292-292 Travel Guide

Banff National Park lies on the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rockies in Alberta. Created in 1885, it was Canada's first national park and the world's third, after Yellowstone and Royal National Park in Australia, and covers 6,641 sq km. What fills up is a narrow corridor — the town of Banff, the Bow Valley and the Lake Louise end of Highway 1 some 55 km north — while Calgary lies just 128 km away, about ninety minutes by car. The signature scenery is the glacial lakes: Lake Louise, Moraine Lake and Peyto Lake take their unreal blue from rock flour suspended in the meltwater, which scatters short blue wavelengths. The park shelters grizzly and black bears, elk, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, wolves and caribou, and forms the core of the UNESCO-listed Rocky Mountain Parks inscribed in 1984. With 4,558,171 visits in the 2025–26 fiscal year, it is Canada's busiest national park.

The Columbia Icefield straddles the Alberta–British Columbia border in the Canadian Rockies and is the largest icefield in the range: roughly 325 square kilometres with ice 100–365 metres thick, spanning the northwest corner of Banff National Park and the southern end of Jasper National Park. It sits on the Continental Divide, so meltwater reaches the Pacific, the Atlantic via Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean. Its meltwater feeds six major outlet glaciers, including the Athabasca Glacier, one of the most accessible large glaciers in North America. Visitors ride a six-wheeled Ice Explorer onto the ice, walk about thirty minutes on the glacier, then shuttle up to the glass-floored Columbia Icefield Skywalk cantilevered 280 metres above the Sunwapta Valley. Neither runs year-round.

Moraine Lake sits in Banff National Park's Valley of the Ten Peaks at about 1,884 metres, 153 metres above Lake Louise. Its vivid blue comes from glacial rock flour scattering light, making it the most photogenic alpine lake in the Rockies. The short Rockpile Trail climbs about 35 metres for the classic view of the lake with all ten peaks behind it — the image printed on the back of Canada's twenty-dollar note. Since 2023 the lake road has been closed to private vehicles year-round, so between 1 June and 12 October the only ways in are the Parks Canada shuttle, a licensed operator or a guided tour.

Parker Ridge is a well-known moderate-difficulty alpine hike along the Icefields Parkway in Banff National Park. From the summit you can look down across the open alpine meadow toward the Saskatchewan Glacier, and it is widely regarded as one of the best-value short hikes along this highway route.

Sunshine Meadows is a vast alpine meadow in Banff National Park, sitting on the Continental Divide at an elevation of about 2,160 m. In summer it bursts into wildflower bloom beside alpine lakes such as Rock Isle, and it is one of the most beloved summer hiking and sightseeing destinations in the Rockies.

Castle Mountain is a dramatic 'castle-like' peak in the Bow Valley of Banff National Park, lying along the Trans-Canada Highway and Bow Valley Parkway. It is a famous Rocky Mountain landmark and hiking destination.