Moraine Lake, Grassi Lakes & Canmore

We got up bright and early this morning to get to Moraine Lake, neither of us fancied a long wait as yesterday the car park was too full and you had to get a shuttle from Lake Louise to actually get there. Fortunately we snagged a space and set off. There are a variety of trails at Moraine Lake, and we chose a 4ish kilometer one with a moderate gradient which led to a high pass where you could see 10 peaks above you. The reality was that an incredibly icy trail led to a pass shrouded in dense clouds. We probably saw about 3 and a half of the peaks before the entire pass was covered in cloud and you could see about 10 metres. Excellent. We then had the much trickier job of traversing the thin, icy path back down the mountainside. I had many near falls, with my arms windmilling as in a comic strip multiple times. Amelia fell on her bum, taking me down with her as I heroically attempted to save her. The words ‘that’s true love’ were mentioned by a passing hiker. (In reality I was walking too closely behind and couldn’t stop). 

In summary Moraine lake is again stunning, and has loads of different trails catering for however active you wish to be on the day. It’s also beautiful, and slightly less busy/touristy as Louise. Very much recommended. When we were leaving a squad of tree surgeons were cutting down a large tree which closed off the path and caused much excitement. Fortunately nobody was crushed by the falling tree. 

We then took a short drive down to the delightful town of Canmore. Think of a typical ski resort and that’s what Canmore looks like. Before setting up camp we were hiking up to the Grassi Lakes nearby. On the hike there’s a fork in the path, one stating ‘easy’, the other ‘more difficult’, which proved to be exactly the case. We opted to go up the ‘easy’ and down the ‘more difficult’. The lakes themselves are more like large ponds but are absolutely stunning. The water is crystal clear and they appeared deep blue to shades of green depending on your viewpoint. We found a bench and it was the definition of tranquil, until a noisy group of Aussies flounced past. 

There’s no denying that we got lost coming back down. Stopping off at an information board overlooking a mighty view of Canmore, a valley and the mountains beyond led us to actually begin climbing the path back up to the Lakes rather than leaving, Amelia just loved them that much. Most of the path down was essentially a stream bed so with slightly damp feet we got back to the camper and made it to the camp for the evening. 

The campsite was horrendously reviewed online, and expensive for what it is, however has washing machines, which we were dearly in need of (I’ve been on the same T-shirt for an unacceptable amount of time). We managed to get everything through the washer (whites and colours as mandated by Amelia), but didn’t dry through one cycle of the dryer, and didn’t have the required dollar coin to put it through again. So currently have most of our clothes hanging around us as we head to bed in preparation for another spin when we can get a dollar change tomorrow morning.