Lake Louise, and the teahouse walks above it

When the Canadian Pacific Railway pushed its line through the Rocky Mountains in the 1880s, its managers saw that the mountains themselves could pay their way. They built grand hotels in the most spectacular places and brought in Swiss mountain guides to lead guests into the peaks. Canada's first national park, at Banff, was created around the hot springs nearby in 1885. A few years later, the railway built a small chalet on the shore of a glacial lake a short distance from the line. The lake had been named after Princess Louise, a daughter of Queen Victoria and wife of the Governor General of Canada. The chalet has grown into a great hotel, and Lake Louise into one of the most famous views in the country.

The lake

The lake lies in a hanging valley at about seventeen hundred metres. At its head, the Victoria Glacier hangs from the peaks above, and the steep, forested slopes of the valley sides frame the view. The water is a startling milky turquoise, a colour caused by fine particles of rock, ground by the glaciers and carried down in the meltwater. They hang in the water and reflect the light. The colour is at its most vivid in July and August, when the meltwater is at its height.

It is also very busy. In summer, the lakeshore by the hotel can be crowded from early morning, and the car parks fill quickly. Moraine Lake, a few kilometres away beneath the Valley of the Ten Peaks, is equally lovely and equally popular. In recent years the road to it has been closed to private cars, and visitors arrive by shuttle bus or tour. The answer, for anyone who can walk a few kilometres, is to climb.

The teahouses

Two old teahouses stand on the trails above the lake, both originally built by the railway in the early twentieth century to serve hikers. The Lake Agnes Tea House is reached by a steady climb of about three and a half kilometres through the forest, past the small Mirror Lake. It sits beside a tiny lake in a cirque of cliffs above Lake Louise, where tea, soup and baked goods are served on a veranda with a view down the valley. There is no road, and everything is carried in. From the teahouse, steeper paths climb to the Big Beehive, a rocky viewpoint high above the lake.

The Plain of Six Glaciers Tea House lies further along the lakeshore and up the valley at its head, a walk of about five and a half kilometres. The trail leads towards the glaciers, with views of the ice and the rubble of moraines, and the sound of avalanches crashing down the faces in early summer. The teahouses are open in the summer season only, and popular, so it is worth starting early.

The wider walking

The Lake Louise area has many other walks. Around Moraine Lake, a short climb to the Rockpile gives the classic view of the lake and the ten peaks, and a trail leads to the quieter Consolation Lakes. North of Lake Louise, the Icefields Parkway runs towards Jasper through one of the finest mountain landscapes in the world. It passes Bow Lake and the Columbia Icefield, where the Athabasca Glacier, which has retreated a long way in the last century, can be visited.

This is bear country, both black and grizzly. Parks Canada sometimes restricts trails to groups of hikers, and carrying bear spray and making noise on the trail are standard practice.

Explore Worldwide's Walking in the Canadian Rockies, eight nights from June to September, includes Lake Louise, Lake Agnes, Mirror Lake, Moraine Lake and the Rockpile, the Consolation Lakes, Boom Lake, the Icefields Parkway, Bow Lake and the Athabasca Glacier.

Travelsphere's Spectacular Rockies and Vancouver, eleven nights, includes Calgary, Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper, Kamloops, Victoria and Vancouver. Just You's Canada and the Rocky Mountaineer, eleven nights for solo travellers, covers Calgary, Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper, Kamloops and Vancouver, with the Rocky Mountaineer train.

The walking season is short, from about late June to September, when the snow has cleared from the trails. Early September is a lovely time, quieter than high summer, and later in the month the larches turn gold.