Horse Trekking

Today we spent the afternoon trekking through the mountains & forests on these lovely creatures. Paul got the biggest horse of the lot, a huge stallion called Ace, pictured here on the first photo. My horse, Buzzly, was slightly smaller & naughtier than Paul's. He kept wandering off into the bushes to have a little snack. I soon whipped him into shape though. Well, almost. We used muscles that we didn't know he had & are feeling a bit sore now.

Marmot Heaven

There are marmots everywhere on the trail. Along with the ones munching away on the wildflowers below there are more sitting on the rocks above just keeping an eye on us.

Wildlife on the Trail

The trail is chock full of wildlife including a ptarmigan (the speckled, grey bird), some pikas (the grey, furry rodents) & a strange, unidentified, hairy, grey-whiskered mammal. ; )

Heading Up the Mountain

Phew! That was a long way up. No cups of tea waiting for us this time. I suppose we could make ice pops?!

The Glacier & the Ice Lake

Every now and then there is a rumbling & squeaking noise as the glacier settles a bit & a powder covering of snow falls from the surrounding mountain. Everyone holds their breath while this happens in case the whole glacier is about to fall on our heads. I love the way the glacier looks like marble at the lake's edge where new layers of snow have fallen over the previous layer of ice & scree.

Jasper - The Cavell Meadows Trail

Our first walk in Jasper is this trail which will gives us good views of Edith Cavell mountain, a huge glacier & lots of wildflowers poking through the snow. Keep having to remind myself that it's August & summer a few thousand feet below us.

More Lake Agnes Trail

It gets chillier & chillier as we climb & eventually it starts to snow. This feels very bizarre as it's August & it's sunny & warm down at Lake Louise.

The fabled tearoom does not disappoint. It's a cute little log cabin (sorry, in my haste to revive myself with tea & cake after the long walk I forgot to take a photo). There is no electricity or running water up there. The supplies for the baking are flown in by helicopter at the start of the season then & replenishments are brought up the mountain on horseback. The staff live at the cabin for the whole summer in the roof of the tearoom. They bake fresh bread & cakes every day. I can confirm that the lemon poppy seed cake is delicious.

Despite the fact that you're not supposed to, few people can resist feeding the golden-mantled squirrels so the outside tables are overrun with the greedy crumb snatchers.

We make one more stop before we reach Jasper, this time to view Lake Peyto shown in the last two pictures.

Lake Agnes Trail

We do a hike at Lake Louise. Lured by the promise of a tearoom at the top we sweat our way past Mirror Lake & Beehive Mountain, onwards & upwards towards Lake Agnes.

Lake Louise

Our second stop is at Lake Louise where the water is a milky turquoise.

The Banff Springs Hotel

As we leave Banff for Jasper we make a couple of stops along the way. The first one is at this hotel which looks like it ought to be in Transylvania.

More Sentinel Pass

That's Alice from Victoria & Mattius from Germany if you can see them through the rain.