Banff Ice Fields North of Lake Louise, the Icefields Parkway climbs through Banff National Park toward the Continental Divide, passing glacier-fed lakes, steep rock walls, and broad mountain valleys. Bow Summit, Peyto Lake, Bow Lake, and Crowfoot Glacier reveal how ice and meltwater have shaped this part of the Canadian Rockies. Farther north, the road […]
Banff-Canmore Introduction Banff and Canmore sit among some of the most striking mountain scenery in the Canadian Rockies. Here, steep peaks rise above turquoise lakes, evergreen forests, and the broad Bow Valley, while the towns offer welcoming gateways to the surrounding wilderness. Our time in Banff brought together mountain views and local history. We walked […]
Banff Lake Minnewanka Introduction Lake Minnewanka stretches deep into the mountains northeast of Banff, its long blue-green waters framed by the steep slopes of the Palliser and Fairholme ranges. Fed by mountain streams and the Cascade River, the lake occupies a broad valley that feels markedly wilder than its proximity to Banff might suggest. From […]
Banff Trans Canada Highway Introduction The Trans-Canada Highway cuts through Banff National Park along one of the great mountain corridors of the Canadian Rockies, following the Bow Valley between immense ranges of limestone peaks. What began in the 1950s as a scenic two-lane road has become one of Canada’s principal transportation routes, carrying travelers through […]
Banff Moraine Lake Moraine Lake lies high in the mountains above Lake Louise, where a glacially carved valley narrows beneath the immense walls of the Valley of the Ten Peaks. The lake’s extraordinary blue-green color comes from fine rock flour carried in meltwater from the surrounding glaciers, while the steep peaks rising almost directly from […]
Jasper Icefield Mistaya Canyon Mistaya Canyon lies along the Icefields Parkway in the northern reaches of Banff National Park, where the Mistaya River has carved a narrow, twisting gorge through the limestone bedrock of the Canadian Rockies. Reached by a short trail descending from the parkway, the canyon provides a dramatic contrast to the broad […]
Jasper Whirlpool Valley Introdcution The Whirlpool Valley extends southwest through Jasper National Park, following the glacier-fed Whirlpool River through a broad mountain landscape of forests, gravel flats, wetlands, and steep ranges. The valley is reached from the Icefields Parkway and Highway 93A, where the quieter Moab Lake Road provides access to trails and viewpoints along […]
Banff Town Introduction Banff occupies an unusual place in the Canadian Rockies: a mountain town that grew not at the edge of a national park, but within the landscape that gave birth to Canada’s national park system. Indigenous peoples had traveled, hunted, gathered, and visited the thermal springs of the Bow Valley for thousands of […]
Jasper Icefield Sunwapta Falls Sunwapta Falls is a powerful waterfall on the Sunwapta River in Jasper National Park, reached from the Icefields Parkway south of the Jasper townsite. Fed by meltwater originating at the Athabasca Glacier, the river carries glacial water northward through the Canadian Rockies before plunging over the falls and into a narrow […]
Jasper Icefield Athabasca Falls The Icefields Parkway winds south from Jasper through one of the most dramatic landscapes of the Canadian Rockies, following the broad Athabasca River valley beneath steep mountain walls, hanging glaciers, waterfalls, and forests shaped by ice. Much of this terrain owes its present form to immense glaciers that repeatedly advanced and […]