About a month ago I completed a beautiful fall hike to Eiffel Lake in Banff National Park. I’ve been wanting to do this hike for years, however have avoided it because of lack of parking at Morraine Lake, which is where the trailhead starts. The Covid-19 pandemic has presented some hiking opportunities to locals that were previously difficult to get to due to tourists. With very few tourists visiting Canada parking at the lake was possible, as well as some changes to the overflow parking lot buses. You can now book specific time slots for $11 CDN, and they’re very punctual; running every 20 minutes.

The 12.2km hike had 609 metres of elevation gain, and took me about 3 hours to complete. The hike starts off at Morraine Lake, with most of the elevation gain occurring early on with some steep switchbacks for a few kilometres. After the steep switchbacks you’re presented with a fork in the trail, go left towards Eiffel Lake. If you go right you’ll end up on the Larch Valley Trail, which I completed a few years ago.

The trail follows along a ledge, with a nice view of the Valley of the Ten Peaks surrounding you, a view of Morraine Lake, and then the larches start to appear. This is one of the prettiest hikes that I’ve ever completed. I didn’t spend much time at the lake because it was starting to snow, and becoming quite windy.

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