Posts tagged ‘Lake Moraine’

Aug 23

Mountains + Lakes. Lakes + Mountains.

Another slow start for the day. Jeff did not get home from work last night until 3:30am. Considering how little sleep he gets + how long his commute is, I couldn’t sleep until he was home because I was too worried about his well being.

I managed to get in a run this morning. Here are the views I get to enjoy of Canmore while I run.

The famous Three Sisters

After showering, making lunch + cleaning up, I didn’t get on the road until 1:30pm. EEEEK!!!! At first, I was going to head to Lake Louise + decide from there where I was going to wander. But, considering that Lake Louise is, “one of the most photographed lakes in the Canadian Rockies”, I decided to bet on another route first. Jeff suggested I visit Moraine Lake.

XM radio + I decided we were going to be friends again after the unsettling Lady Gaga experience. Whitesnake’s, “Here I Go Again” came on, + it was rock out central in my car. There’s nothing like driving down a stretch of alpine wilderness + rocking out to a hair band that spells out road trip. There was also a lot of Foo Fighters playing + I must admit, Dave Grohl is my rock n’ roll crush.

Um, hi.

And the Boss

I arrived at Lake Moraine + it was chock full of tourists.

I approached the lake + there was this dude with a pipe + an Indiana Jones style hat standing thigh deep in the lake. I was like, “what the heck is going on here???”

I was going to go up to them + ask, “what are you guys shooting? is this for an album cover? is it for a magazine???” And then I realized I actually didn’t care enough to ask, so I went along my merry way.

I clambered up the side of what is known as, “Moraine Lake Rockpile”. When I got to the top, there were enormous amounts of tourists, so I went back down whence I came from + had lunch on an outcropping of rock that I knew tourists would be too scared to come down.

This is when I heard a woman screaming to her husband from down below, “Dan!!! Dan!!! Look!!! Someone just got on top of one of those new things!!! A paddle board!!!!!”. Snicker.

Another view from where I was sitting.

I wanted to hike down to Lower Consolation Lake + I came across this sign:

Foiled again!!! If you’ve been wondering to yourself, “Shelli is such an avid hiker, I wonder why she hasn’t been going out into the hills more often?”. You want to know why? It’s because when I look into the hills, all I see looking back at me is this:

Anyone who knows me well enough is fully aware of the fact that I am tragically + deathly afraid of being mauled by a bear. I take no chances. I’ve been known to backpack in Wyoming clanging pots + pans + screaming “the star spangled banner” at the top of my lungs for the entire trip.

Thus, I decided to take the leisurely stroll along Moraine Lake. I stopped upon a log in the lake for another snack. It was so beautiful that I almost started crying if it wasn’t for the annoyingly loud group of Brits behind me talking about how expensive a glass of wine was at the lodge. I’m like, my god if you really want to talk this much, why don’t you all go meet at Starbucks?! So annoying!!!

It was time to head back. At this point I was reconsidering going to Lake Louise. But I thought to myself, “Self, this is one of the most famous landmarks in the Canadian Rockies.” So, I ventured out. Yikes. It was like Alpine Disneyland. There were so many tourists. My hunches were correct. Lake Louise was originally named Emerald Lake. I can imagine how pristine + gorgeous it was pre-tourism.