7 Days in Banff and Jasper National Park
- Megan Gifford
- Mar 30, 2017
- 5 min read
Photo taken during Plain of Six Glaciers Hike
Day 1:
Flew into Calgary, got a taxi from the airport to Enterprise, rented our car, stopped at a camping store and bought our bear spray, and got on our way.
We didn’t rent our car from the airport because it was cheaper to get it from another place. However, that did make things more complicated. If I were to do it again, I would get a car from the airport.
We never had to use our bear spray, but everyone recommends to buy it so we did just incase. It’ll run you about $50.
Then, we stopped in Canmore and got lunch and then continued on to Banff.
Canmore
Our days were packed with activities because the days are very long, in Canada, in the summertime. The sun won’t set until after 9 in June.
Camp:
We set up camp at Tunnel Mountain Village I. It was an excellent campground. The facilities were clean, had showers with warm water, and flushing toilets… and ladies, they also have outlets for your hot tools! Your campfire needs to be out by 11pm, but the park rangers were lenient, as long as you are quiet. There are hefty fines if you leave any trash or food on your campsite, so make sure you clean everything up. I would definitely camp at Tunnel Mountain Village I again!
Day 2:
Plain of Six Glaciers Tea House Hike: starting point is Lake Louise
This was the second hardest hike we did, so we were happy we did it in the beginning of the trip. When you get to the top there is a tea house. Definitely stop in and get a cup of tea! We also got some food - they have different kinds of soups and chips and salsa. On the way down we got to see a little avalanche because of snow melt. We were at a safe distance so it was really cool! It sounds like really loud thunder.
We decided on the Plain of Six Glaciers because it’s apparently less crowded than Lake Agnes Tea House.
Canoeing on the Bow River:
We just bought our tickets for this when we got there. It was definitely worth the money! Canoeing is a lot harder than it looks, but we had so much fun. For one hour with the canoe it was $40.00 per boat. They allowed us to have 3 people per canoe.
Day 3:
Sentinel Pass: Starting point is Moraine Lake
This was by far the hardest hike I’ve ever done, but the most epic part of the entire trip. Most of the hike consists of switchback trails. Bring lots of water and good snacks for energy. There is a point in hike where you will reach Larch Valley and there’s a nice little lake. At this point you can decide whether or not you would like to keep going all the way to the Pass. Keep going!! You’ll be staring at about 5-6 more rocky switchbacks that are very narrow and steep. It is so worth it! Round trip the hike probably took us about 6.5 hours. We hung out at the peak for a good amount of time and fed the little ground squirrels some peanuts. They will climb right into your lap! Just be careful because one snatched my bag of trail mix and tried running off with it.
This trail apparently has a high grizzly bear presence. We did not see any, but if the park rangers are aware of grizzly bear activity they will not let you hike the trail unless you have at least 4 people. If this is the case, and you don’t have enough people, just ban together with another group.
Day 4:
Travel Day: Icefields Parkway
We began our drive to Jasper by taking the Icefields Parkway. Pay particular attention to the bridges over the Parkway. The park created those for the wildlife so that they don’t have to cross the highway… they are literally bridges covered with trees and bushes. It is so cool.
Also, anytime you see people pulled over on the road, PULL IN BEHIND THEM! There is most likely some form of wildlife worth watching or taking a picture of. We got to see a lot of black bears this way, but stay in your car!
First stop: Johnston Canyon:
This was a nice easy hike to a waterfall. You’ll definitely want something easy after Sentinel Pass. It is very touristy and the trails are pretty much all paved, but it was a nice quick stop.
We stopped at a lot of little lookout points along the way. If you want to get a picture in the middle of the road with awesome mountains in the background… this is the time to do it.
Second stop: Columbia Icefield Glacier
There are tours you can take where a bus drives you onto the glacier, but we took the free route and just looked at the glacier from behind the ropes they have set up. I thought this was a better option because it was quick and we still got to see a good view of the glacier.
Third stop: Whistler’s Campground
This was another very nice campground. The bathrooms were a short walk away and had flushing toilets and outlets. However, we had to drive to the shower facility. They did not have hot water and the water pressure was nonexistent. It’s safe to say that mostly everyone in the shower facility had a good laugh. I suppose we were lucky to have showers at all while camping. It depends what kind of camping you are into. I would go back to Whistler’s Campground again because it was in a good location and the facilities were clean.
Day 5:
Medicine Lake
This was another laid back day that we had. We parked our car in the Jacques Lake Trailhead parking lot and the walked across the road to explore Medicine Lake. We’re not really sure if we were allowed/supposed to do this or not but Medicine Lake was really beautiful. We just found a little opening by the road and hiked down to the lake. When we got down to the lake we saw tons of animal prints (moose, bear, and other little prints). We did not see any animals while we were down there, but I would be careful cause you wouldn’t wanna approach a bear that’s searching for food!
Jacques Lake Trailhead
Then, we went back to the Jacques Lake Trailhead and hiked a little bit of that. That hike is supposed to be about a 3 day hike, so just hike as far as you would like and then turn around. There are a couple of neat stopping points such as an abandoned hostel and a lake.
Maligne Lake
We honestly just stopped at Maligne Lake for a short amount of time. I wish we had more time to explore, but we were running out of daylight. This is a beautiful lake so if you can make time for it I would recommend doing so. Maybe do this instead of the Jacques Lake Trail.
Day 6:
Jasper Skytram
Jasper SkyTram is definitely worth the money! The SkyTram takes you up Whistlers Mountain and then it’s about a 20-30 minute hike to the peak. We hung out on the peak for awhile because the views are just incredible. I would recommend getting there early to beat some of the crowd.
Athabasca Falls
Athabasca Falls was pretty neat. The waterfalls are extremely powerful. We followed the falls down to where it turns into a river and we hiked along the river… again, I’m not sure we were supposed to do this so watch out for bears. If you have something else in mind to see, this would be something you could skip.
Day 7:
Travel day back to Calgary
The trip is about 6 hours without pit stops. We had to get back in time to return our rental car. We stayed in a little motel for one night in Calgary. We called a taxi to take us to an Escape the Room in Calgary. And then the next morning we called a taxi to take us to the airport.
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