If you haven't been to Banff you haven't seen the best canada has to offer. This place will take your breath away. Always amazes me that we are so blessed to have this to travel through. Makes the trip breathtaking and fun.
If you haven't been to Banff you haven't seen the best canada has to offer. This place will take your breath away. Always amazes me that we are so blessed to have this to travel through. Makes the trip breathtaking and fun.
Even just driving through, one gets to see it all!! Mountains, Glaciers, Black Bear, Brown Bear, Dear, Forests, Lakes - absolutely beautiful!
This is a must-see. The Canadian Rockies are spectacular. Banff has stunning scenery, hot springs, great shops, hotels and restaurants, easy 90 minute access to Calgary by car. Our kids fell in love with Banff and are already planning a return visit to the National Park (free admission for all of 2017, as part of Canada's 150th birthday celebration).
Banff if a great park to get your feet wet in the mountains/in resl nature or for those who love to relax, shop, go to spas, and etc. For true nature it's best to go elsewhere. The swarms of tourists in summer make a lot of areas unbearable. A lot of people need to remember that Banff is a National Park, not a zoo/amusement park.
This provincial park has it all and it is the center of it all. Allow two days minimum. Easy access to Jasper, Lake Louise, and Yoho provincial park.
As you can imagine, there's lots to do at Banff National Park.
My trip through Banff NP started from Jasper NP. I camped at one of the $17.60/night campgrounds shortly after entering Banff NP. The next morning I packed up my stuff and headed towards Lake Louise. It was snowing so I was *SUPER* excited. I had to stop the car a couple of times to get out and dance around and take pictures. Unfortunately, with the snow came some questionable visibility and some traffic from cars in front driving REALLY slow. Due to the low visibility, I missed some of the sites located north of Lake Louise because I drove right past them without noticing the signs. One of those sights was Peyto Lake- I'd stopped there the previous day, decided it was too crowded, and got back into my car. I didn't leave fast enough though, so I got yelled at by some rude tourist, which kind of spoiled the experience.
I made it to Lake Louise, which was much smaller than I thought it would be as far as the size of the town. I visited both Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, both of which looked beautiful in the snow. There were signs up about bear activity. I hiked to the top of the Rockpile at Moraine Lake- it was doable, but it was slippery from the snow. Parking at Lake Louise was a little confusing. There also is apparently some sort of shuttle system? When I got back into town, I stopped at the visitor center (As a generalization, I found Canadian National Park visitor centers to be lacking maps [I don't even like maps, but an overall map of the park would have been nice], have some grumpy employees [not all were bad though], and lacking gift shops [I'm not a huge fan of gift shops either, but I do appreciate a nice display of postcards or maybe some magnets. No snack bars either [maybe that's just an American thing?]). The visitor centers do all have free wifi though! There was a busy cafe down the sidewalk that I also stopped and had lunch at- I don't remember its' name but the food was good and you had the option to pay in either Canadian $s or your native currency (ie. US $, Euro, Pound) but it was very crowded- they handled it well though, there just was nowhere to sit.
Then I found Bow Valley Parkway, after a brief period of being lost and thinking that it was back on the divided highway. Photographed a train at Morant's Curve, stopped at Silverton Falls (not worth it), took in the view at Castle Cliffs pull-out, saw a moose, visited Mule Shoe Picnic Area, camped at Johnston Canyon & hiked to the falls.
The town of Banff had lots of food options, but nothing jumped out at me as "easy, free parking, fast service, relatively low cost" (ie. McD's or a quaint little cafe). Fortunately, the train/bus station houses a couple of vending machines, a place that sells pastries and desserts (I didn't like the cake or the cinnamon roll I had), the park's "visitor center", a tour company that will happily sell you scenic gondola and chairlift rides when there's no visibility, free wifi, and clean bathrooms.
I also drove Vermillion Lakes Drive. One source I read said that if you got really into it, you could make it an all-day excursion- but it's only 6 miles RT, so I don't even think walking it would make it an all-day event.
As far as the Lake Minnewanka Drive- Cascade Ponds were dried up, Johnson Lake was closed, 2 Jack Lake offers camping with no privacy (I woke up in the middle of the night because the guy in the campsite behind mine (ie. 6 feet away) was snoring so loudly- a little privacy and separation between sites would be nice; 2 Jack Picnic Area was fairly crowded, and Lake Minnewanka didn't hold my attention for long. The saving grace of the loop drive was Lower Bankhead- the signage from the parking lot isn't very indicative, but you can go down the stairs to the right of the viewing platform (I somehow completely didn't notice them on my first visit) and take a nice loop walk through the remains of a former mining town. I didn't see any elk, but I certainly heard them bugle-ing.
While visiting Banff I also stopped at Cave & Basin, which was by-far my favorite site in Banff NP. I don't live caves, but the cave wasn't cave-like and it was a lot of fun reading about its' past as a hot springs area.
I also visited Surprise Corner, Tunnel Mountain, The Hoodoos, and Bow Falls. They were nice enough stops, but none compared to having visited Cave & Basin earlier in the day.
Overall, I spent 3 nights camping in Banff. You have to pay for a permit to have a fire. Throughout my 2 weeks camping in Canadian National Parks, I was told I'd have to pay for a permit in order to just have a charcoal fire, using only my own charcoal and no natural materials. The rangers were never really sure on what the correct answer was though, so that was a little annoying because 1. I didn't want to pay $8 just to light 5 charcoal briquettes on fire so I could cook a hotdog and 2. Am I really the first person to ask if I can use charcoal briquettes (they didn't even know what those were) or a camp stove?