Lake Louise

Lake Louise is a glacial lake in Banff National Park, long known to Indigenous peoples as Ho-run-num-nay, or Lake of the Little Fishes, before railway survey crews arrived in the 1880s. Its first recorded non-Indigenous visit came in 1882, when Thomas Edmonds Wilson reached it with Stoney Nakoda guide Edwin Hunter. Later renamed for Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, the lake is famed for vivid turquoise water created by fine rock flour in glacier meltwater. Draining through Louise Creek into the Bow River, it became a major Rocky Mountain recreation center, with the Chateau Lake Louise and year-round activities helping make it one of Canada’s best-known mountain destinations.

Alberta · Canada