel Pass and if it wouldn’t of have been so windy and cold, we probably would of done the hike up to the ridge and the pass. There was a slight snow on the ground up here. This point also gave us a great view down into the golden Larch Valley and the mountains that make the Moraine Lake region famous.
We then headed back down into and through Larch Valley as it really started to get crowded. Back at the top of the switch backs at about 1:00pm and took the trail that followed the Moraine Lake Valley up to Eiffel Lake. It, too, had nice bunches of bright yellow larch trees and was far less crowded than the famous Larch Valley. We did start to see a little haze from the neighboring Verdant Creek Wildfire in Kootenay National Park. We made it as far as the overlook for Eiffel Lake before turning back.
The switch backs were a lot easier going down. We got back down to Moraine Lake at about 3:30 to see a very very long line for the shuttle buses. Luckily more buses were being put on the route and by 4:15 we were on a bus heading back to the overflow parking lot.
Back at the car, we headed to the Lake Louise Inn right in Lake Louise. Our original plan was to do the past two hikes (Larch and Plain of Six Glaciers) on the two nights we were staying in Lake Louise, but the weather forecast and how badly we wanted to do them caused us to do them when we were basing out of Banff. We got into our room and found it to be clean, but small for three adults. We went to the Station for dinner. It was the old Canadian Pacific depot there in Lake Louise that was made into a very nice restaurant. The bar had a great view of the main line and we saw a few freights roll by! It was one of the few log cabin style depots in North America. We crashed soon after we got back to the room after dinner.
Larch Valley Hike with Eiffel Lake - 9.1 Miles round trip; 1,755 ft elevation gain
Safe Travels,
B&E
Back at the car, we headed to the Lake Louise Inn right in Lake Louise. Our original plan was to do the past two hikes (Larch and Plain of Six Glaciers) on the two nights we were staying in Lake Louise, but the weather forecast and how badly we wanted to do them caused us to do them when we were basing out of Banff. We got into our room and found it to be clean, but small for three adults. We went to the Station for dinner. It was the old Canadian Pacific depot there in Lake Louise that was made into a very nice restaurant. The bar had a great view of the main line and we saw a few freights roll by! It was one of the few log cabin style depots in North America. We crashed soon after we got back to the room after dinner.
Larch Valley Hike with Eiffel Lake - 9.1 Miles round trip; 1,755 ft elevation gain
Safe Travels,
B&E