I’d rather be walking through the pine trees / high up above Lake Louise…

That line from the Blue Rodeo song “Western Skies” put Lake Louise on my mental travel map many many years ago.  Our initial plans were to spend our first travel day hanging around Banff and to leave on a day-long road trip the following day to visit Lake Louise, perhaps Field, BC, the Icefields and the Bow River Parkway.  The night before leaving,  with the advance forecast calling for two days of heavy snow in the mountains, we called an audible.

Travel day: Awake at 3:45am, flight out of Halifax at 6:30, arrive in Calgary about 6 hours later.  Two hours on a shuttle bus to Banff.  Stop at a Safeway to pick up supplies and provisions and by 2pm Mountain time, we’re in our rental car and on our way north.  We weren’t going to miss the chance to see Lake Louise, even if it was for an abbreviated visit.  The weather gods smiled on us with temperatures pushing 15C and the sun broke through the clouds as we reached the lake.   Our travel weary spirits were raised as we walked up a hill and the beauty of this view washed over us:

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