Day 10 - Sunday (7/31)

On Sunday we spent some more time in the Lake Louise area. We got some help in heading up the mountain by taking the gondola lift at the Lake Louise Ski Resort. We did some hiking at the top of the hill. We were treated by seeing a bear from gondola as we headed down the hill. As with the other area’s we’ve been to, there is a lot of bear activity. They even had the entire area around the lodge fenced in to prevent bears from getting too close to the visitors, food, etc… at the lodge. After we left the ski area, we headed west to neighboring Yoho National Park. We stopped to see the famous Spiral Tunnels of the Canadian national railway at Kicking Horse Pass. This is an interesting engineering feat where two spiral tunnels were cut into the mountain to create a safe decent down the mountain for trains. When trains pass through, you can see the train both entering and exiting the tunnel at the same time. We also stopped at Wapta Falls, an impressive waterfall and did a short hike. We next headed to Emerald Lake, another picture perfect lake, and did a bit of hiking. We also stopped to see a natural rock bridge formed by the Kicking Horse River, the main river in the valley. Emerald Lake, like the other lakes we visited, all have a small establishment to rent boats, a nice café/restaurant and small resort with cabins. The Canadian National Park system does a really nice job of allowing just enough development to support visitors without taking anything away from the site. All of these businesses are very well done with a rustic, national park type of feel. Many have been there for 50-75 years or more but are very well maintained and have lots of charm. After our visit to Emerald Lake we headed back to our camp site for the night.