Mount Fairview Summit - 51° 23' 59" N 116° 13' 31" W

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We love having adventurous friends come to town, as it encourages us to hit the trails.  Today we hiked to the summit of Fairview Mountain.  Whoever chose this name wasn't very good with adjectives ... or had never been to the summit.  The views were beyond breath-taking.  We couldn't get enough of looking around and by the end of it, we grew very tired of saying "Wow."

This season's list of interesting trails didn't even include Fairview Mountain.


Starting from the Lake Louise parking lot meant that we had to be there early.  As this year the hiking (and the National Parks, in general) have been much busier, we needed to be at the trailhead by 8 am.  Luckily, we live just down the road.


Gaetanne, Brynn and Seán Murphy joined Kate and Sean for the hike

Up to the treeline and out towards the summit

Getting close to the steep parts.
Lake Louise ski hill is in the far background.

... and UP to the summit.

Do we really want to go all the way up there?

The sign pointing up to the summit is 200 metres vertically behind us.  Whew!

On the summit!  Whoo hoo!

Amazing panorama

2,671 metres up.  The parking lot is at 1,692 metres.

Lake Louise has the same distinctive colour, but looks very different from up here.

Cheeky chipmunk was looking for handouts.  She looks quite well-fed already.

Kate peers over the edge.  It's a long way down to the lake.

Looking southeast down the Bow Valley.

Starting back down after lunch.

More down, with spectacular views all around.

A picture from the viewpoint near the bottom of the trail.


We couldn't have picked a better day.  

Time is running out on our summer - we've noticed the evenings turn to night much sooner and there is a pronounced chill in the morning air.  We feel like we have made the most of this season.

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