Coming face-to-face with a big grizzly during our hike at Little Beehive? Done, and it’s terrifying! This happened at the magnificent Lake Louise in Banff National Park!
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
After two days in the magnificent Yoho National Park, we’re back in Canmore where we finally pick up our new module for our Goal Zero portable battery! We’re hoping this will finally solve our charging issues for good. As soon as we get it, we swap it out and drive about ten minutes toward Banff National Park — and our battery charges to 100%! After three weeks of technical trouble and back-and-forth with Goal Zero’s customer service, we’re independent again! Pure joy! 😎
For the sixth time, we’re spending the night at the Lake Louise campground overflow, surrounded by huge RVs, vans, and expedition trucks. We eat a good meal in the rain (again…), then head to bed early. Tomorrow, the alarm is set for an early wake-up, as we’re heading back to Moraine Lake.
Wednesday, June 22
6 a.m., the alarm rings. We stick our heads out of the car: overcast. Well, let’s not get discouraged. The weather is supposed to improve by late morning. It better, because we want our photo: the one of Moraine Lake’s magnificent blue color in the sun. We admired the sunrise at Moraine Lake a few days ago, but the weather quickly turned cloudy, forcing us to head down into the valley to warm up. Today, we’re giving ourselves a second chance.
At 7 a.m., we park in the Moraine Lake parking lot. The weather is still overcast but clear. We have breakfast in the parking lot, then set off on the hike to Sentinel Pass, not forgetting all our rain gear. The weather can be very changeable around here.
🥾 Eiffel Lake and Sentinel Pass Trail – 10 km (6.2 miles), 600 m elevation gain
Immediately, we gain elevation, which allows us to enjoy a beautiful view of Moraine Lake below.
We are completely alone. Here, no more tourists. No one. Our bear bell echoes through the woods. Rémi has the bear spray in his pocket, ready to use. And the GPS hangs from the backpack, constantly tracking our position, with or without network coverage. You can never be too careful.
3 km and 500 m of elevation gain later, we reach the fork. To the left, Eiffel Lake. To the right, Sentinel Pass. We go left. There’s snow, lots of snow. It’s raining, snowing, windy, and sunny. We put on layers, take them off. We wear our rain gear, then take it off. After 3 km, we come face to face with an avalanche chute. The weather has turned stormy. Given the avalanches we’ve been hearing regularly along the way, we wisely decide to turn back. Too bad for Eiffel Lake.
Back at the fork, we head right toward Larch Valley and the Sentinel Pass trail. On this side, there’s even more snow. After 2 km, we reach Larch Valley, which offers a breathtaking landscape: sharp rocky peaks, a stunning contrast of black and white, and daunting avalanche chutes. At the far end of the valley lies the trail to Sentinel Pass. We can make out the top of the trail, zigzagging upwards, but not the bottom. There’s a lot of snow and no visible path leading to it. Oh well, so we settle for admiring the valley from below.
After a quick descent to Moraine Lake under bright sunshine, we arrive at the lake’s edge in the rain! What bad luck! We eat in the car, waiting for the shower to pass. Then, we head up to the viewpoint over the lake. After more than an hour of waiting in the rain and wind, we have to face the facts: we won’t get a sunny view of the lake, just a brief clearing. Too bad, that’s the way it goes in the mountains.
We then head straight down to the small town of Lake Louise, where we sneak into the local campground for a hot shower. After that, we return to spend a seventh night at the overflow area of the Lake Louise campground.
Thursday, June 23
This morning, and for the second time in a week, we return to the famous Lake Louise. Other hiking trails in the area are calling us, and we can’t leave for good without exploring them. On the way to the lake, we spot a grizzly! That’s our fifth grizzly (all seen at Lake Louise) and our fifteenth bear since we arrived in the Rockies three weeks ago. Quite an impressive tally.
🥾 Little Beehive Trail – 8 km (5 miles), 600 m elevation gain
Last week, we hiked Big Beehive. Today, we’re setting off for the Little Beehive hike, whose panorama is said to be just as impressive as Big Beehive’s. The trail is popular, and we begin the ascent surrounded by other hikers. It’s particularly cold, but the weather is clear. However, we plan to return before noon, as rain is expected.
Quickly, we are faced with a beautiful panorama of Lake Louise and, higher up, Mirror Lake. The color contrast between the two lakes is striking: the milky blue of Lake Louise is due to the rock dust suspended in the water. We also have a great view of Big Beehive, much higher up.
We’re moving at a good pace through subalpine vegetation. A curve in the trail. And we come face-to-face with an enormous grizzly. Oh shit. Only 15 meters separate us. It’s walking straight towards us. Adrenaline rush. Survival instinct kicks in. Without turning our backs, we start a nervous retreat. It’s moving faster than we’re retreating. Behind it, or rather her, a cub trots along. Yet, no signs of aggression. She walks towards us, not even glancing our way, busy scanning the trail for food. After an unbearable minute, she veers off the trail and disappears, followed by her baby.
We are breathless, our hearts racing, legs trembling. It takes us several minutes to recover from this encounter. Fortunately, we had our bear bell: she had probably heard and smelled us long before we saw her, and yet she continued walking towards us. We didn’t even feel the need to take out the bear spray, as she was very calm, even indifferent to our presence.
We snap a few photos of her on our way back from the viewpoint. Hard to believe she was standing just 15 meters in front of us a few minutes earlier! We still have chills (from excitement and fear). We can’t stop talking about this encounter, analyzing her behavior, ours, and remembering THE moment when we saw her appear on the trail. Impressive. Unforgettable.
The viewpoint from Little Beehive is stunning. We have a clear, bird’s-eye view of Lake Louise and the Bow Valley. Absolutely breathtaking.
From the surrounding mountains, a very dark cloud descends into the valley, and we can feel it’s time to head back down. A soaking is definitely on the way!
We had predicted the bad weather ahead. But what we hadn’t anticipated? Snow! A real snowstorm hits us and freezes us instantly. Banff National Park looks beautiful in the middle of December! 🤪
After this beautiful hike to Little Beehive, it’s finally time for us to leave Banff National Park. Or at least, this part of the park. After more than two weeks spent in the area, it’s time to explore other wonders further north. And what wonders! The Canadian Rockies continue to amaze us with the most beautiful road in the world: the Icefields Parkway.
