Monday, September 5, 2011 and yet another beautiful day here in Canada. As in the United States it is a holiday here, Labour Day. We decided to head to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. We began our day early and reached Lake Louise however decided to begin our day at Moraine Lake. A good decision it turned out!!! Moraine Lake is less than 9 miles from Lake Louise and located in the Valley of Wenkchemna Mountains. Many visitors feel that Lake Moraine is more exquisite and spectacular than its larger and more famous cousin.
Moraine Lake is also quite famous in that an image of the Valley of the Ten Peaks, surrounding the lake, appeared on the back of older versions of the Canadian $20 bill. The highest peak is Deltaform, at 11,230 feet, and all of the peaks, Fay, Little, Bowlen, Perren, Septa, Allen, Tuzo, Deltaform, Neptuak and Wenkchemna, are white capped with what remains of the Wenkcjemna Glacier. The huge mountain to the north, with the glacier on its summit, is Mt. Temple, at 11,636 feet, the third highest mountain in Banff National Park.
It is said that the lake is misnamed! The person who christened it in 1899, Walter Wilcox, thought it, like Lake Louise, had its origins because of a terminal glacial moraine. (A moraine is a kind of dam created by the debris left behind by a glacier which blocks up a valley so that a lake can form behind it.) However, this lake formed after a rock fall from its neighbour, the "Tower of Babel", dammed the run-off from the surrounding mountains to create Moraine Lake.
The hike around this lake was a wonderful walk also.
We had wanted to return to Lake Louise, however
when we left the Moraine Lake area the traffic was awful and backed up for a mile or more so we decided to return to Lake Louise after the holiday. With the holiday and the nice weather is seemed that everyone was out for the day!!!
More later,
Candy and Johnny
