Rocky Mountaineer Canada Trip 2019 - Day 6, Part 1

I woke up at 4:30am for some reason, but was able to go back to sleep until 7:30.  I showered and volunteered to go down to the Chateau Deli to grab some breakfast to bring back to the room.  After meeting up with Mom, Jan, Janis and Mary Margaret in the lobby we all went together.

7:40am Lake Louise

8:30

9 o'clock and calmer water

The deli was open 24 hours and had a decent selection of juices and pastries, and a few hot items they would make to order on demand.  I got a couple of bottles of orange juice from the cooler, a raspberry white chocolate scone from the pastry case, and ordered a bacon cheese croissant sandwich at the counter.  My four compatriots found a table while I headed back to the room where Todd and I shared our breakfast, which was quite good.

After breakfast Todd showered while I went back downstairs and toured the shops again with our group.  Todd met up with us a little later and he and I decided we had just enough time to hike to the far end of the lake and back before checkout - our bus, sorry, motorcoach, for Banff didn't depart until 2:30pm, but we still had to be out of the room at noon.

Going down to the lake

There's actually several hiking options in the area.  If we only had more time...
Map from Wilson Mountain Sports

One of two mountain teahouses in the area, the Lake Agnes Teahouse, is up there.

The color of the lake comes from rock flour which is silt derived from rock that has been finely ground by glaciers.  It's so fine that it's suspended in the water.  Oh Mickey, you're so fine, you're so fine you're like rock flour suspended in glacial meltwater, hey Mickey!  Hey Mickey!  When there's large amounts or it's agitated it can appear as "milky tea" according to one of our bus guides.  At other times it reflects the blue spectrum of light resulting in this turquoise color.

The trail goes around this side of the lake

Along the way we saw several chipmunks, but they didn't stick around long enough for photos

And then it started to snow!  It was brief - about 30 minutes - but wonderful.  It was a foreshadow of things to come.

At the far end of the lake at last

The view from here

Time to go back.  We had to book it.

One last look from the room before leaving

We left our luggage in our room (as instructed) and met the rest of the group in the lobby.  Since we had 2 1/2 hours to kill I suggested we wait in the Living Room, a guest-only parlor area above the lobby.  We camped out up there and played Mexican train dominoes until it was time to board the bus, sorry, motorcoach.

Part of the Living Room
photo from agoda.com

Taking a break and walking around outside the hotel

Finally 2:30 rolled around and it was time to leave.  In Banff the assigned accommodations for our group were split (for some reason) with the women staying at one hotel and the men at another.  Since transportation for the day was arranged based on the destination hotel, we boarded different buses, sorry, motorcoaches, for the next part of the journey.