597. Rockies Roadtrip | Day 12 - Banff - Lake Louise & Moraine

The next morning, we left Kelowna to head to our next destination, Banff - where we were to stay for 3 nights. As literally all of the hotels inside Banff National Park were fully booked up on the nights we were going, we had to stay in Canmore which was about a half hour drive away. We stayed at the Copperstone Resort which was pretty nice and spacious (we had 2 floors, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living room, kitchen, dining area, balcony, etc) but the downsides were that it had horrible WiFi and felt a bit haunted.
The drive over from Kelowna to Banff was incredibly scenic and mountainous. Luckily I did not get carsick that time so I was able to enjoy the views and take lots of pics:




This reminds me a bit of China..



Along the way, we stopped at Lake Louise. The last time I was at the Rocky Mountains was back in 1998, when I was 8 years old. I have vague memories from that trip. The only lakes I remembered were Peyto Lake (my favourite) and Lake Louise. I remember being told back then that Lake Louise was the most famous and iconic lakes of the Rocky Mountains. It was extremely sunny that day which was good but because of that, all my photos came out overexposed:



After Lake Louise, we went to Moraine Lake. For some reason, the line up of cars was super long here (while at Lake Louise there wasn't a line at all). We probably waited for about half an hour or so before we got into the parking lot.





Afterwards, we settled into our hotel/resort then headed out on a grocery trip. Along the way, we saw a family of 4 elk beside the road. I love seeing wildlife..as this isn't something we have in Toronto (especially as I live downtown). Of all the animals in the Rocky Mountains, elk are my favourite. Also the fact that we didn't end up seeing any other animals for the rest of our trip made this more special. We made a turn on the road when I saw a car up ahead, stopped on the side of the road. I then saw the silhouettes of the 4 elk and their antlers from the car's headlights. I have to say that was probably the most magical moment of the whole trip for me.

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