Ice Skating on Lake Louise
Hello from the beautiful Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada! We just arrived this afternoon from Jasper today and look forward to skiing the next two days. The drive down on the Icefields Parkway was again so beautiful, just as it was a few days prior.
We left Jasper in the morning and drove down to Lake Louise. We had an early morning and we were welcomed with an amazing sunrise over the mountains just outside of Jasper.
We headed south on the Icefields Parkway, which we got lucky with a very clear day. Our first stop was at Sunwapta Falls, just off the highway, and then there are 3 viewpoints very quickly just off the parking lot. The falls were partially frozen, but still plenty of moving water.
Our next stop after the falls was Peyto Lake, which is one of the most famous lakes in the area. There are many hikes in this area and the Bow Summit overlook, which is mostly known for the summer and its amazing green color. In the winter, it is worth checking out the overlook which is only a 20 minute round trip hike from the parking lot.
Lake Louise
Peyto Lake is pretty close to Lake Louise, so from here we went into the village and drove up to the Fairmont right on the lake. We rented some hockey skates and went for an hour skate on one of the most famous lake winter skating locations in the world. It was great to get on the ice, I won’t be playing hockey for the next year so any chance (even with cheap rental skates) is great. It was very touristy, but it was a lot of fun, and beautiful mountains and glaciers in the background.
Ice Skating on Lake Louise!
After a great skating session, we went to a really cool photographic spot only 10 minutes from Lake Louise, called Morant’s Curve. It is along the Bow River, off the Bow Valley parkway, there is a small parking area. It is beautiful to look at the curve in the river, and there is a railroad track right along the river. We only had to wait about 5 minutes and a train came by, making for some really cool photo’s.
Morant’s Curve
We spent the next 2 days skiing in Banff, one day at the famous Lake Louise ski resort, and another day at Sunshine Village, south of Lake Louise near the town of Banff. It was Christmas weekend, so we expected it to be very busy, but surprisingly, Lake Louise was not that busy. We spent most of our day on the back bowls of Lake Louise. The views from the back bowls were pretty amazing!
We started the day skiing Paradise Bowl on the back bowls. We did several runs, and it was really cold in the morning so we went for an early break and lunch at the Temple Lodge. After a quick break, we then went up the Ptarmigan Ski Lift, and really liked the look of the Moguls right under the lift. We did this run “Exhibition” about 8 times, and a few times down the really fast groomed track “Ptarmigan.”
Skiing Lake Louise
Conditions were good, there were not many people, and had a lot of fun on Exhibition most of the day.
The next day, we drove down near Banff to Sunshine Village ski resort. We didn’t know much about Sunshine (unfortunately) and did not have the best experience. The mountain was crazy packed, because it was the holidays and kids had off school, it also is where most of Calgary comes to go skiing for the day. The lodge was almost impossible to walk around in and this mountain was more of a beginner/intermediate mountain so we didn’t enjoy our runs as much.
Lake Louise view