The drive on the Icefields Parkway from Jasper to Lake Louise was amazing. More glaciers, more snow-capped peaks, more thundering waterfalls, more impossibly colored lakes, more alpine wildlife.

Athabasca Glacier

Loon on Bow Lake

Black Bear on the side of the road

Castle Mountain and the Bow River

Lake Louise is a glacier melt lake at the base of towering mountains. The color of the water is turquoise. The lake was named for Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria.

 

The lake is an extremely popular tourist attraction with thousands of tourists visiting it on summer days. We mostly avoided the crowds by visiting the lake early in the morning and in the evening. 

Lake Louise

Moraine Lake

Dennis at Lake Louise

Clarks Nutcracker at Lake Louise

Fortunately, our campground near the village of Lake Louise is in a quiet pine forest alongside the Bow River. On our last day in the Canadian Rockies we went back to the town of Banff where we soaked in the hot springs pool and took a gondola to the top of a mountain overlooking the town.

Banff Gondola atop Sulphur Mountain

 

View of Banff from atop Sulphur Mountain