Day 9 Part 2: Jasper to Lake Louise

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Today's Itinerary:  Leave Jasper and retrace our steps (south) to Lake Louise.

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The trek south to Lake Louise was along the beautiful Columbian Icefields Parkway.  I stopped frequently to take pictures.  The North Saskatchewan River made a wonderful brackdrop and there were lots of ponds and lakes.  Interestingly, many of the deeper lakes were still frozen, though I don't think you'd want to walk on them.

The sky was overcast and dark.  Picture taking was made difficult.

Black bear cub

Black bears: mother and cub



We checked into the Lake Louise Inn early, about 2 p.m. and then checked out the gift shops at Morraine Lake and Lake Louise.  Of course, we admired the scenery, too.  A lot of the ice that we'd seen on Morraine Lake a few days earlier was gone.



Morraine Lake



A special treat was a mother grizzly and two cubs near Lake Louise.  The park's "Guardian of the Bears" were there to ensure that spectators kept their distance.  The mother bear was grizzly #62 and you could see the tag on her ear. We were told that in recent days the bears had been feeding on this field of dandelions and the cubs were also being taught by their mother to hunt ground squirrels.