Banff: Canada’s First National Park, Still Its Most Spectacular

Canada designated Banff as its first national park in 1885 after railway workers discovered hot springs at the base of Sulphur Mountain. The decision was partly commercial and partly visionary: the Canadian Pacific Railway needed tourist traffic to justify the line through the Rockies, and the mountain scenery turned out to be exactly as extraordinary as advertised. You’re benefiting from that 19th-century calculation every time you photograph Lake Louise.

Moraine Lake Road is currently closed to private vehicles year-round. If you want to see Moraine Lake and the Valley of Ten Peaks, the correct approach is to book a shuttle through Parks Canada, which opens reservations on April 15 for the upcoming season. The shuttle season runs June through mid-October. Book early; allocations go fast and visiting this lake without a shuttle reservation is effectively not possible in peak season.

Lake Louise

The colour of Lake Louise comes from glacial rock flour, mineral particles ground from rock by the Lake Louise Glacier, which remains suspended in the meltwater and reflects light at specific wavelengths. This produces a turquoise that looks digitally enhanced when you see it for the first time. It is not digitally enhanced.

The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise sits directly on the lakeshore and is accessible to non-guests for walking the lakeside promenade. A paved path runs 2km to the end of the lake with views of the Victoria Glacier at the far end. The Plain of Six Glaciers trail continues from the lake end another 5.4km to a teahouse that has been operating at 2,148 metres since 1927. The teahouse serves soup, sandwiches, and tea by hikers who carry the supplies up.

The Lake Louise ski resort operates on the slopes above the lake in winter, with terrain across four mountain faces and some of the most consistently good powder in Alberta.

Moraine Lake

The blue-green water and the wall of ten peaks behind it made this lake one of the most reproduced images in Canada: it appeared on the 1969 twenty-dollar bill and has been on various pieces of Canadian currency since. The actual lake is better than the bill. The Rockpile Trail (1km, very easy) gives you the standard elevated view from above the lake in about 15 minutes.

Icefields Parkway

The 230km drive from Lake Louise north to Jasper is widely considered one of the most scenic highway drives in the world. It passes Bow Lake, Peyto Lake (viewed from Bow Summit at 2,088 metres, the highest point on the highway), the Columbia Icefield, and multiple unnamed glaciers visible from the road. Allow a full day minimum with stops. The Athabasca Glacier off the highway near the Columbia Icefield can be walked up to on foot, though glacial retreat means the current ice face is substantially further from the road than it was 20 years ago.

Where to Eat

Eden at the Rimrock Resort Hotel is fine dining in a dramatic Rocky Mountain setting; the tasting menu runs around CAD $150 per person. For something more accessible, Juniper Bistro in the Juniper Hotel has good food at lunch prices and views that the downtown restaurants can’t match. In Banff town, the Bison Restaurant has been doing reliable Canadian fare (bison, elk, Rocky Mountain trout) for years.

Where to Stay

Fairmont Banff Springs is the grande dame of Rocky Mountain hotels, a chateau-style property from 1888 with a golf course and spa. Rooms start around CAD $500 in peak season.

For mid-range options, Banff town itself has numerous hotels and the Banff Park Lodge is well located and consistently well-reviewed.

HI Banff Alpine Centre is the best hostel option: clean, well-managed, great mountain views, and dormitory beds from around CAD $45.

Practical Notes

Park entrance fee is CAD $25 per adult per day or CAD $145 for an annual Discovery Pass. Banff town is about 1.5 hours by car from Calgary Airport, which is the main gateway.

June through August is peak season with maximum crowds and highest accommodation prices. September is excellent: fewer people, golden larches on the higher trails (mid-September is peak larch season in Banff and is genuinely spectacular), and lower prices. Winter brings skiing and the Banff Upper Hot Springs, a natural outdoor thermal pool at around 40C that is far more enjoyable in February cold than it would be in July heat.