10/6/18 Day 2: Moraine Lake, Hector Lake, Crowfoot Glacier, Bow Lake, Bow Glacier, Peyto Lake.
On our second morning, we woke up at our hostel and headed downstairs for a quick bite at Bill Peyto’s Cafe in the HI Lake Louise Alpine Lake Centre. Then we headed to the Lake Louise Visitor Center to chat about trail conditions and avalanche danger.
We already knew the road to Moraine Lake was closed to vehicles, but we were allowed to hike the road at our own risk. We felt a lot better after we spoke to the park ranger. We found out there was only about a 100 meter stretch of avalanche danger on the whole 8 mile road up to Moraine Lake. She told us where to be extra cautious and after that we were ready to go! It was going to be a long day since we decided to walk/run the 16 mile stretch out and back to Moraine Lake.
We parked across the street from the start of the road to Moraine Lake at a picnic area parking lot and set out on our hike!
We stayed on the road the whole time since the snow was pretty deep on the trail.
Phil on the road!
The scenery wasn’t so bad for a nice jog, huh?
We made it the 8 miles up to Moraine Lake!
What a view!
Moraine Lake.
We made it! The best part about the road being closed, was the fact that we had Moraine Lake to ourselves! It was totally worth the hike up for this once in a lifetime experience. This place was unreal!
It took us about 2 hours to get to the top, an hour exploring around and then about 2 hours to get back down. What a perfectly clear day!
At this point, we made it back to the car and went back to the visitor center. She told us the weather had changed and we should see as much as we could today since we might be clouded in tomorrow. So we set out to drive up the famous Icefield Parkway. These are pictures out of our car window!
Bow Lake.
Bow Glacier.
Short hike up to Peyto lake.
Peyto Lake!
Now we were headed back to the town of Lake Louise for our second night staying at the hostel in Banff National Park.
This 20 mile day marked 610 miles since marriage.
What a perfect day! 🙂