Come alive in Banff National Park
Come alive in Banff National Park
a photo essay itinerary of sorts
Last week, I shared a piece about finding aliveness in the heart of the US national park system. In the early days of my travel, I chronicled every adventure on Instagram. It’s been years since I’ve documented a trip, but my recent trip to Banff National Park awakened a desire in me to capture the magic of the natural world in a new way.
For this piece, I’m experimenting with something new: a photo essay itinerary of sorts.
I hope it inspires you to plan your next trip out into the wilderness 🌲
Banff National Park is nestled in the Canadian Rockies, just north of Montana. The park is central to and borders several other parks: Jasper, Yoho, and Kootenay — all majestic in their own right.
We mainly spent our time exploring Banff because of time constraints and wildfires raging in Jasper that closed down the neighboring park indefinitely. A devastating reminder that with each passing year, we lose more and more of the natural world.
The accessibility to nearby parks felt similar to trips we’ve taken to Grand Teton & Yellowstone in Wyoming, Zion & Bryce in Utah, and Sequoia & Kings Canyon in California. We saw signs for Jasper, Yoho, and Kootenay throughout our drive around Banff.
The drive from the main airport (Calgary International) to the main town, Banff, was just about an hour and a half which is rare coming from the US. Typically, it’s a few hours drive to the nearest park.
As you drive towards the town of Banff, towering mountains begin to emerge along the horizon and soon, you’ll find yourself driving through a valley, surrounded by majestic mountain ranges from all angles.
exploring Banff
We landed in Calgary on Saturday morning, picked up our rental car, stopped in Calgary for lunch, then made our way to Banff. Uncharacteristically, we hadn’t fully hashed out our itinerary so we took it easy on Saturday, mapping out the trails we wanted to hike over the next three days and exploring downtown Banff.
As a result of not planning ahead, we hadn’t realized that:
The public shuttles and buses book out weeks (sometimes months) in advance with a small percentage of them available for reservation 48 hours before
The only way to get to Moraine Lake (one of the most popular destinations) is by shuttle
More on recommendations for figuring out transportation before you arrive below.
Lake Louise
Lake Louise is what people typically think of when Banff comes to mind — the immaculate turquoise water surrounded by snow-topped glaciers.
The majority of the epic hikes are around Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. Summer in Banff is notorious for being incredibly busy and the general recommendation is to book a shuttle in advance to guarantee entry.
Because Lake Louise has a parking lot for private vehicles, we decided we’d roll the dice and rose before dawn to arrive before sunrise (~6AM) on Sunday. The reports on Alltrails were all across the board — from the parking lot filling up way before sunrise to plenty of spots until 9AM.
Luckily, we pulled into a spot just before sunrise to a 75% filled parking lot. The parking lot is a quick walk to the shoreline of Lake Louise. Knowing we had a big hike ahead of us, we took our time to get going and basked in the morning stillness. Few people were there and the lake was placid with barely any canoes in the water yet.
Our original plan was to hike the entire nine miles of the Plain of Six Glaciers Trail which ends along the side of a glacier. The first mile hugs the Lake Louise shoreline and brings you closer to the glacier through a series of gravel trails and switchbacks. About four and a half miles in, there’s a backcountry teahouse. We chatted with the server and it seemed like the final leg was just getting a better look at the glacier.
We made the game time decision to head back towards a trail connector we’d passed earlier that would bring us to another lake, Lake Agnes, and the popular Little Beehive trail.
The Highline Trail was a relatively pleasant steady incline to start. After about a mile and a half, we found ourselves nearing Lake Agnes with a steep uphill climb to go. By our final ascent, just beneath the Big Beehive, we were exhausted. After a steep set of stairs, we finally arrived at the edge of Lake Agnes and the other teahouse, ready for lunch and a breather.
On our way down, we passed Little Beehive and Mirror Lake, a more family-friendly route. We dipped our toes in Lake Louise and took some time to celebrate completing our 10-miler before heading back to town for a chill evening.
Moraine Lake
After our more challenging hike the day prior, we decided we’d lay low and do mostly flat hikes at Moraine Lake.
We ended up climbing the Rock Pile, a short hike — it was believed to be formed by a moraine (a glacier that pushed broken rocks along until it stopped and receded, leaving piles of debris). The trail brought us to the top of the rock pile for stunning views.
Afterwards, I went for a solo hike along the shoreline while my husband and best friend went out to canoe on the lake. At the turnaround, I sat for a peaceful meditation right along the water where they later spotted me on their canoe adventure.
snapshot of our full itinerary
links to more hikes plus restaurant, lodging, and transportation recommendations
The full itinerary is curated for paid subscribers — free subscribers: you can also purchase the itinerary here if subscriptions aren’t your thing.