For our next day, we booked a day trip to Lake Louise. We grabbed breakfast at the Chili’s restaurant inside our hotel, then packed our bags for the trip. Our tour bus picked us up outside the hotel shortly after. We were lucky it was a small group for our tour. It was exactly 10 people including our bus driver. Once he finished rounding everyone up, we were on our way towards Lake Louise.

The first stop on our trip was actually along Bow Valley Parkway. It had snowed the night before, so there were hardly any visible markings along the road. It just looked very pristine as we made our way along the mountain pass. We stopped briefly along the way to take some photos. We were also served hot chocolate and maple cookies as our mid-morning snack.

Finally we made it into Lake Louise nearing lunch time. We each grabbed a pair of snowshoes from the bus, then our driver led us through the Fairmont Lake Louise to give us a quick rundown of the hotel. Afterwards, it was free time to go exploring, so everyone dispersed into small groups. My sister and I decided it would be best to grab lunch first, so we went inside the Lakeview Lounge for food. It was really posh inside the lounge and the cocktails seem to cost double the price of regular cocktails. I ended up just ordering an Atlantic lobster and baby shrimp croissant, while my sister ordered the Lakeview Burger. The cost was fairly reasonable for the food, so I was very happy with our meal.

Afterwards we decided to finally trek outside to see the lake. I had only ever seen Lake Louise through pictures taken in the summer, so I was half expecting to see some semblance of a lake outside. Needless to say, there was no lake. It was entirely frozen over with a thick layer of snow on top. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a magnificent sight, I just wasn’t prepared to see that much snow. Hehe

We strapped on our snowshoes then took a path that led us right on top of the lake. It was a very interesting experience snowshoeing right on top. As the Fairmont became smaller in the distance, the mountains in front of us became bigger. You could even seen the glacier on top of the mountains. Snowshoeing was hard work, mainly because our straps would come loose partway through. It was also a pretty strenuous workout. By the end of it we were totally sweating through our ski jackets. After we got back to the hotel, we ended up ordering drinks and resting our legs until it was time to head back to Banff.

I was pretty much dozing off during the bus ride back, but luckily I was still alert when our driver pointed out several animal crossings that have been built over the highway in recent years. We didn’t see any wildlife during our trip, but it was still cool to see the highway overpasses.

After we arrived back in Banff, we dropped off our bags, then headed out again to grab dinner at the Grizzly House. I was most looking forward to dinner there ever since I checked out their menu online. Grizzly House is a fondue restaurant, so the both of us decided to order their complete fondue dinner.

For the appetizer I ordered their garden salad, while my sister got their French onion soup. Then we split the cheese fondue, which consisted of Swiss cheese, wine, Kirsch and bread cubes. I’m actually not big on cheese, so we both ate what we could to save space for the main course.

For the main course, we ordered the hunter set and the beef & scallops set. Our waiter had recommended using the hot rocks, so we decided to try it out. It was actually really yummy grilling all the meat on the hot rocks. We each had a plate of sauces to try out and it was interesting pairing different sauces with the meat. As part of the hunter set, we had venison, wild boar and buffalo. The wild boar tasted like pork, while the buffalo tasted like beef with a harder texture. My favourite was probably the venison, since it was the most tender.

After dinner we completed our fondue set with their Toberone chocolate fondue. The whole dinner was absolutely delicious. I would highly recommend it for those who are adventurous to try different meats. We even prepared large plastic bags to fit our coats (since the restaurant really stinks up as you’re cooking the meat). The only thing I didn’t prepare for were my dry eyes when the smoke blew into my face. Lol.

Anyway, it was a great day out. We ended up heading to the hot tubs after dinner to relax before we called it a night. Last day in Banff tomorrow!