A Week In Calgary with A Polish Mom.

The same day we hiked Johnston Canyon and Pilot Pond, we decided to also check out Lake Louise. Since AdamsMom only had one week to visit us, we obviously wanted to take her out on as many epic adventures as possible.

I have only been to Lake Louise a couple times. Besides skiing the ski resort, I honestly didn’t have much interest in visiting such a highly populated tourist area. Don’t get me wrong, Lake Louise is amazing. It’s just that when people are waiting behind you to take your spot to take the exact photo you just took, seems to detract from the whole serenity of it. I am not even going to get started on the volume of selfie sticks!

If you get a chance to visit this place, either come during the weekdays on the shoulder season or really early in the morning. It will be worth it.

We had a particular goal in mind. To hike up to Agnes Lake which sits at an elevation of  2135m. The round trip comes to 7km. My biggest motivation was that Adam told me there was a tea house with food at the top. Lies. It doesn’t open until June!

Nevertheless, we were already at the Lake Louise and regardless of food or not AdamsMom was already 10 paces head of us heading towards the trail leading up to the mountain lake.

I found it funny that Adam was concerned about taking his mom out on anything that he deemed to be “too hard.” If you ask me, she was kicking our butts.

If it wasn’t evident by her ninja scrambling skills in Johnston Canyon, well let me tell you, it was shameful on this hike. Normally, I maintain a pretty slow pace when it comes to gaining elevation but AdamsMom was giving a whole new meaning to pacemaker.

Warranted, I’m not a hiker. Unless I’m going to a vertical rock climbing location or portaging a canoe or trying to find wild edibles, you will not likely see me “hiking.”

Good thing anything under 7km or under 2 hours, round trip – I think of it as more of a stroll rather than hiking, so you’ll often find me wearing flip flops or cowboy boots.

It took us about an hour to reach the first lake, “Mirror Lake.” I’m assuming that when it’s not covered in ice, that it produces quite a magnificent reflection of the BeeHive Mountain that stands impressively above it.

After exploring the tiny lake we continued up the trail and within 30 more minutes we reached the waterfall that drains from Agnes Lake to Mirror Lake.  Only a set of wooden stairs and bam we have made it!

Agnes Lake was so named after the first white woman to hike and visit the lake. During the construction of the CP railway, a path was cleared up to these lakes to promote tourism and give guests multiple reasons to stop and visit Lake Louise.

Adam read somewhere that the actual First Woman to reach the lake was a writer and the second woman was Lady Macdonald, Premier John A. Macdonalds wife. Though there was some disputing it worked out in the end because both woman were named Agnes. Everybody wins!

Moral of the story is, if you come to Lake Louise definitely leave most of the masses by hiking the Agnes Lake Tea House Trail. However if you hope to enjoy delicious edibles make sure you go between June and September! Then take a page from AdamsMom and lay back and just enjoy the Canadian Rockies because “Lake Louise is very beautiful.”