433. Thursday 4th June 2015. Kicking Horse Mountain to Field to Lake Louise to Mosquito Creek…

Thursday 4th June
The morning dawned to much the same weather as last night. Cold and wet.

This is a wildlife corridor. They aare spread along the highway through the mountains to allow wildlife to move from one side of the highway to another. There are also corridors which run under the highway.

We drove to Field our first stop where we picnicked on sandwiches made earlier. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field,_British_Columbia We sat in the car and ate as it was too wet to sit at a bench table.

The mountain range behind the town of Field.

Field is famous, well at least well known, ahem, well amongst some people, it is known for several things. One of those was the discovery and on going research into fossilized remains discovered in 1909 in shale on the peaks high above the town. I was taken by the great display at the local information centre. Considering the fossils are of marine creatures who died on the sea floor 500 million years ago and their remains are embedded in shale near the tops of mountains.
The closer we got to Lake Louise the better the weather.    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Louise,_Alberta  Newly weds Simone and Lazar arranged through a friend for us to have a night at the exclusive Deer Lodge at Lake Louise.

From the carpark at Deer LOdge Lake Louiose.

Thank you again Simone and Lazar for looking after us and anticipating what we wanted to see. After booking in to the Deer Lodge we went to Lake Louise to ooh and aah with the other tourists.

Lake Louise shortly before a breeze sprang up and before the rain began.

Footbridge bneside the chateau at Lake Louise

Frank at Lake Louise.

Lake Louise

Hmmm Frank at Lake Louise again.

Hmmm! Note to self. Come back in the morning at sunrise for better photo opportunities and before the breeze ruffles the surface of the water. The scenery here has a backdrop of snow covered mountains in every direction. The giant hotel known as Chateau Lake Louise is a tourist attraction in itself. Built in 1911 with one wing burned down in 1924. It is owned by the Fairmont Group who also own the hotel in Calgary where we attended a wedding last week. Lake Louise is divided into three parts. The lake itself with the Chateau, Deer Lodge and a few other accommodation  houses but no permanent residences. The village which sits on the Trans Canada Highway is the commercial hub with shops, garages and tourist information building. The third part is the Ski Resort and Chair lift and gondola.

Look at the snow piled up over several seasons. Perhaps next spring or the one after that will see a good avalanche. The word avalanche can be used to describe landslides as well as snow,

We drove to Moraine Lake   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moraine_Lake    but the rain came just as I was ready to enjoy the walks.  I only managed to take two photos before we had to run for shelter. Instead we bought supplies at the local market and drove 27 Klms towards Jasper in the off chance we would catch Errol, Nicole and the grandchildren who expected to camp at Mosquito Creek Campground.  http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/ab/banff/activ/camping/mosquito.aspx We knew they planned to camp here tonight but they did not know when they would arrive as they had also planned to visit the Athabasca Icefields today.  Amazingly as we drove through the campground and were on the verge of leaving, they arrived in their rented motorhome. This campground is set in a stunning mountain view location beside umm err Mosquito Creek in the Icefield section of the  Banff National Park in the Rocky Mountains.

Nicole beside the motofrhome at Mosquito Creek.

More campsite at Mosquito Creek.

We had a great visit and a barbecue with a beer or two.

Barbecue’s ready.

Hannah and Amelia perform a dance routine.

Errol decided to test the water at Mosqito Creek. Despite the swift current trying take his feet out from under him he could only yolerate the cold water for less than a minute.

By 10 pm the sun still had not set so it was time to head back to the lodge.

This Raven spoke to me in basic bird. He asked if I would save any leftovers for him. I reminded him that park rules forbid feeding the wildlife. He tried to con me that the rule only applies to feeding the bears.

 

It has been a long day and bed was beckoning.

Tags: Athabasca Icefields, Banff National Park, Chateau Lake Louise, Deer Lodge, Field BC, Jasper, Lake Louise, Lake Louise Ski Resort and Chair Lift, Moraine Lake, Mosquito Creek Campground, Trans Canada Highway