Banff & Jasper National Parks

There are amazing road trips, and then there’s the Icefields Pkwy. This iconic highway unfurls for 230km (143 miles) between Lake Louise and Jasper, and takes in some of the most mind-blowing mountain panoramas anywhere on the Continental Divide. En route you’ll pass cerulean lakes, crashing cascades, gleaming glaciers and the largest area of unbroken ice anywhere in North America, the mighty Columbia Icefield. It’s a true trip of a lifetime, so fuel up, sit back, and let one of the world’s great scenery shows unfold.

After slogging all day on the mountain trails around Lake Louise, what could be more civilized than a cup of Earl Grey and a slice of homemade cake? The historic teahouse at Lake Agnes has been serving refreshments to weary walkers since 1901 when it was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway, and it remains an ideal stop-off for parched hikers tackling the trail to the Big Beehive. For an altogether posher experience, you can enjoy the $56 tea spread in the Chateau Lake Louise.

Climb above the treeline in the Canadian Rockies and you’re in a different domain, an ethereal world of impressionistic flower meadows, chirping marmots, glassy mountain lakes and jagged peaks above the clouds. The easiest access point to this wild terrain is at Banff’s Sunshine Meadows where a summer gondola whisks hikers up to the Continental Divide for fabulous short and long hikes, some of them guided. Extra bonus: Sunshine Meadows metamorphoses into Banff’s finest ski resort in the winter months.

Canoes have been the preferred method of transport in the Rockies since time immemorial, and they’re still an ideal way to explore the region’s lakes and rivers. Canoes and kayaks can be hired on many of the region’s waterways, but few water journeys can match Moraine Lake in the scenery stakes. Paddling out across this peacock-blue lake in a traditional canoe, gazing up to the icy summits of Wenkchemna Peak, you’ll feel like you’ve been transported back in time to the days of the early pioneers and voyageurs.

Cross-park views of Jasper are par for the course on the widely celebrated Skyline Trail. It could have had any number of descriptive names conferred upon it – the celestial walk, the resplendent ramble – but instead its name describes exactly how it is: a 45.8km (28.7 mile) promenade through Jasper’s splendidly glaciated high country that offers kilometer after kilometer of seemingly endless skyline, stretching from the rugged grey Colin Range to the distant Athabasca Valley. Is there a more spectacular hike anywhere in North America? Possibly not.

In winter Jasper’s visitors drop to a trickle, with the majority never venturing far beyond the comforting skiing hub of Marmot Basin. What they’re missing is some of the best icy backcountry in Canada. Hidden away 22km (13.6 miles) from the nearest road, the Tonquin Valley – already well known to summer hikers and horseback riders – is a snow-blanketed nirvana equipped with a pair of backcountry lodgings. With manageable elevation and minimal avalanche risk. it's a dreamy spot for fit visitors to enjoy the energetic art of hut-to-hut cross-country skiing.

Black and grizzly bears may be the holy grail for wildlife spotters, but there are plenty of other animals to seek out, too. Banff and Jasper support a hugely diverse range of species, from elk and bighorn sheep to mountain goats, marmots and moose, not to mention an entire aviary of unusual birds. The best time to see wildlife is always at dawn or at dusk; bring along decent binoculars and a telephoto lens to help with the perfect view.

Driving on a glacier: sounds more like the kind of stunt pulled on a car-crazy TV show than something you could actually do, right? Wrong. At Jasper’s humungous Columbia Icefield, specially adapted Ice Explorer vehicles crawl and crunch across the Athabasca Glacier, affording amazing views of crevasses, seracs and an endless horizon of ice. You’ll even get the chance to disembark briefly and set foot on the 400-year-old snow. Tours leave every 15 to 30 minutes from the Columbia Icefield Centre in summer.

The Rockies’ rugged landscape of mountains and valleys makes perfect terrain if you’re into mountain biking. Many of Banff and Jasper’s trails are designated as multi-use, meaning they’re open to hikers and horseback riders as well as cyclists, but for the best cycling head for the groomed trails of the Canmore Nordic Centre. There are more than 100km (62 miles) of routes to explore, ranging from easy rolls to epic singletracks, and the regular skills clinics can help you get the most out of your ride.

Beyond its oft-visited northern shore, Maligne Lake remains a wilderness lake bequeathed with the kind of grandiose scenery that early explorers such as Mary Schäffer would still recognize. The only way to penetrate this watery kingdom’s southern reaches is to hike in through backcountry, venture out solo on a kayak, or – for more relaxed day-trippers – enjoy it communally on a daily boat launch. The object of everyone’s longing is the calendar-cover view of tiny Spirit Island backed by an amphitheater of appropriately ‘rocky’ mountains.

For an instant rush of mountain scenery, nothing beats a ride in the Lake Louise Gondola. In just 14 vertigo-inducing minutes, you’ll be whisked up to the viewing station at a sky-topping altitude of 2088m (6850ft), from where you’ll be treated to a 360-degree view of the peaks and glaciers encircling Lake Louise. It’s a fantastic lookout in its own right, and if you’re really lucky you might be able to spot grizzlies wandering along the avalanche slopes of Whitehorn Mountain nearby.