Lake Louise and vicinity

a view made famous by a Canadian Railway photographer

Lake Louise

another view of Lake Louise

Our picnic

me in the view from our picnic site

After our relaxing visit at the hot springs in Banff, we wanted to drive to Lake Louise, which is a fairytale-esque area of the Canadian Rockies.  Our route took us about 35 miles outside of Banff.  We noticed some overpasses that looked unique - in Canada (at least in this portion), they build overpasses not for cars but for the abundant wildlife.  The 23 overpasses in the Canadian Rockies are covered in grasses, trees and sod, and make a natural habitat through which they can cross the busy highway.  In Alaska, there are under passes through which the animals go to get to the other side (insert chicken joke here).  I noticed on our map of the area that there was a parallel road that was a two-laner drive through mountains rather than our four-lane freeway and we took the turn-off in honor of Robert Frost,  (the "one less traveled by") and it certainly did make a difference!  It was gorgeous at every turn (ho hum - everything here is beautiful!) and we stopped often since we had the time.  We arrived at Lake Louise just as the sun was starting to appear and walked the icy path to the viewing area.  Lake Louise is a small lake surrounded by mountains which are reflected in the still, icy-cold water.  The Fairmont Chateau is the famous resort on the lake - way to pricey for us, but looked interesting.  We took a few snapshots in the cold air (it was probably less than 32 degrees F) and decided to head back along the same route (Highway 1A) and stop for an impromptu picnic - our favorite thing to do!  I had crackers, two kinds of cheese, a hunk of fresh baked bread from the Banff bakery, a chunk of German salami, some Linder chocolate truffles and a bottle of red wine (Shiraz, I believe).  In anticipation of this, I had packed in our fully-loaded car a small folding table and our two camping stools.  We stopped at a famous "photo op" which was a railroad bridge with the mountains and a mountain stream in the distance and had a wonderful picnic (the sun was out by now and was much warmer).  We finished our drive back in Banff, where we decided to have a really nice dinner at a Tyrolien Swiss Chalet restaurant - I had duck with calvados and apple sauce and Bill had Elk short ribs with homemade spaetzle.  We started dinner with a Swiss cheese and fruit tray (three kinds of cheeses, homemade date/nut bread, grapes and melon and toasted whole walnuts) and finished by sharing a creme caramel with sugar dome.  Fancy!   Then, back to our condo for a fire and to finish our bottle of Shiraz.  Bill fell asleep.  Everything is as it should be.