Join us for an armchair tour of the Lake Louise area and we’ll explore those majestic mountains, pristine lakes, and powerful waterfalls.

Moraine Lake

Considering Lake Louise is only a 2 hour drive from our house in Calgary, we really don’t visit there as often as we should! Let me tell you about some amazing things we saw on a recent day-trip to this spectacular area.

The first thing you need to know is that Lake Louise is within the Banff National Park so you will need a Canada Park Pass to visit this area.You can get a Discovery Pass that covers Canada’s national parks, national marine conservation areas and national historic sites for a year or you can purchase a Day Admission. Youth age 17 and under get into our national parks and historic sites for free! 

Let’s talk about sleeping…ahhh, one of my favourite activities! Since we went to Banff the day before, we didn’t want to drive all the way home and all the way back out again the next day so we decided to stay overnight in the back of our mini-van (can’t wait for the day we finally get a REAL RV!!). We stayed overnight at the Taylor Lake rest area but RVs are prohibited from staying there. Fortunately, the Lake Louise Overflow area is only about 2 kms further and when we asked the parking attendant there, he said RVs can stay overnight as long as they want for free! There are no hookups and it’s essentially a gravel parking lot but it looks fairly level and you can’t get much cheaper than free. (Please note, the Parks Canada website says there is a $10.80 cost for staying here so call ahead to make sure). During peak season you can take a free shuttle from this overflow lot into Lake Louise, which is helpful since taking a large RV into that area would either be prohibited or restrictive.

The first place we visited in the morning (after grabbing coffee at the Lake Louise village) was Moraine Lake. This is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen and this was the first time I’ve been here! It can be a tricky place to visit. Let me explain. As you drive up the mountain toward Lake Louise (and the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise hotel), the turn-off for Moraine Lake is to your left and it is almost always blocked off – as in ROAD CLOSED signage and people flagging you on and telling you to keep driving. But, here’s the reality. The road to the Moraine Lake (11 kms) is either

1. Only blocked to traffic heading UP the hill. If you go past the blockade, pull a u-turn, drive back DOWN the hill, they will let you enter. My analysis of this situation is that they don’t want people waiting to make a left turn as that blocks the winding road up to the hotel, so they’d rather have you go past, turn around, and make a right turn instead.
2. Closed to all car traffic because the parking lot at the lake is full and you will have to either
   •  wait until later in the day when people start to leave or
   •  go back to the village and catch the free shuttle or
   •  go to the hotel and pay to have their private shuttle drive you down to the lake.

As you can see, this is very convoluted and one way to avoid all this hassle is to arrive at that turn-off before 7:30am (or even earlier) or wait until much later in the day. Please note that the road to Moraine Lake is closed in the winter and no RV’s over 20 feet.

All that being said Moraine Lake is worth any hassle!! The lake itself is beautiful but the majestic Rocky Mountains towering above is breath-taking. You can walk along one side of the lake and it’s a fairly easy and level path (not wheelchair accessible, though). As with any mountain vista, be prepared for all kinds of weather. We were there in late spring and the lake was still half-frozen, the wind was cold, and there were patches of ice and snow on the pathway. Bring your camera, a snack, sturdy shoes, and water. You can rent canoes and there are hiking trails in the area as well. We will DEFINITELY go back here this summer.