Tea For Two

We spent the night at the Johnson Canyon campsite. We did little here besides sleep since we arrived late at night and planned to leave early in the morning. Our first stop on the list was to go to the actual Johnson Canyon. From our handouts we received when entering the park, we found out that this canyon is where most of the early photos were taken to advertise for the park. The canyon contained a mile and a half long stretch of 6 waterfalls all together. Since we left so early in

the morning we were the first ones on the trail, aside from a tour group that only hiked to the first falls. It was beautiful out on the trail with no one else around, hiking before the sun had even crept over the mountains. To my dismay we did not see any wildlife on the hike, but the picturesque scenery made up for any lack. By the time we were heading back to the car, the place was swarming with people.

When we got to the parking lot we were 1 of 2 cars and by the time we left it was full! We took the scenic route to Lake Louise, where we got out and planned to do a hike. Again it would appear that we arrived to late, the hotel area was packed and the parking lots were again almost full. We snagged one of the last spots and decided to do the Lake Agnes hike which was 2 miles one way straight up to the top of a mountain where there was a tea house which you could enjoy tea and perhaps a nice

lunch. When we got to the trailhead, we noticed some duct tape over the

sign that said the teahouse was cash only. I only had 5 bucks in my pocket and some change so we decided to leave it up to fate, whether we would have enough money or not. The hike wasn't too bad, though we did have to stop a few times to catch our breath. We got to the teahouse and... Small Tea for 2 - $5.00! We grabbed up the last seat outside and enjoyed some tea on top of

the mountain. It is a shame though that we didn't have more money because the tea was amazing and they had some mighty good

looking biscuits that we had to pass on. The tea was also quite a relief since we did not bring water on the hike, not knowing that it was straight up the side of a mountain. Again the hike down was much more to our liking, and we were on our way to explore the Icefields Parkway!