Date of Trip: August 8-13, 2024
Banff was one of those places I didn’t bother putting at the top of my list. I just figured it was way too touristy. But when I finally made it out there… wow. Turns out, sometimes a place is popular for a reason! Truly one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. Pro-tip: Prioritize sunrise hiking to avoid the massive crowds.
I’ll highlight our itinerary below: Please note that there is a fee to enter Banff and Yoho National Parks. The same pass is good for both parks and expires at 4pm the day after purchase
Day 1: Late Arrival to Calgary, drove to Airbnb in Canmore
Day 2: Banff National Park- Chephren Lake Hike and Bow Glacier Falls Trail
Day 3: Banff National Park- Organized Lake Moraine Sunrise and Lake Louise Tour
Day 4: Banff National Park- Ink Pots Trail with Johnston Canyon Detour (started from Moose Meadows)
Day 5: Yoho National Park-Sunrise at Emerald Lake and completed Emerald Lake Loop Hike- Sherbrooke Lake and Waterfall Hike- Truffle Pigs Restaurant in Field for lunch- Natural Bridge for sightseeing
Day 6: Yoho National Park: Sunrise hike- Iceline Ridge Summit with added Laughing Falls Waterfall- Ended the day at the Knordic Spa in Kananaskis
Detailed Itinerary with links:
Day 1: Arrived very late to Calgary and drove to Canmore (1 hour 15 minute drive). We stayed in Canmore because it was much cheaper than Banff. Here was our airbnb that was comfortable for a one week stay. It had two nice hot tubs with views.
https://www.airbnb.com/slink/f1dIuw38
We didn’t spend much time downtown Canmore but it seemed very cute and less crowded than Banff. Nice walking paths, good restaurants etc. Plenty of grocery stores, retail stores and a pharmacy.
Day 2: Off the tourist circuit
Both of our hikes were in Banff National Park: You drive through and pay per day. The pass works in both Banff and Yoho National Parks.
Park passes – Banff National Park
Once you pay, you’ll enter the city of Banff. We only stopped there for bear spray and the IGA grocery store. There is also a ranger station/visitor center.
You do need bear spray.
Bear spotted from the safety of our van near Paradise Valley
Chephren Lake hike. Our first hike in Banff which spoiled us with no crowds and gorgeous views. Very serene 5.1 mile out and back trail with the gorgeous Chrephren Lake as the feature.
Chephren Lake Trail on AllTrails
We went to Bow Lake after Chephren lake did the Bow Glacier Falls trail. When we started the hike, there were no reflections but around 4:45pm it was gorgeous and one of my favorite scenes of the whole trip.
You don’t have to do the whole Bow Lake falls trail to see this, it’s only a short walk from the parking lot.
Bow Glacier Falls on AllTrails
Day 3: Touristy Day
Our airbnb host luckily gave the great recommendation to book a Moraine Lake shuttle because you cannot take your own car. We booked a Sunrise at Moraine Lake tour with Moraine Lake Sunrise Shuttle http://www.morainelakesunriseshuttle.com/
I highly recommend this company. While it was not inexpensive, they provided breakfast, coffee and teas, and a great tour guide who helped us pick hikes for the rest of our trip.
We also added Lake Louise to our tour and glad we did because if we went separately it’s $35 to park at Louise IF you can find a spot.
The van picked us up from the Canmore Visitor center at 3:50am. We arrived before sunrise. The guide will direct you to the best spot to check it out.
We then took the short drive to Lake Louise.
Lake Louise pictured above was pretty but incredibly crowded. We had only enough time to do the perimeter trail around 2 miles. If you did this lake independently, you’d have time for more. The guide recommended the Beehive trail which is very popular and there’s the Lake Agnes tea house on the way where everyone stops. There’s also the iconic Fairmont hotel on the lake. You can rent a canoe or boat for an iconic photo (it was expensive so we didn’t do it).
Day 4: The touristy hikes
We did not get up for sunrise this day which was mistake. The trails are packed. We did the popular Ink Pots Trail and added in Johnston Canyon. The best advice I have for the tourist stuff is to set your alarm and start before sunrise. Then you can nap while everyone else is fighting over the trail in the heat.
Someone gave me the great advice to start this trail via Moose Meadows rather than Johnston Canyon and glad we did because the canyon was crazy busy. We detoured the trail and saw the canyon and waterfall too on the way back. It’ll be easy to see the detour and will be obvious when those who started at the canyon join you to the final destination of ink pots.
Ink Pots via Moose Meadows on AllTrails
Day 5: Yoho National Park
We left Canmore at 4:20am to make it to sunrise at the lovely Emerald Lake. As a contrast to Moraine, we were completely alone on the trail. We started with headlamps, found a pretty spot and had breakfast in the dark before moving on to complete the full lake loop, 6.7 miles total but pretty easy and flat. I’ve linked the AllTrails hike we used.
Emerald Basin and Emerald Lakeshore on AllTrails
Because we got up so early we were also able to do Sherbrooke lake and waterfall which was about a 20 minute drive from Emerald Lake. We were also able to enjoy some solitude on this less popular trail. I’ve linked the AllTrails but keep in mind you must go a bit further to see the waterfall (not much at all)
Sherbrooke Lake on AllTrails
After those two hikes, we went to Truffle Pigs restaurant in Field. It was so good and really the only non-grocery food we had the whole time. The town of Field is very cute.
After lunch we checked out the “natural bridge” which was quite crowded but I still really enjoyed it. The water rushing through the valley was very calming and we were lucky with great weather.
Day 6: Our last hike and my favorite was the Iceline Ridge summit hike. We started at 6am at the Takkakaw falls parking lot and highly recommend starting early because it gets hot and the trail wasn’t well shaded. On the way to the summit you’re treated with views of Takkakaw falls nearly the whole way. Then the landscape changes and there are glaciers and glacial lakes, almost like another planet. We met some locals who told us to extend a bit and instead of an out and back, go back around through these fairy forests and meadows and finally to Laughing falls waterfall. These locals were actually one of the inspirations for this blog because I was compiling all my state recommendations for their trip to the US.
I found the longer route we ended up doing on AllTrails.
Iceline, Little Yoho Valley and Yoho Valley Trail Loop on AllTrails
Here is the out and back ⬇️
Iceline Summit on AllTrails
After this long hike, we ended our trip at the Kananaskis Nordic Spa which is 40 minutes from Canmore. We spent 5 hours there in total going through the hot and cold circuits, pools, steam rooms and saunas. We did get massages which included the water circuit but you could also just purchase a water circuit pass. No cameras are allowed in the spa but check out their website for the details. I’ve linked below.
Overall I found the Banff area to have some of the most beautiful scenery of anywhere I’ve been. And very accessible even if you’re not hiking.
I found these two blogs very helpful
Yoho National Park — Andrea Ference
How to Spend One FULL Day in Yoho National Park
Questions?
This certainly isn’t an all-encompassing list of what to do in Banff and Yoho. But if you have any questions about my experience, I’m available. Let me know if I can help plan your trip!
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