Young World Travellers: Day Three - Banff to Lake Louise

A much chillier morning in Banff and it took a little while to warm up but still comfortably t-shirt and shorts weather. A lot of people were getting excited about seeing a bear as we were now deep in the Rockies and we were amused to hear some safety advice 'if a bear attacks a big group, you don't need to outrun the bear, just the slowest person in your group.' It's kind of obvious but quite funny at the same time.

Our first stop was Lake Johnston. The sun was still low and we did a nice walk around the lake to get the blood pumping for what was to come later on. Next stop was Lake Minnewanka, maybe not the best name but a lovely spot nonetheless. The famous Emerald Lake was our next port of call and it didn't disappoint. The Lake gets it's name from the emerald green colour caused by fine particles of limestone suspended in the water. Due to the high altitude, the lake is frozen over from November to June.

Our final stop was one of the premier attractions in the whole of Western Canada - Lake Louise. It's an idyllic place and even amateurs like ourselves can get a pretty decent photo. We had the option of a few different hikes surrounding the lake and we went for the toughest of them all, the four hour Big Beehive hike which ascends to an altitude of just over 7500ft. Tough terrain and very steep inclines had us questioning whether we were going to make it to the top, especially on the final ascent which was about as steep as you could walk without resorting to climbing, but we finally made it and the view at the peak certainly made it worthwhile. After a few photos and a bit of time to recover we headed back down to meet up with the rest of the tour group and headed towards our accomodation in the town nearby for a good night's sleep.

Day Three Highlight - Big Beehive Hike at Lake Louise