Take a Moraine Lake tour and you’ll see instantly why it’s one of the most famous bodies of water in North America. Tucked away in Banff National Park, surrounded by the majesty of the Canadian Rockies, the stunning vistas of Moraine Lake truly have to be seen to be believed.
The lake is glacially fed and gradually fills to its peak during the spring as the nearby glaciers melt. When it’s full, light refracted by rock flour in the water gives Moraine Lake a distinctive azure-blue color. Although visiting the lake can be tricky, requiring an early reservation on a single shuttle line, we highly recommend seeing Moraine Lake on your next Lake Louise tour; it’s well worth the effort.
Images of Moraine Lake are frequently used in advertisements and on postcards, making it one of the most well-known lakes in North America. Pictures of the lake appeared on the back sides of Canadian twenty-dollar bills printed in 1969 and 1979, as well as commemorative silver coins minted by the Royal Canadian Mint in 2019.
Photographs of Moraine Lake were also used as default wallpaper options on Palm Pre and Blackberry Pearl smartphones, as well as the Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 10 operating systems. Of course, a photograph can never quite live up to the real deal, so make sure you reserve your slot on the Moraine Lake shuttle early in the year so you can see it for yourself. If you can’t make it, nearby Lake Louise has a similar, rock-flour-created color, although the views aren’t quite as stunning as the Valley of Ten Peaks that surrounds Moraine Lake.
To make the most of your next trip to Banff National Park, check out our Lake Louise and Moraine Lake Self-Guided Driving Tour, or you can sign up for Action+ and gain access to over 160+ tours for a single yearly price.
