Moraine Lake and K Country

Yayy! It’s finally Tuesday again! Tuesdays are my absolute FAVORITE on my blog, because I get to talk about the amazing places I’ve been lucky enough to visit. Today’s location is no exception.

Everyone, I’d like you to meet Moraine Lake. Moraine Lake, meet everyone. 

Beautiful right? And we were there on a cloudy/foggy/sleety day where you couldn’t even see all the mountains. (Don’t let those blue spots of sky fool you. They lasted a total of three minutes.) People FLOCK to this view. I mean… who doesn’t want to see the back of a Canadian $20 bill in person? (I don’t know much about Canadian money, but our $20 bills didn’t have Moraine Lake on the back so chances are this has changed… but they still call it the $20 view!)

If there is one tip I have about seeing this beautiful lake, it’s to get yo’ butt outta bed super early to get there. This place is packed with tourists by 10 am. We got there by 8:30 and it was already pretty busy. But not so busy we couldn’t get the photos we wanted! (It’s such a popular spot, they have people directing traffic in the parking lot in the summer starting at 10. As we were driving out, around noon, the line of cars to get in the parking lot was backed way up down the street, and there wasn’t a single parking spot anywhere.)

While most people choose to canoe on Lake Louise (a classic, I can totally see why they would want to canoe there!) we chose to canoe on Moraine Lake. Personally, I couldn’t not canoe on this lake. I fell in love with the pictures the second I saw it while planning, and knew this is where I would rather canoe.

The canoe rental shack opens up at 10:00 and we were second in line. It was nice, because we got to be out on the lake for a solid 45 minutes before other canoes were in the way of our videos and pictures. The price for an hour long ride might seem a little steep (I honestly don’t remember the exact price, but I think it was around $65/hour) it is totally, completely, 1,000% worth it. Like I said, we were there on not the nicest of days, and still had the best time. Most of our ride was spent just staring in awe of everything around us.

Truly, you only need an hour to canoe. This is all we paid for, and were able to get around the whole lake…. and to be honest, we kinda suck at canoeing. HAHA. We had plenty of time! And we stopped quite often along our ride to take pictures.

Just a fair warning, I don’t care what time of year you’re going to Banff, take a hat and mittens with you just in case. I didn’t put them on until half way through our canoe ride… I mean I did my hair in braids just for these pics, I had to last as long as I could! But it’ll be cold out on the water… especially if it’s already only 7 degrees Celsius when you’re starting your morning out, and you’ll be happy to have them!

Our afternoon didn’t quite go as we had planned. We wanted to hike Valley of Ten Peaks SO BAD. But it was literally sleeting on us, and the weather didn’t look like it was going to be getting any better. We headed to the lodge to get some hot cocoa to warm up and see if we could wait it out. We realized pretty quickly that the weather was just not going to cooperate with us. We were so bummed. We had our hiking clothes packed and ready, but we knew the weather would make the hike miserable. Plus, it was so foggy, we knew we wouldn’t be able to see a whole lot.

So we bought some chocolate muffins and made the decision to head back to Canmore. I’m not kidding you, the weather in Canmore was a complete 180 from the weather up in the mountains. Well almost. It was still cold, but not sleeting, and just a little cloudy! So we bypassed swimming at the hotel and headed to K Country.

Kananaskis Country, or K Country as it is affectionately known, is where we heard the locals like to spend their time hiking. It can be just as beautiful as Banff, and way less crowded. Since we didn’t really plan a hike, we googled and decided to hike the first one we saw. That happened to be the Grassi Lakes Trail.

We were SO happy we tried this little hike! Now, before I even start telling you about it, I must apologize for my outfit!!! This is what unnaturally cold June weather in the Canadian Rockies does to you when you aren’t prepared for it… you end up looking like a 2 year old that got dressed with her eyes closed!

The Grassi Lakes Trail is a super easy trail that almost anyone could do! You have the option of the harder or easier trail. We took the more difficult, and were glad we did! We got to see a super pretty waterfall and views of Canmore from above. I will say this… we didn’t realize it when we started, but the trail is actually a big loop, so we could have seen this same view if we started on the easy trail, and we’d have seen it going down hill instead of up. So don’t worry about missing out on anything… you’ll see the entire trail, AND you’ll save yourself some heavy breathing if you take the easier trail in the beginning 🙂

The lakes themselves are INSANE. They are such a bright blue/green. Like, these pictures don’t even come close to showing off their true colors. And you can see all the way down to the bottom. It is seriously so cool!

Lookin’ good. I know. 

From the things I’ve heard, and pictures I’ve seen, K Country is beautiful. We were sad we didn’t have more time to do more hikes here. Oh well. Next time.

After our hike, we headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up for dinner. I think my favorite thing about going out downtown Banff is that comfy clothes are acceptable at almost all the restaurants. Like I literally went out in jeans and my favorite sweatshirt that was perfect to wear in the mountains on a chilly night, and fit right in.

That night, we headed to The Eddie for some of the greatest burgers we’ve ever had! We also tried poutine for the first time, because you know… When in Rome  Canada do as the Romans  Canadians do. We also headed to the Banff Sweet Shoppe for some yummy treats before turning in for the night. I literally have ZERO pictures from this because I was too busy Snapchatting that night since The Eddie has wifi. I know.. I’m rolling my eyes at myself too.

This was honestly one of my Top 3 favorite days we spent in Banff, even though the weather didn’t really cooperate with us. Next week, I’m talking about one of the highlights of MY LIFE, which was visiting Lake Louise and eating at the Tea House. You guys, I know I say this every week, but you seriously don’t want to miss it. I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

Until next time!

Xx.
Savannah