Originally, my plan was to drive to Calgary after visiting Banff. This is because Calgary is a mere 125 Km away from Banff. The initial plan was to spend a couple of days in Calgary before flying to Toronto.
Vun kai, a friend in Vancouver upon knowing my original plan advised me not to drive to Calgary, but instead to Jasper from Banff. From Jasper, we could then continue driving to Edmonton. This change of route would effectively increase the driving distance from 125Km to 655Km. At it turned out, it was worth every minute, cent and ounce of energy!
I would advise that anyone who is planning to do a driving tour to the Rockies must cover the route between Jasper and Banff. Besides the lakes, this is indeed one of the most scenic routes and offers the most spectacular views of the rocky mountains, snow-capped mountains and glaciers.
In the morning of 26 August 2017, when we checked out from the Motel in Banff and chatted with the counter staff about our impending driving to Jasper, she explicitly asked us to pay a visit to Peyto Lake. We kept that in mind.
Our first stop was Moraine Lake which is 14Km from the village of Lake Louise. In fact, we did attempt driving to this lake after our visit to Lake Louise the day before. We and many other vehicles unfortunately were stopped at the main road junction because of excessive crowd at this lake. Fortunately, in the morning of 26 August 2017, we were allowed to drive through. By the time we arrived at 10.15am, the car park was already full and we had to park at the road side half a Km away.
Moraine Lake is a very small lake, just 1.5Km long, 350m average width, maximum depth of 14m and at an elevation of 1,885m. Since the lake is glacier-fed, it is normally full in summer time after the snow has melted. At the time of our visit which is late summer, the lake was considered full. The lake colour was mild blue with a light tone of turquoise. With the snow-capped mountains at the background, it is not surprising that this is one favourite spot for photography.
Moraine Lake is a very small lake, just 1.5Km long, 350m average width, maximum depth of 14m and at an elevation of 1,885m. Since the lake is glacier-fed, it is normally full in summer time after the snow has melted. At the time of our visit which is late summer, the lake was considered full. The lake colour was mild blue with a light tone of turquoise. With the snow-capped mountains at the background, it is not surprising that this is one favourite spot for photography.
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| Moraince Lake from Google Earth. |
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| Moraine Lake. |
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Both in NZ and Canada, we saw young parents with young toddlers who were not deterred by the seemingly difficult terrain and challenging hiking routes. For their ingenuity, creativity and sheer determination, I was impressed and humbled.
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