1993/07 Rockies trip - Lake Louise & Moraine Lake |
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Sunday July 4th
Sunday was mainly a travel day, as we were headed for Lake Louise and the Canadian Rockies. 
However, I was nervous about traveling without a spare tyre, so we went via Calgary, looking for a Canadian Tire store, one of the few tyre stores open on a Sunday. After getting a tyre which approximately matched the others, we took a quick look around Calgary as we were already close to the 
centre of town, and saw the stadiums for the Calgary Stampede which was still a week away.
Then we headed up into the mountains on the Trans Canada Highway, as thousands of Calgarians headed back into town at the end of the long Canada Day weekend. So, we didn't have any trouble getting a campsite, and it was quite peaceful up at Chateau Lake Louise.
Very few English-speaking tourists, mainly French, German, and Japanese. The lake is as beautiful as ever, even if we did get our usual soaking as we walked around.
By this time we were used to being damp, so we continued over to Moraine Lake, the one that appears on the Canadian $20 bill (not the new ones: now it's a loon).
Even in the gloom and wet, this lake is a gorgeous blue colour. It's probably pretty in the sun too, but I haven't had the chance to find out yet. It's always been wet and dark when we've been there.
Sandie and I walked the trail up to the Rockpile and its view of the Valley of Ten Peaks with Moraine Lake 
below. I can't confirm that there are ten peaks as I've never seen all of them.
The lake is fed by glaciers
and it gets its gorgeous colour from the rock flour ground up by the glaciers' ice. The Rockpile is supposedly a terminal moraine left by an earlier glacier and is the origin of the lake's name, but it looks like a regular landslide to me.