After our parking lot ~dRaMa~ yesterday, we were up bright and early to make sure we could snag a spot at our hike of the day. We had another beautiful drive up Icefields Parkway, this time driving ~30 minutes from our hotel. We arrived at the base of our Cirque Peak hike around 7:30 am, just in time to be the second car in the lot. Brian was clearly shocked we didn’t take the W, but luckily it only took him a few hundred yards to realize that while we were second to the parking lot, we were the first hikers on the trail.

The first part of the hike up to Helen Lake was pretty moderate, with uphill stretches sprinkled with some level ground. Now the real part of the hike kicked off after Helen Lake and it was tough. Not only was it a very steep incline (we gained almost 2,000 feet in elevation in less than 1.5 miles), it also got much windier as we went along the ridge (for sure bring layers) with not a lot of trail on either side. It was definitely a on-all-fours-scramble type of situation.

We finally summited just after 10 am. The views were incredible, with an especially great look at Bow Glacier Falls feeding into Bow Lake. At this point, Anna was starting to question whether she was, in fact, afraid of heights. We had some rain start to roll in as we were taking in all the views, so quickly started the trek down. Definitely check the weather before deciding on Cirque, we would not want to be stuck towards the top on a wet or stormy day.

The way down was just as tough. We debated who and what was going to be more sore the next day – our calves from the way up or our quads from the way down (quads, definitely). We were back down by ~12:45 pm and posted up at a parking lot of Bow Lake for another view of the water for lunch.

The rest of the day was lazy daisy, complete with hotel hot tubbing and lounging. Our stomachs finally got us moving for dinner, and we chose Lake Louise Railway Station & Restaurant for date night. This place was to be one of the more popular spots in town, being fully booked when we wandered in. Luckily, Brian was able to sweet talk them into finding us a table and we ate until they had to roll us out (pictures not included).