There were many trails to choose from.You can hike in Banff, you can hike in the Lake Louise area, you can head all the way up to the Jasper National Park if you wanted to. I narrowed my hikes down to two main trails given I only had two full days to experience this beauty. Day 1, I arrived at Lake Louise by 7:30am. The waters and the beauty of Lake Louise when you first set eyes on it is nothing short of stunning. For today’s hiking adventures, I chose the Tea House Challenge hike. It’s basically a loop-ish hike with two different tea houses at the two main points: Plain of Six Glaciers and Lake Agnes. The most difficult decision was which tea house/ which direction would I want to do this in? It's up for heavy debate on trip adviser and I ended up heading out to the Plain of Six Glaciers first. It’s on a more exposed trail, I wanted to avoid the afternoon heat and it’s a more gradual of a climb vs heading to the Lake Agnes Tea House first. I enjoyed much of the trail to myself, benefit of starting early. I made it to the Tea House and ventured further out to the Plain of Six Glacier viewpoint. All along the trail, you hear these loud booms, they were active avalanches! Once at the viewpoint, I stopped to take in the scenery and eventually met a couple of new faces. I met a fellow solo gal from Utah and also met a gentleman with a cute smile from Louisiana shortly after named Chris. I had recognized him from the parking lot. He’s goal for the next day was to make it up to Mount Temple in the Larch Valley area where I would be going tomorrow.
After the Glacier viewpoint, I took the same
trail back until I saw the first sign that directs you to Lake Agnes. The closer I got to Lake Louise, the more humans I was sharing the trails with. By the time
I was done with my hike, Lake Louise became an afternoon crowd house! They came
in hoards offloading from the big tour buses. Lake Agnes on the
Highline trail. Note: there are two connecting trails that will take you to
Lake Agnes along the Glacier trail. The trail up to Lake Agnes is covered, gradual
climb and you will see more faces over time as heading up to Lake Agnes first
is the more popular route for whatever reason. This is where I would bump into
Utah gal again! Having now done the route, I prefer heading out to the Plain of
Six Glaciers first. By doing so, you see the views of the Glaciers the entire time,
the sunrise is facing the Glaciers at these morning hours making for appropriate
photo lighting, the climb is more gradual which you start to feel after 12
miles 
The second trail I chose was the Larch Valley / Sentinel Pass trail that was categorized as black diamond difficult.. It’s 9 miles but steep. I arrived at the trail head in Moraine Lake at about 8am. Lake Louise is the star lake of Banff but Moraine Lake is not too shabby. The Valley of Ten Peaks tower over the lake creating another stunning backdrop. At the start of the trail, I bumped into the gal from Utah again, Melissa as we introduced ourselves this time. She turned out to be Melissa Hartwig, creator/author of the Whole 30 nutrition lifestyle. I was heading up on the trail as she was going to be following closely behind. Hiking in this area, it was recommended that you carry bear spray. I woke up to a news alert that a woman was attacked by a bear in Alaska the previous night. I will admit, I was a tiny bit nervous about the possibility of a bear sighting. Should I have bought the bear spray as recommended by the shop gal? My first question to her was, “Do I spray the bear or do I spray myself with this?” Ignorant as it may be, I had no idea! You spray the bear she says. I then thought, if a bear attacks and I am solo, I doubt I would have a chance to grab the spray and do I passed. I did make clapping noises along this trail when I felt a bit too alone to let the bears know that humans are coming, as a recommended tactic. I made it up to Larch Valley which was beautiful and it’s really the first time you get to see all ten of the peaks. From here, you have the choice to turn around and go back down to the lake or continue up Sentinel Pass. I continued on. It was a steep switchback trail but not more steep than the 10 or so switchbacks to get up to Larch Valley. The tricky part up Sentinel was that now you’re dealing with snow patches, loose gravel and couple of really steep ascents which would make for a tricky descent. I will admit there were two occasions where I thought about turning around because it was that steep of a stretch and I was already nervous about the descend down but I carried on telling myself that I had all day to get down the mountain and I would scale down on my ass if it came to that. Arrival at least! The views from Sentinel Pass was stunning at 8,547 feet!
Melissa joined me about 15- 20 minutes later. We
shared a bunch of photo moments before making the descend down together. We shared more photo moments on the descend and after awhile, I think Melissa was used to my random "stop! photo!" I had told her later on that photography is my hobby and she responds, "No wander you see all these vantage points!" Having
done the trail in its entirety, I would say it’s hard but not difficult. The
views were worth the climb!
Banff is a gem of a place on this earth and I look forward
to coming back for more trail fun! The park was worth every penny of the $15US 3
day park pass. I returned the rental car having logged 550km on it. My soul is full from this experience. Until next time!
My tips from my short but sweet experience: 1) If you're thinking about doing it- stop thinking and just do it! It's an easy two hour flight from SFO, pick up a rental car and it's an easy and stunning drive out to Banff from Calgary. 2) Arrive at the trails early! It's worth the effort. By 9am, the overflow parking lots are opened and you want to be well on the trails by then! 3) Bring layers! Two weeks ago, Sentinel Pass was covered with snow. I started my hike in a tank top and had my long sleeve and rain jacket by the time I reached the top. It was WINDY! 4) Make sure you have enough water and food. There are no official water sources out on the trails. You do have waterfall streams however should you choose to take the risk. 5) You don't need to buy map if you're not hitting up the back country. Trails are well marked. Just take a photo of the trail map at the start for reference.
My tips from my short but sweet experience: 1) If you're thinking about doing it- stop thinking and just do it! It's an easy two hour flight from SFO, pick up a rental car and it's an easy and stunning drive out to Banff from Calgary. 2) Arrive at the trails early! It's worth the effort. By 9am, the overflow parking lots are opened and you want to be well on the trails by then! 3) Bring layers! Two weeks ago, Sentinel Pass was covered with snow. I started my hike in a tank top and had my long sleeve and rain jacket by the time I reached the top. It was WINDY! 4) Make sure you have enough water and food. There are no official water sources out on the trails. You do have waterfall streams however should you choose to take the risk. 5) You don't need to buy map if you're not hitting up the back country. Trails are well marked. Just take a photo of the trail map at the start for reference.
