Sunrise comes early as my husband Dave and I roll out of bed in Deer Lodge at Lake Louise, Alberta. It is 4:30 a.m., but soon the parking lots will be filled with tourists flocking to see the natural splendor of the emerald lake.
Lake Louise has attracted visitors since 1890 when the first chalet was built on its shores. First Nations people had been coming to the lake for thousands of years, but in 1882 western explorers started surveying the Victoria Glacier and named the body of water Lake Louise. People from around the world have been coming to appreciate its beauty ever since.
Our trip begins at the Calgary International Airport, where hosts clad in cowboy attire greet us and point us to the rental car lot. We pick up our SUV rental from Enterprise. It’s the perfect vehicle for touring the Rocky Mountain roads.
Lake Louise.
Banff National Park
Banff National Park is little more than an hour’s drive from the airport. As we leave the city limits, the Great Plains give way to jagged mountain peaks. Soon, we are surrounded by rock towers with names like The Three Sisters and Mount Yamnuska, a Stoney Nakota name that translates to “Wall of Stone.” The mountains are the beginning of our road trip through the Icefields Parkway.
Spanning from Lake Louise in Banff National Park to the town of Jasper in Alberta, this stretch of highway weaves through the majestic Canadian Rocky Mountains for 238km (145 miles).
Driving through the Icefields Parkway with a SUV rental from Enterprise.
Banff Hot Springs
Our first stop is Banff Hot Springs, the most famous attraction in the town of Banff. Three railway workers discovered the springs in 1883, which led to the creation of Canada’s first national park. A bathhouse and pool were soon built at the discovery site, and people have been coming to experience these healing waters ever since.
The hot springs are one of the top draws here, but there are many things to do in Banff. With three separate ski hills, several picturesque lakes, and hiking trails, it’s an adventure lover’s dream. It’s also a prime location for road tripping, and we are grateful to have the freedom of our car to stop at scenic lookouts as we make our way north.
Pyramid Lake.
Bow Lake
We set out from Banff before dawn to see the reflections of Crowfoot Glacier sparkling in the still waters of Bow Lake. We are well ahead of the crowds as we move from one staggering view to another. The drive is only a couple hundred kilometers from Lake Louise to Jasper, but with 100 glaciers lining the route, it’s easy to get distracted as each turn reveals one stunning vista after another.
We pause to take hikes along the North Saskatchewan River and around Peyto Lake, and then we stop again to stretch our legs at the Big Bend Viewpoint. From high above a set of hairpin turns, we look down at the highway slicing through the canyon.
As we pull away from one of our many stops, we see a park ranger’s truck stopped on the side of the road. A grizzly bear is hanging out in the bushes, and the rangers are watching it to make sure it’s safe. The bear encounter is just another day on the Icefields Parkway.
The still waters on Bow Lake.
Columbia Icefields
The Columbia Icefields Centre at the Athabasca Glacier is the halfway point. The Columbia Icefield spans the border of Banff and Jasper national parks. At 325 square km (125 square miles), they are the largest fields of ice outside the Arctic Circle.
We highly recommend taking the Ice Explorer, an all-terrain bus, to see the glacier’s deep crevasses and ice caves. The adventure company Pursuit allows visitors to bundle the glacier experience with a visit to the Columbia Icefield Skywalk. The glass-bottomed walkway juts out 280m (918 foot) above the Columbia Icefields and yields spectacular views.
It’s been a full day on the parkway, so after our Skywalk adventure, we drive to Jasper for the night.
Visitors on the Columbia Icefield Skywalk.Jasper
We make our base at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge and spend two days exploring Alberta’s other iconic national park. Our log cabin is rustic but luxurious, and it provides beautiful views of Lac Beauvert, a small lake in Jasper National Park. As we drive up to the lodge, herds of elk walk in front of our car, and whitetail deer scamper through the grounds. We are truly in the great outdoors.
Jasper is famous for being the second-largest dark sky preserve in the world, and we take advantage of the clear views at nearby Edith and Annette lakes to witness the Aurora Borealis. We go to the lake in the wee hours of the morning and then wait until sunrise for beautiful mountain views.
Later that morning, we drive out to the Maligne Route Trail for a day hike through Maligne Canyon. Plunging 50 metres (154 feet) down, the path takes us over bridges, waterfalls, and walkways as we explore the 2.1 km (1.3 miles) trail. The day ends at Maligne Lake, the largest natural lake in the Canadian Rockies.
Maligne Canyon.
The Wildlife of Jasper
Back in Jasper, we take a sidecar motorcycle tour and stumble upon a mother grizzly with her cub. A Parks Canada ranger warns us to keep a safe distance away but lets us watch as the bears forage for food in the long grass. The encounter reminds us that we’re truly in the wilds of Alberta and that nature here is up close and personal. The Icefields Parkway has been the trip of a lifetime, and we can’t believe that all these experiences are along a single stretch of highway.
