Plain Of The Six Glaciers & Big Beehive Hike

At the begining, only 20km to go!
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Another good nights sleep but didn't go to bed until gone 12am as we sat in th lounge chatting to the lady who was staying in our room about the Rockies. Got out of bed just before 9am and after same routine: oates, shower, change we got into the truck and drove up to Lake Louise. We walked around to the right side of the lake and set off from the trailhead at 10.45am. We followed the path for 2km which took us to the far end of the lake where we could see the massive Victoria glacier up high in front of us. We then entered a large wooded area before emerging on a moderately steep rocky trail all the way up to The Plain Of Six Glaciers Teahouse 3.5km away from the end of the lake and 6,888ft up. We arrived there at 12pm and we went upstairs where Meg enjoyed a put of tea sat on the outside deck with the mountains all around. The teahouse is really nice, a 2 storey log cabin and the food/drinks are a bit pricey but then all their supplys have to come in via helicopter drop or on the back of horses! After, we walked a further 30 mins and 1.6km right up into the glacier area along a narrow rocky path from where we saw 2 wolverines below and got the the viewpoint at 1pm. The area was so beautiful 'out of this world' as Meg rightly said, with large mountains with large areas covered in pristine white glacier and small glacier waterfalls streaming down some sides. We stood for 5mins or so before clambering up a very steep rocky mound to sit way up by a waterfall, it was amazing. We just sat and looked around us taking in the views. We could even see Abbot Pass Hut (Alpine hut - shelter for extreme hikers/climbers) sat on the top of Mt Victoria with a beautiful glacier below it. We spent 55mins sat there and after eating lunch we walked back down to the view point where we again stood for a while before walking back to the teahouse where we arrived at 2.20pm. We then walked back down the path where we decided to go up to the Big Beehive lookout which we initially regreted as the trail was very steep and hard going all the way to the 7,446ft summit which we reached at 3.45pm. Once there we soon forgot our aches and pains as we admired the views of Lake Louise and Lake Agnes on either side of the mountain. After 20mins we began the long decent down and finally got back to the trailhead at 5.35pm, some 6hrs 50mins and 20km after we left! The weather again was really nice, plenty of blue sky and sunshine but it did get a little chilly near Victoria glacier! We rewarded ourselves with a cookie from the village bakery and then went into the info centre to get advice on other hikes to do. Got back to the hostel about 6.50pm absolutely shattered where we ate dinner and wrote the journal, before using the internet. Later Meg read whilst Andy rang home to speak to his parents.