BANFF · CANADIAN ROCKIES
Turquoise lakes, glaciers, and the Icefields Parkway.
Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, the Columbia Icefield, Lake Minnewanka and Johnston Canyon, plus the hikes, wildlife drives and winter days in between, all across Banff National Park.
Only in the Rockies
What the glaciers left behind.
Plenty of places have mountains and lakes. Almost nowhere has these three. The same ice that carved these valleys still colours the water, slides off the Columbia Icefield, and freezes Abraham Lake into stacked bubbles.
Glacier-fed
Moraine Lake & Lake Louise
The colour is real. Rock flour, ground fine by the glaciers above, hangs in the meltwater and throws the light back as that impossible turquoise. Moraine Lake and the Valley of the Ten Peaks sat on the back of the twenty-dollar bill for a reason. Go at first light, before the canoes.
- 1 Lake Louise, Moraine Lake and the Icefields Parkway Full-Day Tour
- 2 Banff: Lake Louise, Moraine, Emerald Lake & Johnston Canyon
- 3 Banff National Park Tour with Lake Louise and Moraine Lake
On the ice
The Columbia Icefield
The largest sheet of ice in the Rockies, feeding glaciers in three directions at once. A giant Ice Explorer rolls you out onto the Athabasca Glacier to stand on ice that was already old when the first towns went up. The Glacier Skywalk hangs you over the valley on the way in.
- 1 Columbia Icefield Tour with Glacier Skywalk
- 2 Columbia Icefield Tour with Glacier Skywalk from Banff
- 3 From Banff: Athabasca Glacier and Columbia Icefield Day Trip
Frozen solid
Abraham Lake Ice Bubbles
Methane rises off the lakebed, freezes into stacked white discs and locks under clear black ice when the surface sets each winter. Photographers fly in from the other side of the world for it. A short season, a frozen lake, and a sight you can count the world’s locations for on one hand.
- 1 Abraham IceBubble, Peyto, Bow Lake with Snowshoeing& Icewalk
- 2 Abraham Ice Bubble/Sunwapta Falls,Snowshoeing,Icefield, Bow&Peyto
- 3 Icefields Parkway and Ice Bubbles of Abraham Lake Adventure
The one everyone books
Start at the top.
If you've only got one afternoon to get your bearings, this is the one most people book first. The Bow Valley, the town and range after range of the Rockies, all from the summit.
The classics
Banff's Most Popular Tours
Lake Louise, the Columbia Icefield, Lake Minnewanka and Johnston Canyon. The days most people come to the Rockies for.
The Icefields Parkway
One of the great drives on earth.
Two hundred and thirty kilometres of glacier-hung peaks between Lake Louise and Jasper, with a turquoise lake or a hanging glacier around almost every bend. Peyto, Bow Lake, the Columbia Icefield, Athabasca Falls. Most people drive it in a day and wish they'd given it two.
- 1 Athabasca Glacier Snow Trip from Banff
- 2 Calgary Banff: Columbia Icefield, Skywalk and Lakes Day Tour
- 3 Icefields Parkway Highlights & Secrets | Award-Winning Adventure
By place
Pick a corner of the park.
Each one is its own day out. Lake Louise for the canoes. The Icefields Parkway for the glaciers. Johnston Canyon for the waterfalls. Minnewanka for the boat.
Plan it right
Getting to Lake Louise & Moraine Lake.
Moraine Lake's road is closed to private cars, and the Lake Louise lot fills before sunrise in summer. Here's how people actually reach the two most famous lakes in the Rockies.
Book a guided tour
The simplest fix. A tour handles the Moraine Lake car ban for you, picks up in Banff or Lake Louise, and usually rolls Moraine, Lake Louise and often the Icefields Parkway into a single day.
Parks Canada shuttle
Reserve the Park & Ride shuttle to Lake Louise and the Lake Connector across to Moraine. Seats open months out and the sunrise slots go fast, so set a reminder for the day they drop.
Roam transit, very early
Public Roam buses run from Banff up to Lake Louise in season. Moraine has no public road access, so pair it with the shuttle or a tour. Either way, the earlier you go the better.
By tour type
Or pick how you want to get out there.
Hike if you want the trails. Paddle if you want the lakes. Ride if you came for the wildlife. Plus gondolas, rafting, horseback, stargazing and the whole winter side.
The locals
The ones with fur.
Grizzlies and black bears along the valley, elk in the meadows, bighorn sheep on the road cuts. Dawn and dusk are when the guides know where to look. Three wildlife trips worth the early start.
After the sun drops
Banff after dark.
Banff sits inside one of the world's largest dark-sky preserves. Stars by the thousand, the gondola lit up at night, and a ghost walk or two through the old town. Our three picks for after dinner.
The white season
When the snow takes over.
From around November the trails go quiet and white. Snowshoe through silent pine, walk a frozen canyon past walls of blue ice, or break trail in fresh powder. Three ways into a Rockies winter.
On the water
Out on the lakes.
A canoe under the peaks at Lake Louise, a guided big-canoe paddle, or a cruise down Lake Minnewanka to the far end of the valley. The Rockies look different from the waterline. Three easy ways onto it.
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