Our hire car outside our unit at Canadian Rockies Chalets, Canmore
Trees outside our unit at Canadian Rockies Chalets, Canmore
Fairmont Chateau Hotel, Lake Louise
Inside Fairmont Chateau Hotel, Lake Louise
Lake Louise, Alberta
We asked Doris for a smaller breakfast than she’d served previously and even then we had more than enough to prepare us for a day of travel further southwards.
After sad farewells to the delightful Doris and Norbert at Glenagle Resort, we left Golden and followed the Trans Canada Highway (#1) back to the Parkway Highway at Lake Louise. The weather had taken a dramatic turnaround and from warm sunny conditions yesterday, the barometric pressure had now plummeted to 875 hPa and it was cold and raining quite heavily.
At Lake Louise we spent a few minutes viewing the lake but low cloud and rain prevented us getting a clear sight of the high mountains that surround this famous turquoise lake.
The nearby Fairmont Chateau Hotel provided an opportunity to get inside from the cold and have hot drink. This hotel is enormous and is super expensive and gauging from the plush furnishings and extravagant décor one needs to be wealthy to stay here; for example the cheapest rooms are $450 per night. Sadly much if its original 1920s elegance has been swept away in successive renovations and replaced with corporate based modernity such as designer shops. However, a point of interest in the hotel was a minerals/fossil shop that had an amazing collection of specimens including dinosaur eggs ($1500) and a rhino-like animal skull ($3500).
When the rain turned to snow we became anxious to move on as we had quite a distance to travel to our destination at Canmore. So without further hesitation we headed south through near continuous snowfall conditions and by the time we arrived at Canmore which is 81 km south of Lake Louise, the roads were slushy with snow and the surrounding forests and houses were white.
Our unit at the Canadian Rockies Chalets is perfect with all cooking facilities and two comfortable bedrooms. A powerful although noisy heater was a very much appreciated as the outside temperature was a cool zero and our unit
In snowy conditions we travelled by very slow car round to a huge supermarket and stocked up on provisions for meals over the next two days. By the time we returned to the car it was practically unrecognisable due to its snow cover.
Corinne phoned AVIS and arranged for our car to be dropped off at Banff on Wednesday morning rather than Tuesday night which makes the transport situation so much simpler.
In the meantime we’d received a message from Malcolm and Rae who were in Calgary suggesting that we might catch up with them for a coffee in Banff tomorrow. That’s exciting!
By early evening the snowing had stopped and thoughts of road travel tomorrow became a more realistic possibility.