Our campground at Lake Louise was a bit more sardine-like than the other parks. 2 of us to each pitch – so we are sat staring in the window of the trailer next to us. Oh and the train line is at the end of the road and apparently the trains keep going all night… Let’s hope the Lake is worth the sacrifice.

So 2 days later we had experienced all of Lake Louise. Tiny town but somehow packed with tourists. Our campsite although on the edge of the train track also runs parallel with Bow River. An incredibly fast flowing river of an almost turquoise colour. Apparently there are bears everywhere – yeah right, we have wandered up and down them and not seen one. I swear they put those warning signs up to excite the tourists!!

We hiked the 4 km up to the lake itself at Lake Louise. All uphill along some of the beautiful rivers and streams that run out of it. Another one of those ‘classic scenes’ we had imagined!

The destination however was very disappointing. We first realized something was wrong when we saw the signs for car parks numbered 1 to 4. Oh god. The number of tourists was astounding.

We literally arrived at the lake. Took a coupe of snaps. Sat on the grass outside of the ridiculous Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise and had our pack lunch then got the hell out of there!!

Funnily enough the walk back down to the town and the campground was significantly quicker. Don’t know why we keep forgetting that William has to be fed every couple of hours to ensure his continued good humour!!

We met some lovely campground neighbours in John and Diane from New York travelling in their incredible Airstream Trailer. Oh we love it and are trying to persuade them to let us drive it back to LA for them!! We spent 2 really lovely evening s with them. Sharing food (elk steaks from them and chapatis and curry from us). They have shown us a whole lot of places we must see in the US. How we will ever choose a route I don’t know.

So we are now trying to decide between heading to Banff for 1 night (we have already cut down our booking from 3 nights) and submersing ourselves in the the tourist craziness there. Or whether we should leave the Rockies and head towards some sunshine in lower climes…