We arrived in Banff National Park on Aug 7, 2019. We got up early (5:30am) the next morning as advised in order to find parking at Lake Louise and Lake Moraine. We were out the door by 6am and pulled up to the parking lot at 6:50am..... only to be turned away because the lot was already full! So, they told us to go to the overflow parking and catch a shuttle. They only have one shuttle (school bus) scheduled to leave every 30 minutes and you have to buy tickets for these shuttles ($4/adults, $2/children or Senior). And you have to wait in a long line to get these tickets (there is no way that I know of to get these online or ahead of time). They sold out of the 7:30 tickets while we were in line, so we had to get tix for the 8:00 shuttle. Kind of a pain to get there by 6:50am, but not be able to leave until 8am and not get to the lake until 8:15 or so, a full hour and a half after we originally pulled up.
HOWEVER...... once we arrived at Lake Louise, we quickly forgot all about that and fell in love with the scenery. We set eyes on the Fairmont and decided to check it out!
Our tummies were rumbling from our early morning wake up call, so we decided to treat ourselves to breakfast in the Fairmont. YUM!! We did the breakfast buffet ($34/adult Canadian; half price for kids) and we all loved it!
With full tummies, we walked out of the Fairmont and decided to check out the Lake!
Isn't she lovely?
After enjoying breakfast and walking as far around the lake as we could (the path goes about half way around the lake and then you have to turn around since it does not go around the entire lake), we caught the 12:00 shuttle ($6/adult, $3/child or seniors) to Moraine Lake.
And OMG...... we thought Lake Louise was a sight to behold, but just when you didn't think a lake could be a prettier or deeper blue, you see Lake Moraine and realize it most definitely can!
As soon as the shuttle drops you off, you can climb a short hike to this viewing spot. We spent quite a bit of time here enjoying the view and taking pictures.
And then a few of us walked as far around the lake as we could (similar to Lake Louise, the path goes around about half the lake and then you need to turn around), which brought us to the source of the lake. You could see the glacier flow into the lake. It was very cool.
The following day, we headed to Johnston Canyon.
We hiked to the Lower Falls (word to the wise.... this view inside the cave..... is NOT worth the wait. If the line leading up to the cave is the length of half the bridge or less, it's probably worth the wait. But if it's any longer than that, it's not. The line for us ran the entire length of the bridge and wrapped around the corner. We waited, because everyone else seemed to be waiting and we assumed the view must be incredible. It was kind of cool to walk through the cave and get up close and personal with the waterfall, but it was NOT worth a 40 minute wait, which is what it ended up being.
Waiting in line on the bridge to see the "in the cave" view of the Lower Falls.
From there, we headed to the Upper Falls.
The R/T hike to/from the Upper Falls is a little over 2 hours.
That afternoon, we headed downtown Banff to explore the Banff Fairmont. It was beautiful. We spent about an hour exploring this beautiful property and definitely worth the time!
Cost: Parking is $11/hour (Canadian)
Verdict: I debated this but I'm going to go with YES! The reason I'm going with YES is because I absolutely loved this entire area. I loved the hikes, loved the lakes, loved the scenery. Why the internal debate then? Because it was crowded and expensive. And it was hard to not have those two things take away from the experience. It seemed that unless you got up at 5am and hit the road to your destination, you were too late. The first night we were there, we tried to find a place to eat at 3pm (too late for lunch and too early for dinner, right? Should be easy to find a place to eat!).... but every place we tried was at least an hour wait. At Lake Moraine, we saw the canoes and kayaks and wanted to join in! But the cost ($120 (Canadian)/hr per canoe) was prohibitive. It would have been $700 for the 13 of us to spend ONE hour on the water! So, anyway, I'm going to give it a YES for the reasons I stated above but the crowds and expense (we paid $600 (American)/night for our hotel - Hidden Ridge Resort. Granted, it could sleep 10 people, but still!).
