World Traveller 73 
Winter Walking the Lake Louise Lakeshore Trail, Banff National Park, Canada.
I returned to Lake Louise in early November on an introductory trip with my wife whom had never seen the area. Since the Lake Louise ski hill hadn’t officially been opened for the season, we were looking for some local hiking activities to fill our time and allow us to enjoy our Lake Louise experience. On the day of our arrival, we took in the fairly simple Lake Louise Lakeshore hike.
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Winter Walking the Lake Louise Lakeshore Trail, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada
The Lake Louise region of Banff National Park is full of hikes and trails. Two of the most popular are the Fairview Lookout trail, the Agnes Teahouse Trail and the Lake Louise Lake Shore Trail, as described here.
About the Lake Louise Lakeview Trail:
The Lake Louise Lakeview Trail is located within Banff National Park. To enter (and park your vehicle) in the park, you’ll need a daily park pass from the Banff National Park entry gates.
During the time of our visit, the admission fees were $10.50 CAD per person per day. In our case, we passed through the park gates at around noon, and were given a twenty eight hour pass lasting until 4 PM the next day. If you are a regular visitor, or are staying a longer period of time, an annual pass may be a more economical version for you at $72.25 CAD for a single person or $145.25 CAD for a family.
The Lake Louise Lakeview Trail is an easy two kilometre trail that runs along the western side of the Lake Louise lake. Being a lakeside trail, the trail is level and does not contain any material elevation change.
The trail is rated to be approximately 1 hour round trip between trail head and trail head.
The trail head is located immediately behind the Fairmont Château Lake Louise hotel, between the lake and the hotel itself on the right hand (west side) of the boardwalk.
Preparing for Winter Hiking:
On the day of our walk, we arrived into town and checked ourselves into the Fairmont Château Lake Louise. It was not recommended by Banff National Parks administration (Parks Canada) to walk many trails in the winter for reasons of slipperiness, avalanche debris and other hazards. I was interested to see how easy this experience would be in our early winter weather.
After touching down and getting dressed for the weather, The Fairmont Château Lake Louise Concierge was able to loan us some winter crampons for the trail. We were recommended not to use them within the hotel to avoid breakage against the hard floors of the hotel.
The crampons were really easy to put on and off. We were also loaned a precautionary can of bear spray. Although there were a fair amount of people on the trail and with winter setting in, most bears were probably nearing or into hibernation states of deep sleep.
Starting at Fairmont Château Lake Louise:
We started off from Fairmont Château Lake Louise trailhead. After exiting the hotel doors, we took a right to head towards the Lake Louise Lakeview Trail.
We had a bit of a snowy day weather wise, with clouds misting through the lake area. There were no issues finding the trail head, and it was well worn with traffic despite the winter conditions.
With the “not recommended” designation for winter hiking, I wondered what condition the trail would be in. Instead, we found a well worn trail with packed snow. Although the trail was not sanded or maintained, the dry snow temperature didn’t yield any ice or slipperiness on the trail. We almost didn’t need the use of those winter crampons, but kept them on anyway.
The trail itself was flat and level. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was wheelchair accessible, it was level enough that my mom could easily walk portions of the trail.
Walking the Lake Louise Lakeview Trail offered inspiring views of the mountains surrounding the Lake Louise Lake. With a light snow dusting, it was very inspirational and set the stage for a winter wonderland.
Arriving to the Top End of Lake Louise:
After about forty five minutes of slow to medium paced walking over packed snow conditions, we ended up at the top of end of Lake Louise. With mountains a little bit closer in distance, we were able to get a closer look at some of the winter features of the area.
We were treated to a massive ice waterfall that had frozen over on trails leading up to the nearby Beehive and the Lake Agnes Teahouse. We’ve occassionally seen winter waterfalls like this outside of Vail, Colorado and on the Sea to Sky Highway between Squamish and Whistler back home in British Columbia. However, this marked the largest one that I’ve seen in recent times.
At the top end of the lake, we ventured out to look back towards the hotel with an eastern look. The weather was cold enough, and we had a different viewpoint set against more of a valley orientation.
We also saw the extension of the trail towards the Plain of Six Glaciers, which was a further five kilometres along the valley. Since the weather was cloudy, we were not able to see the views towards the base of the Six Glaciers, which can normally be seen from the top end of Lake Louise.
Despite this, the top of the lake offered majestic views. The walk allowed us to take in all of what Lake Louise had to offer, despite the wintery weather of visiting Lake Louise in early November.
Walking back from the end of the hike, we were able to take in more lake oriented views. It’s simply spectacular at Lake Louise. The views of Lake are the reason visitors travel all this way.
As we returned towards the Fairmont Château Lake Louise, we were able to also take in a few hotel views of the majestic position on the lake shores.
After the hike, we retired to the Fairmont Château Lake Louise hotel, for the rest of the day, followed by a nourishing dinner at Louiza Restaurant.
My Thoughts on Winter Hiking the Lake Louise Lakeview Trail:
The Lake Louise Lakeview trail was an elementary and straightforward introduction to the Lake Louise area. While I was initially a little concerned that we wouldn’t be able to take in any winter hiking due to trail conditions, the trail was well packed and well traveled.
The Lake Louise Lakeview Trail offered a great welcome to the Lake Louise area. Despite the winter conditions, it made for a great introduction to the lake, along with getting that Lake Louise experience we had travelled all that way to experience.
World Traveller 73 
Too bad it was cloudy on your walk, the views on a bluebird day are unmatched. 😊
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I can only remember. Despite this, the Lake Louise winter experience was a great change for us West Coast “flowers”; a solid reminder of what a real winter feels like.
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