The Most Beautiful Place

Niall and I believe Banff National Park is the most beautiful place we have ever been. We stayed near Lake Louise. I have never seen water so blue.

We took the Lake Agnes Trail – it was an intense hike for us, from Lake Louise up a mountain to get to Lake Agnes.

It was a bit of a rainy day, so I was glad we brought the bag with the ponchos in it.

  

We passed Mirror Lake (photo below) on the way.

We hiked to an elevation of 7005 feet and found ourselves at Lake Agnes Tea House, the oldest tea house in Canada – it was originally built in 1905 by the Canadian Pacific Railway. It’s a family owned tea house, rebuilt in 1981 by Cynthia Magee - her daughter used to have to walk back and forth on the same long, steep trail we took to catch the school bus every day. There is no electricity, the garbage has to be carried down on a regular basis, all the food is made daily, by hand. We shared a small pot of their staff-recommended blend of Rocky Mountain green tea, soothing and rewarding in this quaint, dim log cabin.

We agreed that this would be a memory we would hold in our hearts forever. It’s funny,  because we started out that day full of discontent. We were annoyed with each other in such close quarters, I was feeling slightly ill, and the spitting rain was getting to us. This hike slowly, persistently worked at changing our perspective.

Lake Agnes Lake sits at the foot of the tea house (photo below).

Renewed by our tea, we went further.

Another rainbow (above photo) – number three we have spotted on this trip!

We took our time making our way back to Lake Louise.

There was this busy, rolling stream down the mountain. 

Water from the stream collected in pools and was chalky gray, full of sediment. Then, suddenly, there was Lake Louise, that perpetual blue.

The mood was greatly altered. Sometimes it hits me, how can I be anything but filled with gratitude?