Banff Vacation Day 2 — Lake Louise

Corey
3 min readJul 30, 2022

An indescribable beauty.

Get on the Roam Transit route 8X at Banff high school heading to the world-class, legendary attraction — Lake Louise!

Lake Louise, photo by Corey

Don’t forget to wait at the right bus stop, I was sitting at the bus shelter with happiness and saw a bunch of people standing in front of a small bus stop just next to the shelter, I was thinking “why there is no one here waiting for the bus heading to Lake Louise, it’s one of the most famous lakes in Canada, isn’t it?”. Ten minutes later, the route 8X bus came, I waved my hand with excitement but the bus didn’t stop, instead, it kept driving for another 30 meters and stopped by the point where “those people” stood by.

Fine, I finally realize what “those people” were waiting for, just like me but not as fool as me. I ran as fast as possible to join the line, the driver let people who have a reservation get on the bus first, I didn’t make a reservation, so I was almost the last one, and the bus is 95% full.

The photo attached below isn’t the shuttle, it’s a lovely school bus, I thought that would only appear in documentaries.

Canadian Rockies school bus
Downtown Banff to Lake Louise

It takes about 45 mins to arrive at Lake Louise, follow other people to walk to the lake, and then you will see an indescribable beauty.

Like the photo shown above, the color of the lake is teal! No matter what the weather was, it was still amazing.

There are several trails around Lake Louise, but one of them personally recommends you the most, which is Fairview Lookout. It’s a moderate but short hiking trail that only takes you about 30 mins to the viewpoint.

The information from the app AllTrails.
All Guidelines in Canada are bilingual, which are English and French.

Why I strongly recommend you to go on this trail? The answer is shown below. The color of the lake changes! It becomes aqua, and blue like a diamond! This trail is definitely worth the climb.

Top-down view from Fairview Lookout.
The history of the hotel.

Lakeshore trail is the other worthy for walking, which is easy and elderly-friendly, with several benches on the way that everyone can fetch to take a short rest and enjoy a different angle of Lake Louise.

The end of Lakeshore trail.

Some Canadian say Lake Louise is a little bit overrated, every lake in Alberta is beautiful! I don’t doubt they are right, but I don’t think it’s overrated, I would say it is one of the most beautiful lakes in Canada.

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