- Visitor Center
The Lake Louise Visitor Center is located at the parking lot of the shopping mall in the
village of Lake Louise.
Its excellent exhibit explains the geological formation of the Rocky Mountains. It shows, how
the different sediments of the Rocky Mountains were heaped upon each other in the course of our
earth's history, how volcanic islands appeared in the west and eventually the Rocky Mountains
were folded up through the forces of plate tectonics.
In the center you also get current information on the state of hiking trails and climbing areas,
on which regions are closed due to bear warnings and good maps on the National Park.
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- Chateau Lake Louise
Follow the road from the parking lot in the village uphill across the Pipestone River to
Lake Louise.
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Lake Louise became the center of exploration for the surrounding Rocky Mountains in the 1890s.
Adventurers from the United States and Great Britain arrived to climb the still untested mountains.
Pack trains were led into almost unknown valley by sometimes strange characters. They even reached
the Columbia Icefield this way.
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It was only in 1920 that the street from Banff to Lake Louise was finished. Until then tourists
came by train. They had to get out in the valley of the Pipestone River at Laggan station, were
picked up by horsedrawn carriages and taken up to the Chateau Lake Louise. From 1912 to 1930 there
even existed a tramway especially constructed for this. Skiing started on Lake Louise in the 1930s.
The first accommodation built on Lake Louise was a simple blockhouse on the lake in 1890. There famous
travelers like Mary Schaeffer and the family Vaux stayed while the wrote their chapters into the history
of the discovery of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. This blockhouse existed until 1893 when it burnt down.
One year later a bigger Chalet was constructed where about 12 guests could be accommodated. The staff had
to stay in wooden huts or tents close to it. In 1899 Francis M. Rattenbury, then probably the most famous
Canadian architects of the West was brought to the region. He was to design a bigger building. In 1899
the hotel in the Tudor style was finished. It was extended again in 1912 by adding 350 new rooms. In 1916
almost 1000 hotel guests could be provided with electricity coming from a power plant that had been
constructed below the lake.
In 1924 the part of the hotel designed by Rattenbury burnt to the ground. The newer concrete part of the
hotel could be saved. Only one year later the destroyed part of the building was reconstructed and stayed
unaltered until the last restorations in the 1980s.
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- Lake Louise
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From Chateau Lake Louise visitors have a great view of Mt. Victoria which rises
to 3464 m on the other side of the lake. Victoria Glacier dominates the scene. To the left the view encompasses
Fairview Mountain whose summit is at an elevation fo 2744 m, while the smaller Beehive limits the
view on the right side of the lake.
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The hotel was constructed on a natural damm that creates the lake. This is really a mountain of rock
and debris deposited at the end of Victoria Glacier when this reached this location for a longer period
of time during an earlier ice age. Glacial ice flows downhill continuously and grinds rocks, gravel
and debris underneath its weight. This material is distributed by the ice masses of the glacier over the
landscape. Whenever the glacier ends at a certain location for a longer period of time this material
grows to an impressive hill of gravel, the terminal moraine. This remains when the glacier retreats and
leaves a mountain of rock and gravel. Sometimes the resulting basins scraped out by the retreating glacier
are filled by melt water and form a lake. That is exactly what happened at Lake Louise probably 8000 to
10000 years ago, when Victoria Glacier reached this far that last time.
Another impressive sight is the dark bluegreen color of the lake. This also is caused by glacial influence.
Ice masses scrape the rocks underneath to a very fine powder. This material is distributed in the waters
of the lake, where only the green rays of light are reflected and thus create this beautiful color.
Attractions top
TravelWorldOnline: Alberta Guide
TravelWorldOnline: City Guide Banff
TravelWorldOnline: City Guide Calgary
Or check the following homepage for further information:
Visitor Information
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