Monday, October 07, 2013

A Hike to Lake Agnes for a spot of tea.......


 Yesterday we drove up to Lake Louise for a Sunday hike. I'd been wanting to hike up to Lake Agnes ever since reading about the little Teahouse up at the top, officially the highest Teahouse in Canada. I kept thinking how nice it would be to reward yourself with a nice hot cuppa after hiking up a mountain! I'd read that the hike was about a 10km round trip but totally do-able with kids as long as you had a child pack for the not so-strong walkers. Theres only one more week until the teahouse closes for the winter season so we decided to go for it. 
We arrived at Lake Louise bright and early and stopped in the little bakery in town for some pre-hike fuel then headed up to the main parking lot by the Chateau. I'm always shocked at how busy it is at Lake Louise. We spent a good 15 minutes waiting for a parking spot! Then I'm always shocked again by just how blue the lake is! It really is an incredible sight even though it's usually crawling with people. 


 We walked around the lake shore until we came to the Lake Agnes trailhead and forked off  away from Lake Louise and began our ascent. Bel walked a pretty good way up the first part of the trail before asking to to go in the pack. Lucky for Neil the first part of the trail is the steepest bit. 






Other than a few rocky sections the trail is mostly pretty smooth and traverses it's way up the mountain with a steep drop off through the trees to one side.  




Every so often you get a glimpse of the vivid blue lake down below.  Somehow it seems even more unbelievably blue from up above!





Just before the top you reach the base of the big Beehive and Mirror Lake. We stopped here for a break and noticed the friendly Whiskey Jacks looking for tidbits from all the resting hikers. Seb held out his hand with a bit of popcorn and sure enough one came flying down and sat right on his hand to get his snack! It reminded me of all of us sitting on the balcony at Emerald Lake the week of my wedding and being amazed by the friendliness of these birds!





 We kept on hiking.......


 And hiking.....




 and hiking....


 The views were stunning! But I must admit my poor little legs were getting tired and I really wanted my cup of tea! It didn't help that Seb had started to get a blister and was complaining pretty loudly and starting to walk funny. We convinced him to keep going with the promise of hot chocolate with marshmallows and a plaster at the top! What a trooper!


 Eventually we made it! And it was totally worth it! Lake Agnes is stunning!




The little teahouse was cute as a button too! The place is run with only a small amount of solar electricity and water for tea and washing needs is pumped right from the lake and boiled before use.  It's kind of cool that the staff who work at the teahouse live up there all summer and the only way to get down or to bring supplies up is to do the hike (which explains why the tea is so pricey I suppose!).









We drank our tea and hot chocs, munched on our cookies and snaffled the last bit of popcorn we'd brought with us. Once we were warmed up enough we headed back out for another look at the beautiful lake. 








The view from the teahouse is amazing, you can see all the way down to the roof top of the Chateau and across the valley you can make out the ski runs of Lake Louise. 


 Time to head back down. This time we let Bel walk. 






 The base of the Big Beehive and Mirror Lake. 




 Happy hikers back down at Lake Louise. Bel managed to walk all the way down by herself and Super Seb did the whole hike with barely a stop! 


On our way home we took a little detour and drove up to Moraine Lake just for a quick look and for me to take a couple of photos.
It is quite an unbelievable place and completed our day of amazing lakes quite nicely :)








1 comment:

Capt. Nemo. said...

What can I say! words fail me, TOTALLY. Apart from the magical scenery I am so impressed by Seb doing the whole 10 Ks!!! A real achievement!!! Bel is MUCH smarter tho, she travelled in LUXURY on Neils back haha!!1 Saw the TeaHouse price list CRAZY, very expensive PLUS they look for TIPS!!! called GRATUITIES haha what a nerve!! Anyway WELL DONE to you all AND at least Bel walked back! Not surprised Neil was puffing a bit its 7.000Feet UP!!!

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