We were picked up bright and early by Sue, our driver for the day. After pausing to admire some elk grazing on the verge, before we even left our hotel, our first stop was at Athabasca Falls on the river of the same name, a First Nations word meaning where the bulrushes grow. Very pretty name, but we didn't see any! The Falls were beautiful in the sunshine, very fast flowing through a deep, narrow canyon. We were delighted to see rainbows forming all around as the sun shone on the spray, very pretty.

As we continued our journey we were surrounded the whole time by the majestic, snow-topped mountains. We learned that the Canadian Rockies are all layered, sedimentary rock which was, at one time, under the ocean. We drove along past The Endless Chain, at 17km it is the longest unbroken ridge line in the Canadian Rockies, named by Mary Schaffer who was an early artist, naturalist and explorer in this area.

We stopped at Sunwapta Falls (turbulent water) for a snack then walked up to see the Falls themselves. We were pleased to see a red squirrel scampering about under the trees. It is lovely to see so many red squirrels here, especially as there are so few of them left now in the UK. A little further up the road we stopped to look at a black bear and soon afterwards, after climbing gradually to a much higher altitude, we arrived at the Athabasca Glacier and checked in for our Ice Explorer tour. This consisted of a ride onto the glacier in a specially designed bus with enormous wheels. Our driver, Masami Okada, was a real comedian and filled us in on a few facts such that the glacier is 300m deep and moves 25m per year. We all piled out onto the glacier to take photos and then returned to base, passing a couple of male bighorn sheep on the way down.

Travelling on we passed Graveyard flats where, in times gone by, the Cree and Blackfoot discarded the unwanted parts of their kill but now only home to dead trees. We spotted a group of mother and baby bighorn sheep by the side of the road, and shortly afterwards we reached Lake Peyto which was named after Bill Peyto, one of the original expedition outfitters in Banff. We have seen so many beautiful and amazing lakes, but this one is so blue it just takes your breath away! I'm not sure that photos truly do it justice, but we have tried. It gets its special colour from the ground rock flour which is especially intense. We could have stayed and admired it for hours, but time to move on.

After passing Bow Lake and the Crowfoot Glacier we arrived in Lake Louise. We passed through the tiny village and on to our hotel which was a huge and impressive looking chateau with all the staff kitted out in breeches like Swiss mountain guides. We were thrilled with our room which had a double aspect view looking out over the lake with Mount Victoria behind. In the afternoon sunshine this truly ranks among the best views we have ever had from a hotel room. Just lucky, I guess!

In the evening we went down to one of the many restaurants and treated ourselves to 'a fondue experience' ie cheese, meat and chocolate fondues all in one meal! It was very good, but I don't think I will need to eat another fondue for quite some time!