We did this hike in Fall so it was a Chasing the gold (aka Larches) hike ! This is a very beautiful hike with amazing views of lake Louise, mirror lake, lake Agnes, lake Louise ski hill, Highway 1, icefield parkway. Larches were very beautiful too.
If we want to do a lake Louise hike, it’s better to reach there early in the morning to get parking (hmm maybe before 6:30am). We were a bit late so ended up parking in a lot around 3/4th way up the Lake Louise Drive. I think that parking lot was closed down in the later years.
Shuttle buses: here are shuttle buses during the day in case you don’t get a parking but that must be booked in advance. Last minute seats in the buses opens at 8am MST 2 days in advance. Use the booking portal to book your shuttle https://reservation.pc.gc.ca/ Select the Day Use -> Shuttle to lake Louise and Moraine Lake.
- Distance: 14km hike (+ extra 3km walk from the parking lot)
- Elevation gain: 940m
- Time: Took us 7.5 hours (moderate speed).
- Difficulty: Hard
Let me take you along the trail through my photos. The pictures of Mirror Lake and Lake Agnes is a mix from different years.
- Start of hike: Lake Louise
- Trail upto Mirror lake
It’s a pretty steep climb in the beginning of the hike and later is more moderate until Mirror Lake.
- Mirror lake
A tiny lake with a backdrop of Big Beehive mountain
- Lake Agnes
Tea shop at Lake Agnes :
- Larches after Lake Agnes
- Destination in sight
- Gorgeous Lake Louise view
- Last stretch
View of Highway 1, icefield parkway and rocky area near the summit
- Summit
It was pretty windy up there and there are these rock bunkers to escape from the wind
- few more larch pics to end the story of this amazing hike !
