It was cold. It was freezing. But we were in the rockies and there was so much to explore. They had recently opened moraine lake, close to lake Louise, so with a few keen hikers from the hostel I rented a car and we made our way over. At 1884 meters altitude it was even colder here. So I wrapped my scarf around my neck and hid my hands in my sleeves. The parking lot was super busy and we soon discovered why. The lake was stunning. Even with the clouds surrounding us the water still looked incredibly blue and the mountains were simply stunning.
Since it was still pretty snowy around here, only one of the hikes had opened. It happened to be one of the easier ones. The walk to consolation lakes is 2,9km, but takes you along a fairly flat path. The path goes through the forest and for a while it follows a river. The rest of the group felt adventurous and wanted to see if they could walk closer to the river. I decided to stick to the path, continuing on my own. Then I started thinking about he grizzly bear warning sign and I just couldn’t get it out of my head. I heard bears in every little gust of wind or rustle in the trees. Every time I saw another human I did a little happy dance and when I saw a beaver on my path I heard myself saying “What are you?”.
And then I suddenly arrived at the consolation lakes. I don’t know how they got their name, but this was no consolation prize. The forest suddenly opened up, showing the whole valley. There were rocks everywhere and the river became a lake. It was just so breath taking I had to sit down and just stare. The mountains were reflecting in the water and there was nobody else around. Soon I heard voices and my friends had reached the lake as well. We hung around for a bit longer, but started to get cold soon and had to head back. What an incredible piece of Canada! To reward ourselves for braving the cold we drove to the Fairmont hotel in Lake Louise where we had the most luxurious alcohol filled hot chocolate to celebrate an amazing day.
