Stunning Sanctuary
By Laura Robin

LAKE LOUISE, Alta. -- Starting soon, there'll be a new place where you can get away from it all in the Rocky Mountains. And if you can make your escape in the next month or so, you can even do it at bargain rates.

Tomorrow, Cathedral Mountain Lodge opens for the season -- with 10 new guest cabins, bringing the total to 29, and a stunning new centerpiece lodge that includes a sitting area and restaurant.

It's actually incorrect to say that Cathedral Mountain is new. There have been buildings on the spectacular site near Lake Louise, Alta., since bunker cabins were built for miners there in the 1930s. But it's never looked like this before.

Nancy Stibbard, the dynamo businesswoman who owns Vancouver's Capilano Suspension Bridge and Moraine Lake Lodge, bought the former Cathedral Mountain Cabins in 2002. Since then, she's been patiently wading through the red tape involved in making any changes to a property that's on Parks Canada land. Cathedral Mountain is in Yoho National Park, which along with adjoining Banff, Jasper and Kootenay national parks, forms part of the Canadian Rocky Mountains UNESCO site.

There are only a handful of lodges like this tucked away in the Rocky Mountains, and many have fallen into disrepair since the owners can't afford the huge expense and hours and years of environmental assessments and other hurdles that must be cleared before changes are made.

"It's been a long process," Stibbard acknowledges. "But it's turned out beyond my vision, which is pretty amazing."

She hired Vancouver architect Brad Lamoureux to design the new lodge, which houses the Riverside Dining Room and what they call the Great Room, where guests can read, look at the view or attend daily 5 p.m. interpretive talks, accompanied by wine and cheese. The lodge was built with reclaimed Douglas fir posts and beams, has 24-foot vaulted ceilings, a deck overlooking the Kicking Horse River, a massive indoor/outdoor river rock fireplace and 18-foot-high windows offering views of mountains all around.

"Old ore carts have been made into the bar," says Stibbard, who obviously takes delight in weaving local history into her properties, from interpretive signs telling the history of Capilano Suspension Bridge to authentic antiques in Moraine Lake Lodge.

Replacing the former restaurant, which was built in 1933, was a calculated gamble. The old one was a funky little place reminiscent of a miner's cafe, and was beloved and written up in Where to Eat in Canada five years running.

The new one is more grand -- and able to serve more guests a more ambitious menu. Appetizers include dishes such as warm wild B.C. mushroom tart with pancetta crisps or Salt Spring Island goat cheese and walnut terrine. Main courses cover the country, from Alberta lamb loin to Quebec duck. If you also opt for the warm whiskey bread pudding, with honey creme anglaise and bruelled figs for dessert, you may have difficulty waddling back through the woods to your cabin.

Almost invisible among the towering spruce and fir trees, the cabins sleep two to four and all have private decks. You won't have a phone or TV, but you will have down duvets, deep soaker tubs and logs and kindling delivered daily for your fireplace.

Cathedral Mountain Lodge is nestled in the midst of 500 kilometers of some of Canada's greatest hiking trails, from nearby Takakkaw Falls, the second highest in Canada, to the Iceline and Larch Valley trails and the beautiful ones that take you up to rustic tea houses near Lake Louise. You can also take a guided hike to the Burgess Shale UNESCO World Heritage Site, go whitewater rafting, fly-fishing or horseback riding.

"I think this lodge will attract the more hard-core outdoors person," says Stibbard. "I actually have to say that I like this one even better (than Moraine Lake) -- it's more away-from-it-all, more remote. I think it will attract the more serious hiker, who still enjoys the fine wines and the fine foods and a soak in the tub at the end of the day."

lrobin@thecitizen.canwest.com

Laura Robin is the Ottawa Citizen travel editor.

* Where: About a three-hour drive from Calgary.
* Cost: $380 to $475 per night per cabin.
* Opening specials: About half price until May 31: $190 to $270 per cabin. Grand Opening Package, available until June 30, starts at $470 per night per couple and includes champagne upon arrival, picnic basket breakfast, hiking book and three-course dinner for two.
* Contact: 1-250-343-6442 or cathedralmountain.com.

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