The Perfect Canadian Rockies Trip

Travel Onion · 2:18

One road, nearly 300 km, from Banff to Jasper. Banff is where three railway workers found hot springs steaming inside a cave in 1883; two years later the springs became the start of Canada's first national park. Up the valley, Lake Louise is named after Princess Louise, a daughter of Queen Victoria — her full name was Louise Caroline Alberta, which is where the province got its name — and long before that, the Stoney Nakoda called it the Lake of the Little Fishes. Moraine Lake, under the Valley of the Ten Peaks, was on the back of Canada's old $20 bill. Both lakes get their colour from rock flour: glaciers grind rock into powder, and the fine grains hang in the water. On the Icefields Parkway you can walk toward the Athabasca Glacier past markers showing where its edge used to be — it has pulled back more than 1.5 km in about 125 years. And in Jasper, the whole national park is a dark-sky preserve. Save this for the trip you actually take. Follow for more places worth the trip. 📍 PLAN YOUR VISIT — THE CANADIAN ROCKIES ✈️ Getting there: fly to Calgary; Banff is about 90 minutes west, and Jasper is about four hours north of Lake Louise on the Icefields Parkway 📅 Best time: late June to September, when the lakes have thawed and are at their bluest 🎯 The route: Banff (Cave and Basin) · Lake Louise · Moraine Lake · the Icefields Parkway and the Athabasca Glacier · Jasper