Banff and the Icefields Parkway
Six days up the spine of the Rockies, from Banff's hot springs to the Columbia Icefield and Jasper.
Road Trip · 6 days · June to September
Most Banff trips never leave the Bow Valley, which turns the Rockies into a day trip from a townsite. Driving the Parkway north and sleeping at the top of it changes the shape of the week: Peyto and Bow Lake in flat morning light before the coaches arrive from Lake Louise, and Jasper's dark-sky nights instead of Banff Avenue's. The two famous lakes are still here, but early and on a shuttle, because private cars have not been allowed up the Moraine Lake road since 2023.
Day by day
- Day 1
Into the Bow Valley
Collect the car in Calgary, run west, and spend the first evening at altitude rather than on the highway.
14:00Banff Park Museum
The best short introduction to what actually lives out here, and the oldest surviving natural history museum in western Canada.
A 1903 log building with the original Victorian cases still in place. Small, and shut on some weekdays out of season.
15:30Banff Gondola to Sulphur Mountain
Eight minutes to 2,281 metres and the whole Bow Valley laid out beneath you: the orientation the rest of the week is built on.
The boardwalk along the summit ridge to Sanson's Peak is thirty minutes each way and most people skip it.
18:00Banff Upper Hot Springs
The springs the national park was created around in 1885, still running at forty degrees into an outdoor pool facing Mount Rundle.
Busiest between four and six. Swimsuit rental is available on site.
- Day 2
Moraine Lake before the light turns
The two famous lakes, in the only order that works now that private cars are banned from the Moraine road.
06:30Moraine Lake and the Rockpile
The Valley of the Ten Peaks at first light, from the Rockpile: the view that used to be on the back of the twenty dollar note.
Private vehicles have not been permitted on Moraine Lake Road since 2023. Book the Parks Canada shuttle or a licensed operator well in advance.
10:00Lake Louise lakeshore to the Plain of Six Glaciers
Walking to the far end of the lake and up the moraine is the whole difference between Lake Louise and its own car park.
Around fourteen kilometres return with 400 metres of climb. The teahouse near the top is cash only and closes in early October.
19:00Dinner in Lake Louise village
A short evening on purpose: tomorrow is the Parkway, and the good light on it is early.
The village sits four kilometres below the lake and has almost everything that is not the Chateau.
- Day 3
The Icefields Parkway, southern half
Ninety-odd kilometres that take a whole day if you drive them properly.
08:00Bow Lake and Num-Ti-Jah
The red-roofed lodge on the shore has stood there since the 1920s, and the glacier feeding the lake is directly in front of it.
The lakeshore walk toward Bow Glacier Falls is flat for the first two kilometres and then is not.
10:00Peyto Lake viewpoint
Rock flour turns it a blue nothing prepares you for, and the wolf-head shape only reads from this one angle.
The upper platform is a ten-minute uphill walk from the car park and is reliably crowded after ten.
12:30Mistaya Canyon
A slot the river has cut through limestone, with potholes drilled into the rock. The one Parkway stop almost every coach drives past.
Ten minutes downhill from the pull-out, and the same ten minutes back up.
15:00Columbia Icefield and the Athabasca Glacier
The largest icefield in the Rockies, with markers along the approach road showing where the glacier stood in each decade since 1890.
Never walk onto the glacier without a guide: the crevasses are snow-covered and people have died here. The Skywalk is a separate ticket a few kilometres north.
- Day 4
Down to Jasper
The northern half of the Parkway: emptier, greener, and where the wildlife actually is.
09:00Sunwapta Falls
The river bends hard around an island and drops into a limestone gorge right beside the bridge.
The lower falls are a further 1.3 kilometres downstream and almost nobody walks to them.
11:00Athabasca Falls
Not tall, but the volume is enormous: the whole Athabasca forced through a gorge a few metres wide.
The old channel walkway below the main viewpoint is the interesting half, and is usually skipped.
14:00Valley of the Five Lakes
Five small lakes, each a different colour, on the easiest genuinely beautiful walk in the park.
A 4.5 kilometre loop, mostly flat. Bear spray is sensible here and is sold in Jasper.
21:30Jasper after dark
Jasper is one of the largest dark-sky preserves in the world, and the difference from a city sky is not subtle.
The island footbridge at Pyramid Lake is the usual spot. Nights are cold here even in July.
- Day 5
Maligne Valley
One road, three things on it, and the boat that is worth the queue.
08:30Maligne Canyon
Fifty metres deep and in places two metres wide, with water arriving out of the rock face from an underground river.
Six bridges; most people turn round at the second. Down to the fifth and back is about ninety minutes.
11:00Medicine Lake
A lake that drains through sinkholes into a cave system every year and refills each spring: one of the largest sinking rivers in the western hemisphere.
By late autumn there may be no lake here at all, which is the point rather than a disappointment.
13:00Maligne Lake and Spirit Island
Fourteen kilometres down a glacial lake to the small stand of spruce that has stood in for the Canadian Rockies on posters since the 1960s.
Spirit Island is reachable only by the scheduled boat. Book ahead in July and August.
- Day 6
Out through the foothills
One last climb above the treeline, then the four-hour run east to Edmonton.
08:00Jasper SkyTram to Whistlers Mountain
Above the treeline in seven minutes, with six mountain ranges in view and, on a clear morning, Mount Robson eighty kilometres west.
The upper station is at 2,263 metres and the summit ridge is another 200 metres of climb on loose rock.
12:00Lunch on Patricia Street
The road to Edmonton is four hours with very little on it, and leaving fed is the difference between a drive and an ordeal.
Last reliable food before Hinton, an hour east.
Questions
- How long is the Banff and the Icefields Parkway itinerary?
- The Banff and the Icefields Parkway itinerary runs 6 days and covers 19 stops across Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper.
- When is the best time to do the Banff and the Icefields Parkway itinerary?
- June to September is the best window for the Banff and the Icefields Parkway itinerary.
- What happens on day one of the Banff and the Icefields Parkway itinerary?
- Day one is into the bow valley: Collect the car in Calgary, run west, and spend the first evening at altitude rather than on the highway.
Sources
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