After a day spent driving around Yoho and Kootenay National Parks, we were back to hiking. Today was another day predicted to be sunny – that wasn’t. We started early, once again from Lake Louise, on the same trail that we took to the Plain of Six Glaciers. But the trails diverge early and we started up towards the Big Beehive. Our first big stop was at Mirror Lake. You can see it in the first photo with the Big Beehive in the background. I’m not sure why, but Mirror Lake was indeed very green in color.

The next stop on the way to the Big Beehive was Lake Agnes. You can see Lake Agnes in the second photo. The day before, we stopped at the Lake Louise Visitor Center. They told us that the trail to the Big Beehive was dangerous and we shouldn’t try to hike it. Andrew asked why the trail to 6G was rated good and they said it was due to the privately owned 6G Tea House wanting business. So we decided to see what the Big Beehive trail looked like for ourselves. The trail to the Big Beehive went around Lake Agnes and up the mountain on the other side. When we got to Lake Agnes, it started to rain. I spotted a person who was working at the Lake Agnes Tea House and he said the trail was really bad. He said that they had a big avalanche yesterday and he pointed it out to me. We decided to hike around the lake to see the avalanche closer up.

If you look at the third photo, the Big Beehive is to the upper left of the top of the photo. If you look just above Andrew, you might barely be able to make out the trail to the Big Beehive. And if you look just to the left of Andrew, you can see yesterday’s avalanche that wiped out the trail to the Big Beehive. The tea house worker told me that the trail to the Little Beehive was just as difficult, also had great views, but did not have any avalanche danger. We made the adult decision to hike to the Little Beehive instead of the Big Beehive. Vicky said that if not for her and April, she had no doubt that Andrew and I would have been heading for the Big Beehive.

You can see Andrew heading back towards the end of Lake Agnes, on our way to the Little Beehive, in the last photo. It was that kind of trail.