Lake Agnes walk

We woke to the patter of raindrops, but they soon stopped. However it did appear to be a very grey day, with low cloud. By the time we had had our breakfast the cloud had lifted and patches of blue sky were beginning to appear, so Plan A for today was put into action. We quickly packed things away and set off to the village where we caught up on Internet and I booked for two nights in Jasper from Monday.  We are now learning the September is still high season for RVs so we are having to plan ahead more than we expected

We left the village at 10.0 am to drive the 4km up to the Lale Louise car park, and today were early enough to get a decent parking place! I quickly packed up our lunch nd we set off to walk at just after 10.30am.  The target was the Lake Agnes Teahouse, some 3.8km distance and circa 1600ft of ascent. 

The Teahouse is located in the dark patch of trees to the right of the big lump of rock in the centre, which is called the Beehive.

The path was in very good condition most of the way, but the ascent was unrelenting.

It was steeper than this much of the time!

There were a lot of others walking it too, families, youngsters, and Asian group with a leader etc!  Most of the walk was in forest, with just the occasional viewpoint.

Eventually we arrived at Mirror Lake, just below the Beehive

From here we climbed up to the right hand side finally ascending a steep wooden staircase to come out at Lake Agnes and the Teahouse.

 The original Teahouse was constructed in the 1890s to imitate facilities which existed in the Alps. We went inside, thinking we would have a cuppa, but it seemed so disorganised that we left and sat by the lake with a drink of water and a cereal bar and this little chap for company! 

This chipmunk was munching a piece of red pepper. It was quite chilly up there so we soon set off again. We had planned to go to the Little Beehive, but missed the route and went down a steepish path, arriving back at the Mirror Lake, where we sat on a very nice bench and had our lunch. 

Then it was back to the path and an unrelenting descent, I was glad when we got to the bottom!  It took us 11/2 hrs to walk up and a bit less to come down! 

The altitude of the village is just over 5,000ft, I am acclimatising, I felt better walking today than yesterday, but it was still quite a hike especially bearing in mind that two years ago I could hardly walk at all! 

So that was it for today. Just a bit of shopping, then back to the campsite to recuperate!

Tomorrow is the Icefields Parkway!