It was lovely to wake up to the nice glacier view, but we finally said farewell to Athabasca Glacier and headed back towards Banff. It was a balmy 3° Celsius when we left. The day was overcast and rainy off and on throughout most of our drive, and I wondered if we had left any earlier if it would have snowed instead.

We headed past Lake Louise and into Yoho National Park in British Columbia. The plan for the day was to visit Emerald Lake and then head up to Takakkaw Falls before checking into our hotel at Lake Louise. We did spend a bit of time at Emerald Lake, which looked pretty moody in the weather. We ate lunch at Cilantro on the Lake, but with the rain we decided to skip the falls.

We checked into the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise but our room wasn’t ready yet, so we gave them our luggage and headed out to the lakeshore. We were greeted by a beautiful lake and SO. MANY. PEOPLE. The path around was a little muddy from the rain, but the drizzle had mostly stopped. The crowds did thin a bit the longer we walked but never completely died down.

We soon headed back and were able to get our room key. They had already delivered our bags to our room, which was nice. We relaxed for a bit, then decided to eat dinner at Alpine Social.

The food here was pretty good, and we had a super nice server (who very patiently listened to all of LS’s ramblings). She told us we should check with the concierge upstairs because there was a scavenger hunt that would take us all around the hotel grounds. So that’s exactly what we did! They gave us a little booklet to fill out as we found our clues by scanning QR codes throughout places on the property that we had to figure out. They told us it would take awhile, so we could do it over the course of our three nights.

They obviously don’t know LS because we finished that scavenger hunt several hours later. However, by that time the concierge had closed, and we had to wait for the following day to complete the final step of opening the safe and claiming her prize.

We awoke very early the next morning to meet with Banff Photography for family photos by the lake. It was chilly but not unbearably so, and Luke was super nice. I can’t wait to see how our photos turn out!

We then returned to our room and changed into hiking clothes to prepare for the rest of our day. We grabbed a quick breakfast from the Grab and Go and then LS opened the safe and chose her prize from the scavenger hunt (she chose bubbles).

We then headed out to start our hike up to the Lake Agnes Teahouse.

I had done some research before our trip and had gone back and forth about which hike I through LS would enjoy more. I had originally planned to do the Plain of Six Glaciers, as I had read it was gentler for kids since the incline wasn’t as steep. But the overall length of that hike is longer and you don’t get great views of the lake, just the glaciers. I thought LS would like lakes better as having several stops of things to look at would give her novelty to keep going on the hike, and she generally is okay with inclines as long as they aren’t super technical, so I had planned for us to hike up to the Lake Agnes Teahouse and then see if maybe I could push her to do Little Beehive.

However, when we checked into the hotel, they asked if we were planning to do any hiking, and I mentioned Lake Agnes, and the man at the front desk said we should consider Six Glaciers instead because of LS. So I was kind of second guessing myself as we started out on the hike, even though I knew I had already done the pros and cons in my head before the trip.

The first mile and a half is basically just uphill through the woods. You can’t see much through the trees. Through this part LS did continually ask how far we had gone and when we would get there. Once we got to Mirror Lake, she started enjoying it more. We paused there for some photos and to drink some water. Then we continued on to Lake Agnes. There’s a waterfall right before you get to the teahouse and then steps leading up.

We arrived at the teahouse before noon, and there were quite a lot of people there, but the line to get a table was not very long. We waited about ten minutes or so before we were seated at a nice corner table overlooking Lake Agnes. We ordered tea and snacks, and then I realized I had forgotten to get any Canadian cash for this particular stop. Luckily, their credit card reader was picking up a signal and we were able to pay with a card.

I ordered the Lake Agnes Wildberry tea and the tea biscuits with jam, which were both amazing. Mr. Strange had a green tea with chips and salsa, and LS had hot chocolate and a peanut butter bar. I could have probably stayed there all day!

Since we were feeling good and refreshed, we decided to keep going up Little Beehive. It only adds on a mile round trip, and I did not find it any more challenging or steep than the first part of the trail heading to the teahouse. However, the views were amazing! We kept stopping for photos and thinking, “Okay, we should turn around. The views can’t get better.” And then we would keep going, and they actually would still get better!

Since the entire way back was downhill, it was relatively quick. Overall, I clocked about 5.7 miles and nearly 2000 feet of elevation gain over the course of four and a half hours (about two hours and 45 minutes of actual hiking time, the rest was spent at the teahouse and other short breaks)! LS was so proud of herself for hiking that long and far, and she proclaimed it was her favorite part of the trip so far.

We were understandably tired, so we stopped by the restaurant Louiza for some drinks. Mr. Strange got an order of riblets that I snacked on as well, and they were so good, we decided we would have to come back for a proper meal at another time.

When we had checked into the hotel, we had been unexpectedly given a voucher for an hour of canoeing, so we decided we would go ahead, since it was such a gorgeous day. Since we were hotel guests, we got to go straight on without having to wait in much of a line, a definite perk!

This was without a doubt the most beautiful canoe trip I have ever done. We paddled from one side of the lake to the other and back, while LS lazily dipped her hands in the cold water.

We reluctantly returned our canoe, then went back to our room to rest a bit before our dinner reservations that night. I love some fondue (fun fact, I used to blog on a website called Weddingbee as Ms. Fondue) so I had booked us at Walliser Stube. We were seated in a room with wine shelves lining the back wall to the ceiling, complete with ladder to reach the top bottles.

Mr. Strange and I ordered the Chateau Experience with the signature cheese fondue, tenderloin (for me) and schnitzel (for him), and dark chocolate fondue for dessert. LS ordered the pasta off the kids’ menu with the rainbow cake. The food was absolutely divine. I did not want to stop eating. LS was iffy about the pasta (it came with just butter, but if I had to do it over, I would have asked if they had red sauce instead) but she loved the asparagus that came with our meal (she tried several things that we had). We went to bed that night full and happy.

The next morning we took it pretty easy and decided to go for a swim in the hotel pool. It was shockingly not a heated pool, but LS didn’t mind. I spent more time in the hot tub.

We got lunch from the Grab and Go, but I picked up a grilled cheese that ended up not being grilled (it was just buttered bread with non-melted cheese) so I am not sure what was up with that. Then we drove into the village to ascend up the Lake Louise gondola. Here you have a choice if you want to take a gondola cabin or a chairlift, so we opted to take the cabin up and the chairlift back down. The views here were nice, as it was fun to see Lake Louise in the distance, but I liked the calm of Mt. Norquay and the variety of things to do on Mt. Sulphur better.

We returned and decided to go back to Louiza for dinner. I ordered the cannelloni, while Mr. Strange opted for the eggplant parmesan, and LS ordered pasta again (but this time with red sauce, which she liked much better). This meal was also amazing!

We didn’t dally at the restaurant for long though, as we wanted to head back out to Johnston Canyon. If you remember, we had originally planned to go there at the very beginning of our trip, while we were in Banff, but decided to follow LS’s whims to play lawn games at the hotel instead. We headed down to the Bow Valley Parkway and arrived at the canyon parking lot around 7:30pm. This turned out to be absolutely perfect. We found a parking spot easily, and while there were still people around, it was not crowded in the least.

We made our way to the Lower Falls, but there was still a bit of a line to go through the cave, so we continued onto Upper Falls first. We were the only ones there! LS was having a grand time running along the paths, playing some made up game in her head, while Mr. Strange and I took in the canyon views.

When we returned to the Lower Falls, there was only a short wait, so we were able to go through the cave to see the falls up close very easily. The canyon was beautiful, and I do recommend doing this later in the evening, if you can, because I’ve heard that during the day, the lines end up being up to an hour wait!

On our way back to the hotel, we came across a big elk enjoying his dinner by the road.