Fairview Lookout and Saddleback Pass

Fairview Lookout is 1.2 kilometres one way with 100 metres of climbing and 65 metres of descent, and takes about 45 minutes there and back.

It ends at a wooden platform looking back across the lake at the Chateau. It is the best short walk here for anyone who wants a view without a mountain day.

Saddleback Pass is 3.6 kilometres one way with 600 metres of climbing, and Parks Canada estimates three to four hours return. It leaves from the same trailhead and climbs steadily through forest into an open pass between Fairview Mountain and Saddle Mountain.

The pass itself is meadow, and it is a completely different experience from the tea house trails, mostly because there is nobody on it.

From the pass a steep track climbs Fairview Mountain itself: 5 kilometres one way from the lakeshore, 990 metres of gain, and five to six hours return.

The upper section is loose scree and it is a proper mountain outing. The summit looks down on Lake Louise from a thousand metres above it.

The trailhead is at the opposite end of the lakeshore from the Lake Agnes sign, and there is no tea house at the top of either, so the crowd goes the other way.

That makes this the answer on a July morning when the Lake Agnes trail is a queue.

Saddleback Pass has larches, and they turn gold for about two weeks in the second half of September, the same window as Larch Valley at Moraine Lake.

It is far easier to reach than Larch Valley, because it needs no shuttle reservation.