[r] Canada Story(4): Lake Marion and Lake Louise

The next morning, we went to Banff for sightseeing. In my eyes, it was quite European, no wonder someone named it as "North American Switzerland". I especially like the cute Bear Street, fence walls on street were painted with various colorful bears, and all kinds of bear souvenirs were sold in the gift shops.

After lunch, we drove to Trailor Campground, which was at Lake Louis, about 30 miles northeast of Banff. As planned, that afternoon, it was the visit to Lake Marion.

Lake Marion was uphill, about 3 miles away from Trailor Campground. The emerald water was fantastic, I had seen the water of JiuZhaiGou[*], but the water there was colorful, and here it was pure; I had also seen the water of SanYa[#], but the water there waved jazzily, and her it was so peaceful like a gentle virgin. In a word, it was something special and unique in the world. There were two easy hiking trails, one was up a small hill about 220 feet high at the west side of lake; another was along lake side till to its feeder creek. We took both of them.

Back to Trailor Campground, it was already dark. We had a little problem: there was only one shower place in this campground, and from the map, it seemed to be half miles away. I volunteered to go first as scout and went with a small flash light. The scouting proved to be quite unsuccessful: it was such a dark night, that I took nearly a hour walking there and another back, and lost my way on the return:). This happened on Saturday, August 15.

August 16 was a Sunday. That day belonged to Lake Louise. Hollywood fans should be familiar with the Chateau of Lake Louise, as it was one of the favorite place for the stars and their well-dressed parties. The lake rest in great harmony in the arms of its feeders -- the Six Glaciers. The scene was so beautiful and it appeared on hundreds of Canadian post cards, and even the old twenty Canada dollar bill. The trail along lake side finally connected to the trail to the Six Glaciers plain, which was 3.5 miles hiking distance, and 7,000 feet in elevation. We made it to the end, which was a wearing-out hiking but absolutely worthy. The view of glaciers were gorgeous: in millions of years the ice moved slowly but continuously, carved big valley upon the snow mountains. And for our awesome mother nature, this was just a small game of its 5 billon years of land shaping!

[*] Natural park in China's Sichuan province, famous for its water and forest views.
[#] "Oriental Hawaii" in China's Hainan province, which has the best tropical beaches in China.