Lake Agnes And The Bee Hives - A Flexible Hike for All Levels

Lake Agnes and The Bee Hives is probably the most popular hike in Lake Louise and offers some fantastic photography. It offers some out of this world views over the iconic turquoise lake that is Lake Louise as well as giving hikers the opportunity to discover somewhere new. Although the hike is very popular the trail will seem relatively quiet in comparison to the chaos down at Lake Louise shorefront on a busy summers day.

The trail can be broken up to end at the lake or include one, or both, of the Beehive detours making this a great hike for a wide range of abilities. Simply hike as far as you feel you need to and choose to end the day or take a rest at a view point or lake of just visit the iconic Lake Agnes Teahouse!

If you get there early enough you’ll also be able to take in sunrise at the lake and see the Lake Louise boat dock reflecting in the lake.

The Stats

Time: 3 - 6 hours depending on how many of the Beehives you choose to hike!

Distance: 7.5 km return for Lake Agnes. 9.3 km return to add on the little Beehive and 12.5 km return if you do both big and little beehives (which I recommend you do!)

Elevation Gain: 500 m - 870 m depending if you end at the lake, or take in the views from higher up!

Access: The trailhead for this hike is on the lakeshore of Lake Louise. So on one hand that makes the hike easy to access but for the same reasons it can also be quite the challenge. You’ll need to park at the Lake Louise parking lot for the day or get a Parks Canada shuttle in to the lake. Parking can be tricky to get so you’ll really need to arrive early to get a spot. The parking fee is also now an eye watering $42 for however long you stay so keep that in mind!

The Hike

The hike starts on the lakeside trail that runs around Lake Louise. If you walk just past the hoards of people taking pictures and the Fairmont hotel you’ll see a sign pointing you up the right part of the trail.

From here you’ll follow a wide, obvious trail up through the spruce forest. Now there is some fairly decent elevation gain in this first section with hikers conquering about 500 m up to the lake so if you haven’t done a lot of hiking you’re definitely going to notice. However let yourself off as you’re at elevation already! Lake Louise sits at about 1660 m above sea level and Lake Agnes at 2130 m so if you’re feeling short of breath it must be the elevation not all those bears paw chocolates you’ve been indulging in on Banff Avenue!

Hiking up the first section of the Lake Agnes trail.

Mirror Lake

After 2.6 km and about 300 m of elevation gain you’ll come to the first of the major stops on route, Mirror Lake. This is a perfect stop to catch your breath or grab a quick bite to eat or get out the camera. The lake is often a beautiful shade of emerald green with the Big Beehive looming over the lake, towering above the tree line. That’s where you’ll be standing later on in the hike and it has some of the best views in Lake Louise.

Left Mirror Lake with Big Beehive above and waterfalls just before Lake Agnes.

Two Alternative Routes To The Little Bee Hive

After Mirror Lake you’ll hike through a couple of switch backs and one bigger u-turn in the trail before hitting a fork in the road. At this point you have two options to hike up to the Little Beehive.

You can either treat it as a bit of a loop by heading to the right up a series of switch backs up on to the Little Beehive and then back down a more direct route to Lake Agnes or carry on directly to Lake Agnes. From here you can then do an out and back trail from Lake Agnes to the Little Beehive. I would recommend this second option.

I’d recommend the second option for a couple of reasons. 1) Hiking straight on means you won’t miss out on the waterfall views which are a great little spot to get out the camera and 2) You can then get a rest in at Lake Agnes and the tea house before deciding whether you have the energy to add on the Little Beehive, the Big Beehive, both or just want to head back down to Lake Louise!

Exact GPS coordinates for the waterfall and over 100 other photography locations in the Rockies can be found in my downloadable photography location guide.

After the waterfall head up the stairs opposite and you’ll arrive at Lake Agnes and the Teahouse.

Lake Agnes Tea House

The Lake Agnes Teahouse has been serving hikers in Lake Louise since 1905 and serves sandwiches, salads and sweets. It’s open 7 days a week from 8am until 4pm and everything is hiked in and hand made without electricity!

The tea house is incredibly popular with line ups often spilling out down the stairs and on to the lake front. If one of your main aims is to eat at the tea house I would highly recommend lacing up those hiking boots nice and early and trying to aim to arrive well before midday!

Also keep in mind that they don’t supply drinking water at the tea house and the toilet isn’t really for public use so come prepared and self sufficient!

Lake Agnes with the unique headwall of Mount St Piran behind.

On To The Litte Beehive

Once you’ve refreshed yourselves and fuelled up at the teahouse it’s time to head on up to the Little Beehive. From the teahouse it’s only about 900m each way up the view points of the Little Beehive and only about 100 m of elevation gain.

It’s an easy hike and surprisingly pretty quiet. The majority of hikers will often skip the Little Beehive in favour for it’s bigger brother that has arguably better views, however I do think that both are worth it and whilst you’re here, why the hell not!

Views from the Little Beehive back towards Mirror Lake, the Big Beehive and Lake Agnes.

More views from the Little Beehive

On to the Big Beehive!

After the Little Beehive head back down to the Teahouse and follow the trail around the back of the lake. Here you’ll get some great views of the tea house as seen in the image above. This section of the trail does pose an avalanche risk during winter so it isn’t recommended to travel past the tea house during the winter months.

Hiking around Lake Agnes and on to the Big Beehive trail

Once around the other side of the lake you’ll be faced with a few steep switch backs gaining about 150 m in elevation gain in around 400 m of distance. Once at the top take a left towards the fire look out. The slog is only short and well worth the pay off. I find the top of the big Beehive to be a brilliant place to take a few pictures. You’ll have a perfect sweeping view of Lake Louise and it’s surrounding peaks. The colours, shapes and textures of the scene below look great picked out with a longer lens.

Inlets weave their way in to Lake Louise off of Victoria glacier

The Way Back Down to Lake Louise

Views of Chateau Lake Louise from the Big Beehive

From the top of the Beehive there are a couple of options in regards to returning back down to Lake Louise. The first being you can retrace your steps back the way you came, back around the lake and back past the teahouse. Alternatively you can turn around and head back to the top of the pass where you finished off those steep switch backs and head over the other side of the Big Beehive.

Here you’ll weave back down the mountain on a series of long switch backs with views of Mount Temple and Victoria glacier peeping out from between the trees. Keep an eye on the glacier as I’ve witnessed large sections carve off and crash down the mountain whilst on this trail!

Eventually you’ll come to a split in the trail, this is the Highline Trail. Take a left to take the trail back to Mirror Lake and rejoin the Lake Agnes trail bak to Lake Louise or alternatively take the right hand fork.

If you head right you can follow the Highline trail all the way to the Plain of the 6 Glaciers teahouse and even on to Six Glaciers Viewpoint if you so wish. Extending the hike is of course a much longer day but it ticks off two of the best hikes in the area in one fair swoop!

Views of Mount Temple as you descend off of the Big Beehive towards the Highline trail.

Things to know

Drinking Water As they have to hike in and out all supplies at the Lake Agnes Teahouse there isn’t a supply of drinking water so you’ll have to make sure to hike with your own! At least a litre or two to see you through the day.

Bring Cash! If you’re wanting to grab a delicious treat at the teahouse be sure to bring case. They’ll accept both Canadian and US dollars but you’ll get a much more favourable exchange using local currency.

Arrive before 11 am to avoid the queues. The teahouse can get really busy so I’d recommend getting there early by taking the more direct route and then doing the Little Beehive/Big Beehive once you’ve refuelled!

Offline maps knowing where you’re going is super important as to not get lost. I recommend All Trails Plus for finding routes and offline mapping allowing you to safely find your way home. You can always grab a free trial!

Places to Stay Nearby

Although you can of course travel up from Banff for the day but it’s much easier to beat the crowds if you stay more locally.

The closest hotel is of course the impressive Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. Lake side rooms offer incredible views over the turquoise waters, Mount Victoria and Victoria glacier.

There are of course more budget friendly options in Lake Louise village.

Mountaineer Lodge is 3.8 km from the Lake offers free parking and a great breakfast.

The next closest option after the Chateau are the Paradise Lodge and Bungalows. Even though it doesn’t have the views I’d say some of the rooms are actually better with cosy cabin vibes and is only a 20 minute walk to the lake.

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