The Big Beehive and Little Beehive

There is no separate trail to the Big Beehive. You climb to Lake Agnes first, 3.9 kilometres and 495 metres, then continue around the lake to the far end where the switchbacks start.

That makes the full day about 5.4 kilometres each way from the lakeshore, and four to five hours in total.

The climb from the end of Lake Agnes is a tight set of switchbacks up a steep slope. It is the hardest sustained section of any trail at Lake Louise, and it comes after you have already climbed to the tea house.

It is a walk rather than a scramble, but there is loose rock and the drop beside the path is real. It is not the place to be carrying a small child on your back for the first time.

The top is a broad rock dome with an open wooden shelter on it. Lake Louise sits directly below you, the full length of it, with the Chateau at the far end looking like a model.

This is the view that appears on every postcard taken from above the lake. It is worth the climb and it is worth timing for the morning, when the light is behind you rather than in the lens.

The Little Beehive is the easier option, 0.9 kilometres from Lake Agnes and about 45 minutes there and back. It looks out over the Bow Valley rather than down onto the lake.

If the switchbacks look like more than you want after the climb to the tea house, this is the sensible substitute.

From the Big Beehive the Highline trail drops down and across to the Plain of Six Glaciers valley, turning the day into a loop of about 14.3 kilometres and five hours.

Done that way you finish along the flat lakeshore, which is a kinder ending than descending the Lake Agnes switchbacks on tired legs.