Lake Louise

Lake Louise is beautiful, but incredibly busy; the car-parks are full to bursting, and the shoreline around the hotel is sometimes hard to walk along, such are the crowds. Nevertheless, every mile walked probably reduced the number of bodies in the way by about two-thirds, and so very little effort restores the sense of wild land.

Our visit to Lake Louise coincided with a series of terrible forest fires which raged across British Columia, back in the summer (Yes, these pictures are old - but I've been so busy I am still going through them!). Photos from our second day there are especially murky, as the smoke was so intense.

Looking back towards the Lake Louise hotel; built in the early twentieth century, there's no way they'd allow that kind development in such a location now!

Needless to say, we didn't stay at the Lake Louise Hotel, the cost of which for two night would have been about the same as half our holiday. We were in a very acceptable family room down at the Lake Louise Hostel. It's quite a place too, with a good cafe/bar, a cinema, pool room, lounge, as well as all the usual facilities. Free BBQ's out the back (from which this photo of the main building was taken) are a nice place to eat. One night we were there, they lit a huge bonfire out at the back of the building, and people from all all over the world sat together, ate, drank and chatted into the night.