Alberta’s Moraine Lake - Plus Dinner

Here we go again…another little drive before dinner in Lake Louise Alberta Canada! 

Actually, this photo is from a day or two earlier.  This is Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park.  It was a nice photo and I’d missed it earlier… It was taken from the bridge that leads over the Emerald River to the Emerald Lake Lodge. 

To learn about this very attractive lodge and the activities offered year around, you can go to http://www.crmr.com/emerald/.

This corral of horses ready for a trail ride was photographed near Chateau Lake Louise.  Laurie loves horses so I couldn’t leave this photo out.  The Brewster family has been operating in Banff National Park for six generations…since 1892!  They offer backcountry horseback treks as well as sleigh rides in the winter.  For more information, go to http://www.brewsteradventures.com/dev08/index_trail_sleigh.html.

This is Moraine Lake, also in Banff National Park.  This is yet another glacially-fed lake.  It’s about 9 miles south of the Village of Lake Louise.  Moraine Lake is in the ‘Valley of the Ten Peaks’, and it sits at an elevation of 6,183 feet. 

The short Rockpile Trail is the trail most commonly followed by tourists. It follows along the actual moraine, it’s a not much more than 300 yards long with an elevation change of 79 feet.  The view of the lake from the top of the rockpile is one of the most photographed locations in all of Canada.  That view of the mountains behind the lake in Valley of the Ten Peaks is known as the “Twenty Dollar View”, as Moraine Lake was featured on the reverse side of the 1969 and 1979 issues of the Canadian twenty dollar bill. 

Views of Moraine Lake have also impacted our current technological world… They have been used on Google Android, the Blackberry Pearl, Windows 7 and by Bing on their homepage.

This is the Moraine Lake Lodge on the shores of the lake.  I have to tell you that the drive from Lake Louise to the lake and lodge is very popular!  Parking is limited and the road is narrow.  Where the road to Moraine Lake departs Lake Louise, we were turned away 2 or 3 times before we were allowed to make the drive…and by then the weather had changed and it was drizzling a bit.  The parking lot was still jammed with tourist’s vehicles.

From what I saw on the Moraine Lake Lodge website, this is definitely an upscale place to stay and to dine… To learn more and to check out some great photos from the area and the lodge, go to http://morainelake.com/.

Well, it was getting late and it was time for dinner.  We decided to check out the Post Hotel and Spa in lower village at Lake Louise.  As with the Chateau Lake Louise, the Post Hotel has been awarded 4-Diamonds by the American Automobile Club.  Its 96 rooms are priced range from $275.00 to $715.00 per night… To learn more about the Post Hotel and Spa, just go to http://www.posthotel.com/posthotel/index.html.

We checked out the hotel a little bit…and it has a very luxurious warm and woodsy feel to it.  I quickly determined that the continental dining offered in the 4-Diamond Post Hotel Dining Room was a little out of our price range…

Then as we drove around the property, I found the restaurant I was looking for!  This is the Outpost Pub at the Post Hotel.  I’d ‘discovered’ it through my research on Trip Advisor.  At the time I did my research, it was considered one of the more reasonably priced places in Lake Louise, at least among those that had a solid rating.  It achieved my standard of no worse than 10 positive reviews for each negative review. 

After Laurie’s glass of Cabernet ($7.00) and my bottle of Canadian beer ($6.50), we ordered our dinner.  Laurie went with the pasta of the day…roasted veggies with prime beef over spaghetti noodles in a light broth or sauce. ($19.50) She thought that it was pretty good…

I decided that I’d just go with a Club Sandwich and French Fries. ($16.00) It was a very good but pricy club sandwich and the fries were better than average. 

Usually we’d share a photo or two showing the décor of the Outpost Pub, but all of our inside photos were blurred for some reason…and I couldn’t find a photo on line anywhere.  I did note that many diners where stuck on couches with low ‘coffee tables’…not too comfortable for eating dinner.  Overall, the food was good if not outstanding and service was just mediocre.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave