(Before sunrise at Moraine Lake)
My husband and I primarily take hiking trips for our vacations. For our 5 year anniversary, we chose to go to Banff since it has always been high on our travel list (it’s not called the Disneyland for hikers for nothing). While we normally only take a week, we extended our trip to 10 days to fit in a few more national parks in the Canadian Rockies.
Our anniversary is in early September which has historically not been a good month to take hiking trips in the western part of North America since it’s in the middle of “fire season”. We decided to go at the very end of September for three reasons: 1. Hopefully it wouldn’t be as crowded, 2. The larches would be in bloom, and 3. We may get lucky and not have wildfire smoke but also not have winter weather yet.
Our timing ended up being pretty perfect. Everything was still open as far as accommodations and things to do and we had fantastic weather. It did end up snowing four inches our two days there but that did not impact our hiking and the roads were clear for the drive back to the Calgary airport the next morning.
Itinerary:
(First is my detailed itinerary with some of my thoughts/tips about our experiences for each day included. Scroll toward the bottom if you want a condensed itinerary)
**All photos taken on my iPhone 14 Pro Max
Days 1-5 Banff and Kootenay, Alberta
Day 1: We flew into Calgary, picked up our rental car, and grabbed a quick lunch in town before driving to Canmore. It’s only about 1.25 hours from Calgary to Canmore and the drive was gorgeous with towering mountains on both sides of the road approaching Canmore. It was also really cool to see the wildlife crossings they have over the highway. We spent our first five nights at an Airbnb in Canmore since it was significantly cheaper to stay there than in Banff. And with Canmore being close to Banff and Kootenay, it was a pretty perfect location. The town of Canmore is also very picturesque. Its downtown area has a main street with local shops and restaurants that is closed to cars during peak tourist season and also has convenient parking.
Day 2: Hiked Johnston Canyon to the Ink Pots (about 7 miles total but not too strenuous). Johnston Canyon is a very popular hike but it was less crowded than we anticipated. We ate lunch at the Ink Pots and enjoyed the creek and mountain views around.
(One of the seven waterfalls in Johnston Canyon)
After Johnston Canyon we did a short hike to Silverton Falls and then a self-guided loop at Marble Canyon. A Continental Divide was nearby so we stopped there since I have had an obsession with continental divides after reading The Divide book series by Elizabeth Kay as a child.
To end our day we enjoyed a nice dinner at Maclab Bistro which is on the campus of the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. We ate outside to enjoy some views and the food was excellent.
Day 3: Today consisted of a long 13.5 mile loop hike starting at Healy Pass to Simpson Pass then to Lower Simpson Pass trail and back to Healy Pass. The panoramic views at the summit were truly stunning. It’s definitely a place that will make you feel small.
(View from Simpson Pass)
Tip: This trail can be done as an out-and-back which would be a couple of miles shorter, but we wanted to switch it up on the way back just to see some different views.
Day 4: Another longer trail today of 11.6 miles with quite a lot of elevation gain (about 4,353 feet total) but extremely worth it! We hiked to Bourgeau Lake and then on to Harvey Lake and ended at Harvey Pass. This was one of my favorite trails of the entire trip as it had everything: stunning panoramic views, a waterfall, subalpine lakes, and the larches! Once we got up to Harvey Pass we could see the larches in all their golden fall glory on the mountains around us. It was a truly magical place.
(View from Harvey Pass)
Day 5: Our legs told us they needed a break today after over 30 miles of hiking the past three days. So we decided to take what we call a “town day” and explore downtown Banff. It was absolutely worth it to take an entire day and we ended up doing a lot more than we thought we would. We ate lunch at Bluebird restaurant which was delicious. We then shopped for a few hours and after we exhausted everything downtown, I discovered Cave and Basin National Historic Site on Google Maps. Turns out it’s the oldest national park in Canada and is a habitat for the endangered Banff Springs snail (which are so tiny we had to have staff point them out to us). We bought tickets for the self-guided tour of the cave, boardwalk with historical informational signs, and museum. I would highly recommend!
(Inside Cave and Basin National Historic Site)
For our last activity in downtown Banff in the afternoon, we decided to take the Banff gondola to the Sulphur Mountain summit. Initially I didn’t suggest it because it is quite expensive and I wasn’t sure if it would be worth the price. But my husband said, “Let’s do it!” And that ended up being our favorite thing in downtown Banff. The gondola is super fast and steep, and the views as you’re riding up are awesome. But once you get to the top and walk around, the views are simply magnificent. It’s a 360 of mountains and rivers and the tiny town of Banff. You can also walk to the site of the old cosmic ray station which we did. We went late in the afternoon and spent about two hours up there. It wasn’t crowded so we were able to snag some chairs and drink in the view. I’m so glad we ended up doing that and it was truly worth every penny.
(View from Sulphur Mountain summit after Banff gondola ride)
Days 6-7 Glacier National Park, British Columbia
Day 6: After checking out of our Airbnb in Canmore, we headed to Golden, BC as it’s near Glacier National Park (the one in Canada - not to be confused with the one in Montana). Our first stop was Wapta Falls in Yoho National Park since it was on our drive.
(Wapta Falls)
We then ate at The Island in Golden where our waiter was also a hiker and told us to hike Hermit Trail in Glacier. He said that if we only did one hike there, that was the one to do. That was one my husband had marked as a potential one so after that recommendation, we decided to do it. Now, Hermit Trail is only 3.6 miles total (so 1.8 miles one way). But you gain almost 3,000 feet in that 1.8 miles no joke it was one of the hardest hikes I’ve ever done and it took me so long to do it. And you would think that the descent would be way quicker but because it was so steep I had to really watch my footing and it actually took almost as long to go down. So since we got started around noon, it was almost dark by the time we got back to the car. However, the views were incredible. You could see glaciers on the mountains around which is one of my all-time favorite sights. We only saw three other people on the trail and we had the summit all to ourselves. So even though it was extremely hard and I had a small knee overuse injury that bothered me for a few weeks after, I have no regrets about doing it. But I definitely wouldn’t recommend it for everyone.
(View from summit of Hermit Trail)
Day 7: We took an easier day after Hermit Trail with some shorter hikes. We hiked to Bear Creek falls and then went to the museum at Roger’s Pass historic site. We then hiked the 1885 trail to the meeting of the waters area which was very pretty and not strenuous. It was definitely a more popular area and we encountered some tour groups there. After that we went to the Northern Lights wildlife center where we got to see some beautiful wolves at their wolf conservation center and educational facility. (Check out their website here to learn more about them!)
(Meeting of the Waters point on the 1885 trail)
Day 8: Today we left Golden and headed back to hike in Yoho. Because of some road construction that closed the route we came in through, we had to drive an extra two hours through Radium Hot Springs to get back to Yoho and Banff. The drive was quite beautiful so it wasn’t too much of a pain. In fact, I would love to spend some time in Radium if we ever go back.
We hiked to Takakkaw Falls and then took the Iceline trail to Twin Falls and passed three other waterfalls along the way. And we saw our first porcupine in the wild which was pretty cool!
(Takakkaw Falls)
We ended up continuing on the trail a couple of miles to Yoho Glacier viewpoint. We were hoping that we would get to see a glacier up close there, but we didn’t see any glaciers and the trail became more of a rock scramble at that point. While we were spending a few minutes deciding if we wanted to keep going, a gentleman was coming back down the trail so we asked him if he had been able to see a glacier. Despite a language barrier, we were able to determine that he hadn’t been able to see a glacier so we turned around.
(Yoho Glacier viewpoint - where we turned around)
As my husband pointed out, there may have been a glacier that you could see there at some point but is no longer there. While the view was still very nice back there, it wasn’t nice enough for me to recommend going back there just for that. If it hadn’t been so late in the day because of our route delay from Golden, we would have had time to do the entire Iceline trail but we didn’t feel comfortable doing so since it was still quite a lot of miles. Once we got back, we headed to the Post Hotel at Lake Louise where we would be spending our last two nights of the trip.
Days 9 & 10 - Back in Banff (Lake Louise and Moraine Lake)
Day 9: We got up early today to get to Lake Louise for sunrise pictures with the photographer I had booked a few months ago since it was our five year anniversary. My husband was a good sport about it even though he would rather be doing almost anything else haha. Robin Tuck (@robintuck1 on Instagram) took our photos and he was very friendly and easy to work with.
(Above photo taken by Robin Tuck @robintuck1 on Instagram)
It was a rainy morning so we didn’t have any views of the mountains and glaciers behind Lake Louise, but it was still beautiful and the rain turned out to be really fun later on. We changed into our hiking gear after photos and hiked to the Lake Agnes tea house. While we were in line waiting to go in, the rain turned to snow. And I mean fat, fast falling snowflakes. It was so gorgeous and made the hot chocolate and tea we ordered even better!
(Snow falling at Lake Agnes tea house)
We were initially going to hike from Lake Agnes tea house to the Big Beehive but we decided to change tactics since there would have been no views from Big Beehive (we couldn’t even see the summit of it because of the snow). So my husband pulled out our NatGeo trail map and found a connector trail from the Lake Agnes tea house to the Plain of Six Glaciers tea house. Since Plain of Six Glaciers was the other trail I had wanted to do, I was definitely game. Even though it was snowing pretty hard and piling up fast, the trails remained perfectly visible. We made it to the other tea house and it was only us and another couple there.
(Plain of Six Glaciers tea house)
While sipping our second cup of tea for the day and enjoying some dessert, the snow stopped. We continued on the trail until we reached the end and got to see some glaciers a little closer (and we also heard an avalanche which was a bit scary but it thankfully wasn’t close to us).
(View on Plain of Six Glaciers trail)
We headed back toward Lake Louise and came in on the back side. Since the rain had stopped, we had some better views of the lake and the mountains behind it but it still wasn’t completely clear because of the clouds. It didn’t bother me at all, though, since hiking in the snow had been so fun.
(Lake Louise)
Day 10: We saved one of the best days for last: Moraine Lake. We had been looking forward to Moraine and it truly did not disappoint. They recently closed the road to private vehicles since it was getting so crowded with not enough parking. So we booked a private shuttle a few months in advance that picked us up at our hotel to get us to Moraine for sunrise. We staked out a spot on the Rock Pile for sunrise and were treated with a beautiful alpenglow.
(Alpenglow at Moraine Lake)
After sunrise we headed to hike and we did two hikes today: Eiffel Lake trail which afforded us stunning views of the Valley of the Ten Peaks (jaw dropping gorgeous).
(Valley of the Ten Peaks on Eiffel Lake trail)
We backtracked and then hiked part of Sentinel Pass trail to an overlook where we ate lunch and enjoyed views of the larches and the ten peaks. We probably had time to hike all the way up to the pass but from where we were sitting we could see where it ended and we didn’t think we would have much better views than where we were sitting.
(View on Sentinel Pass trail)
To top off our last amazing day, we had our anniversary date night at the Post Hotel dining room. The food was so delicious and the atmosphere was very cozy. Considering we still reminisce about the food to this day (almost a year later) I would definitely recommend.
Reflections
All I really have to say is that the Canadian Rockies was everything we hoped it would be plus so much more. Even though we packed as much as we could into our ten days, I feel that we only scratched the surface and I hope we go back someday as there is so much more to explore.
(Ink Pots)
*Concise* Itinerary:
Day 1: Drive from Calgary airport to Airbnb in Canmore
Day 2: Johnson Canyon to Ink Pots, Silverton Falls, Marble Canyon, Continental Divide sign
Day 3: Healy Pass to Simpson Pass
Day 4: Bourgeau Lake to Harvey Lake and Harvey Pass
Day 5: Town day in Banff
Day 6: Wapta Falls in Yoho, Hermit Trail in Glacier
Day 7: Bear Creek falls, Roger’s Pass historic site, 1885 trail to Meeting of the Waters, Northern Lights Wildlife Center
Day 8: Takakkaw Falls to Iceline trail to Yoho Glacier viewpoint
Day 9: Lake Louise, Lake Agnes tea house, Plain of Six Glaciers tea house
Day 10: Moraine Lake sunrise, Eiffel Lake trail with Valley of the Ten Peaks, and most of Sentinel Pass
(Another view from Sulphur Mountain summit after Banff gondola ride)
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