Lake Louise was well known and visited by Indigenous Peoples prior to the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway survey crews in the 1880s. Thomas Edmonds Wilson was the first non-Indigenous person to visit the lake, having being led there by a Stoney Nakoda guide named Edwin Hunter in 1882.[3] Wilson named the lake "Emerald Lake" and promoted it as a development opportunity, although the lake was later renamed to Lake Louise.
The turquoise colour of the water comes from rock flour carried into the lake by melt-water from the glaciers that overlook the lake. The lake has a surface of 0.8 km2 (0.31 sq mi) and is drained through the 3 km long Louise Creek into the Bow River.
Several hiking trails exist around the lake. Hiking trails include trips to Saddleback Pass, Fairview Mountain (2,744 m (9,003 ft)), Mirror Lake, Lake Agnes, Big Beehive, Little Beehive, Devils Thumb, Mount Whyte, and Mount Niblock. Some of these trails are open to mountain biking and horseback riding, and the surrounding mountain faces offer opportunities for rock climbing. Kayaking and canoeing are popular activities during summer, and a boat launch and rental facility are maintained on the north-eastern shore.[5]
^"Chateau Lake Louise". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 5 August 2020. Lake Louise was originally known to the local Stoney-Nakoda people as Ho-run-num-nay, or the "Lake of Little Fishes."
^Wilson, Thomas E. (1972). Trail Blazer of the Canadian Rockies. Calgary, Alberta: Glenbow-Alberta Institute. pp. 29–30.
