ideas wanted for vancouver to the rockies road trip 3 weeks September

travelling only 3 hours per day will mean taking a lot of time to get between places. you canj't even drive between banff and jasper in under 3 hours and there is not any great accommodations along the way. but here goes a shot...
spend 2-3 days in vancouver, drive to penticton for 2-3 nights, revelstoke for 1 night and onto banff / lake louise. i'd recommend staying in this area for 4-5 nights.. staying in lake louise you are closer to some nice hikes and places to see like moraine lake and takakkaw and o'hara lake (although you need to take a shuttle to that and they are probably sold out) but, it is a small village and does not have a lot of restaurants etc to choose from. banff, is not far from lake louise and will give you a lot more selection of hotels, restaurants, etc. get accommodations within walking distance of town (which most of them are). drive the icefield parkway, taking hikes along the way so you need a full day to do this and i recommend bringing a picnic, snacks and liquids as there aren't many services along this road. stay 4 nights in jasper. after that, you could spend 2 nights in clearwater, bc area and spend a full day at wells grey provincial park. i'd leave early in the morning and make the drive to whistler and stay 1-2 nights. (only reason i'm suggesting that is the drive between lillooet, bc and whistler, bc and the road from from whistler to vancouver are really nice - otherwise, i'd skip whistler). then your last night in vancouver. not sure if that totals 3 weeks but gives you an idea.

revelstoke - meadows in the sky has some nice hikes and beautiful views; between revelstoke and golden there is the giant cedars park. it's a short, beautiful walk.
banff / jasper - they are having a record year of visitors this year. before you start planning anything else, i'd check to see if you can get accommodations and work around those bookings.

Yes, excellent reply already, thanks for that. We also like to keep moving (but possibly that is not the way to have the best experience) and prefer to stay somewhere different each night, so we can do 500 miles in a day if there is nothing essential to see. A big part of the idea would be that its a road trip.
Ray

I'd look at returning by the southern route - go to Waterton/Glacier National Park, then take Crownest Pass on to Highway 3. More diverse terrain, cute little towns. Creston has a major bird site, there are walks on the Kettle Valley railway.

Is this for 2015?

If so, you need to book accommodation ASAP, particularly in the Rockies. It's been extremely busy in Jasper, Banff, Canmore and Lake Louise with bookings very hard to impossible to find at the last minute. Jasper, in particular, has been all but booked out many weekends and holiday (Sept 5-7 is a holiday weekend) weekend. I suspect you will find it pretty hard to find places in Jasper and Lake Louise at this point. Lake Louise can be especially busy in mid September when the larches come into their full fall colors.

I would suggest planning to drive the Icefields Parkway between Lake Louise and Jasper twice. It's the crown jewel of the Canadian Rockies, and it would be a real shame to see your only chance turn out to be cloudy and/or rainy. The views of the lakes, glaciers and mountains are simply spectacular.

Also note that staying somewhere different each night is not a great plan for the Rockies. For one, other than campsites, accommodations are clustered tightly in the few townsites. The attractions tend to be within driving distance of these townsites (like spokes). So it's best to stay a few nights in each place to get a chance to see all the sites/attractions/views. Also, in Jasper, and to some extent Lake Louise and Banff, many places will have a 2 or 3 night minimum stay. And having an extra day is a good plan since the weather doesn't always cooperate, and you will want some down time for laundry, shopping etc.

Lake O'Hara would be out - bus tickets sold out in April the day they went on sale.

Note that in the south (Waterton and Glacier NP/USA) fires may be an issue. This week it was quite smoky around Glacier NP and apparently there is smoke in southern Alberta. That can change quickly depending on weather and winds, but be aware. I know there's been a large, fast moving fire in or near the Kettle Valley with emergency evacuations, so I'd check to see what may or may not be open come September.

In any case, you need to get booking ASAP for this trip.

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