A few years ago, a couple of employees at Yellowstone National Park played a classic joke on the tourists. They placed a large hand crank apparatus on top of a wooden box. Next they set the whole contraption in the vicinity of the world famous Old Faithful geyser, which always naturally erupts once per hour. Just as Old Faithful was ready to erupt, they began vigorously turning the crank. Voila! The geyser’s steaming hot waters spewed forth into the sky.
To their credit, the employees had finally answered that legendary Old Faithful tourist question: “How do you turn it on?” Alas, their employers were not amused. Some rather gullible tourists who witnessed the spectacle left convinced that the venerable geyser was a sham. The two guys got canned.
Upon viewing Canada’s stunning Lake Louise, I began searching for the crank and wooden box…
Airstream RV Blog #27 – Geez (Lake) Louise from Sean Michael on Vimeo.
Lake Louise is a spectacular slice of natural perfection. It may not be the world’s prettiest lake, but it’s got to be on the all-time short list. It’s the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. It’s so awesomely natural, it must be artificial.
Clues abound. There’s the centrally located rocky mountain backdrop, peppered with just the right amount of glacial ice and snow. Then there’s the brilliant water that’s an unnatural shade of turquoise (a dead Disney giveaway, if you ask me). There’s the pristine surrounding forest, with statuesque trees gracefully nestled on each side of the lake. On the day of our visit, they even had some sort of high-tech cloud machine running, dotting the sky with angelic puffs of cotton candy.
The Canadian government claims that Lake Louise’s water is frigid glacial runoff, so swimming is forbidden. But one suspects that this so-called “lake’s” floor is covered with some sort of man made plaster. Or perhaps Lake Louise has one of those vinyl “above ground pool” liners? Unfortunately, someone’s got to jump in for us all to find out. Any volunteers?
Lake Louise is a popular destination, with summertime crowds equivalent to your average theme park. It was no small feat to visit with an RV in tow. If only they’d let Disney handle the parking, too! We ended up docking our rig quite a distance from the actual lake, and hiking to the prize. But in the end, it was all worth it.
It’s hard for photos and even high-definition video to do justice to Lake Louise. But watch our video anyway. Yep, it’s gotta be fake.
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