Dateline: Lake Louise, Alberta. Many of the people who visit famous Lake Louise never see nearby Moraine Lake. That’s a big mistake. If Lake Louise is a perfect little gem (and it is that), Moraine Lake and the road into it are an Alpine extravaganza. Located in the Valley of the Ten Peaks, Moraine Lake is amazing in its own way – less perfect than Lake Louise but more overwhelming. As you drive the 14 kilometers into Moraine Lake you see amazing glaciers hanging off equally amazing peaks. There are ten peaks surrounding Moraine Lake, and they once were named One through Ten in the Stoney Indian language. Today only numbers Nine and Ten still carry the Indian names.
This year the wildflowers are everywhere in profusion, you’d think you were on the set of The Sound of Music. As the other DrC noted this morning, the only things missing were yodeling and cows with bells. Like Lake Louise, there is a nice walk along the north shore of Moraine Lake. It is a mile and a half to the upstream end of the lake. After about a mile I got tired and sat on a bench while the rest of my party continued on to the falls which feed the lake, before returning.
I sat quietly for just over a half hour and learned the St. Francis trick. If you sit quietly in the woods eventually animals decide you are no threat. I had birds hopping around my feet and on the bench within 6” of my knee and a ground squirrel perching just by my hip. If I had something to feed them, I bet I could have made pets of them. I don’t feed wild critters; we are told it is bad for them to eat snack foods. Likewise, snack foods don’t do us any good, but we eat them.
Also while sitting there I talked to a Danish couple. They looked at the immense mountains around us and remarked, “The tallest mountain in Denmark is 200 meters tall.” I gave them a sales pitch for the string of U.S. National Parks that begins with Glacier, runs down through Yellowstone and Grand Teton, and then continues with the Utah parks – Arches, Zion, Bryce, and Capitol Reef – and finishes up with the Grand Canyon in Arizona. I’ve visited 70+ countries and this string of western U.S. parks is definitely world class scenery.
Tomorrow we’re off for Jasper National Park, at the northern end of the Icefields Parkway. We will drive past the toe of a glacier, at the top of Sunwapta Pass. What a treat to visit these beautiful mountains again.
