Lake Louise hikes, from the shoreline path to the teahouse climbs

The lakeshore path stays flat from end to end

Start with the shoreline path. For plenty of visitors it is the only walk they need: it follows the northern shore of a lake about 2.4 km long, gains nothing worth measuring, and can be turned around at any point. The firm section nearest the hotel takes slow walkers, grandparents and a stroller. Further along the surface becomes coarser gravel and roots.

Direction is simple once you are down at the water. Keep the lake on your left and you are walking away from the hotel towards the far end, where the valley closes in under Mount Victoria and its hanging Victoria Glacier. Most people reach the end of the flat ground, look up at the ice and come back the same way.

Easy hiking at Lake Louise means this path, out and back, as far as you feel like going. Everything above the water climbs steadily from the moment it leaves the shore, and the trailhead already sits at 1,731 m, so the first ten minutes of any ascent feel heavier than the numbers suggest.

Lake Agnes and the Plain of Six Glaciers

Lake Agnes is the shorter of the two and the one to take if you have half a day and ordinary fitness. The official measurement has you climbing 495 m over 3.9 km of trail, graded moderate, with 2.5 to 3 hours of walking to get up and back. The trail leaves the shoreline near the hotel and switchbacks up through forest to a teahouse at 2,135 m, standing beside a lake 70 m deep under Mount Victoria. The building you sit in dates from 1981; the first one opened in 1904.

The Plain of Six Glaciers is longer and more evenly graded, and it is the better choice if you came for glaciers rather than for a lake basin. Budget 5.9 km each way on the Parks Canada measurement, 595 m of climbing with 250 m of it given back along the route, moderate, roughly 4 hours on your feet. It begins as a continuation of the flat shoreline path, so you get easy walking before the trail works up onto the moraine with Mounts Victoria and Lefroy and the Victoria Glacier ahead. The Canadian Pacific Railway built the teahouse at the top in the mid-1920s.

Signposted and published distances for these two trails do not always agree, because different sources measure from different points at the shoreline. Plan from the Parks Canada figures in the table, then check the trail report on the day. Neither teahouse takes cards or digital payments, so carry cash if you want a hot drink at the top, and carry water whatever you decide.

The Beehives and the ridge links between the trails

The Big Beehive is the viewpoint that makes extending the Lake Agnes climb worth it. As a side trip from the Lake Agnes basin it is 1.5 km with 150 m of gain and 115 m of loss by Parks Canada's figures, and the connector from the teahouse itself is listed at 1.6 km. Done that way, on legs that are already warm, it buys more view per metre of climbing than anything else up here.

From the bottom, as a hike in its own right, the Big Beehive is rated difficult: 5.4 km one way, 731 m of gain, 4.5 to 5 hours return. Treat it as a full day and start early rather than after a long breakfast.

The ridge links are what let strong walkers join the two teahouses into a circuit of about 14.5 km from the Chateau. Go up the Lake Agnes side first, cross to the Big Beehive while you are high, then drop towards the Plain of Six Glaciers trail and finish along the flat shore. That order puts the steepest climbing early and leaves level ground for tired legs, and it needs the upper trails to be snow free.

When the Lake Louise hiking trails are open

Parks Canada puts the start of the alpine hiking season in late June, which is the date to plan around if the teahouse climbs or the Beehive are your reason for coming. The lakeshore path is open all year, since the community and the lakeshore never close, but the upper routes hold snow long after the valley looks like summer.

The teahouses run on their own calendar. Parks Canada gives the window as mid-May through to just after Canadian Thanksgiving in mid-October, while the practical snow-free window on the upper trails is listed as June to October. Published daily hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Lake Agnes and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Plain of Six Glaciers; confirm on the day before you build lunch around either one.

• May into early June: stay on the shoreline. The spring avalanche rating Parks Canada applies to the Plain of Six Glaciers area covers both May and June, and the ice on the lake itself normally holds until the first days of June.
• Late June: the alpine season opens and the teahouse climbs become a sensible plan. Days average 17 C with 3 C overnight.
• July and August: the warmest stretch, 21 C by day, with nights of 5 C in July and 4 C in August. Even in July the trails above the treeline can take a fall of snow, so a shell and a warm layer stay in the pack.
• September: around 15 C by day and 0 C overnight, with the larches starting to turn mid to late month.
• Late September into the first week of October: larch colour peaks. October averages 8 C by day and -5 C at night.
• November through mid-May: avalanche risk puts the teahouse climbs out of bounds under the Parks Canada warning, which also makes the point that a signposted winter route is not automatically a safe one. Stay on the lakeshore and the valley floor in these months.

Where the trailheads are, and how to read the map

Orientation is easier than the map suggests, because every trail on this side of the valley begins within a few minutes' walk of the lake outlet in front of the hotel. Follow the shoreline with the water on your left for the Plain of Six Glaciers, and take the signed junction that climbs away from the shore for Lake Agnes and the Beehives. The map on this page shows how the junctions, the two teahouses and the ridge connector sit in relation to each other, which is the part people get wrong when they commit to a loop without working out the distance home.

Trail conditions, seasonal restrictions and closures are posted in the village before you start. The Lake Louise Visitor Centre beside Samson Mall at 201 Village Road opens 9 am to 5 pm most of the year, stretching to 6 pm from June 6 to August 26, and is closed on December 25.

The Moraine Lake trails are a separate network with separate rules. The road in is closed to personal vehicles all year and reachable only by Parks Canada shuttle or a licensed commercial operator, and the lake is accessible only from early June to mid-October. Its backcountry management status is what hikers feel on the ground: pit toilets at the lake and nothing more, with no cell service, no Wi-Fi, no running water and no lighting along the road. Save or print anything you need before you leave the village, because nothing will load once you are up there.

• Lake Agnes Tea House: the climb, the junctions and what to carry are broken down on its own page on this site.
• Plain of Six Glaciers: the glacier viewpoints and the moraine section have a page of their own.
• Big Beehive and the ridge connector: covered with the Lake Agnes routes.
• Lakeshore walk: covered with the things to do at the lake, including the Chateau boathouse season.

Bear safety and travelling in a group

Grizzlies and black bears use these valleys, and Parks Canada estimates about 65 grizzly bears live in Banff National Park. On the trail that comes down to two distances you have to hold: 100 metres for bears, wolves, cougars and coyotes, 30 metres for deer, elk, sheep and moose. Anyone who feeds, entices or disturbs an animal is breaking the law and faces charges and fines reaching CAD 25,000. Carry bear spray where you can reach it, make noise on blind corners and keep food packed away at the teahouses.

Group size is a rule in some places rather than a suggestion. Where Parks Canada applies Group Access for bear safety, hikers must travel as a tight group of four or more; the minimum came down from six in 2007. The Moraine Lake area trails routinely carry seasonal bear restrictions, as do the Lake Minnewanka trails and Bryant Creek. Only the live trail report will tell you whether one is in force on your date, so check it the morning you set out and keep a backup plan on the Lake Louise side.

Grizzlies leave their dens from late March to mid-May, and shrub berries ripen from about mid-July to early August, when bears feed hard at the elevations these trails cross. If you are hiking alone in that period, take the busier routes above Lake Louise and leave the quiet ones.

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