Go. See. Explore.: The Canadian Rockies

The Canadian Rockies - A Quick Guide

The summer of 2017 we decided to take our new 4Runner out for a real adventure, to the Canadian Rockies! We drove from Madison, Wisconsin all the way to Banff National Park and we loved it so much, we still consider it our favorite vacation so far! We explored Banff National Park, Yoho National Park, and Jasper National Park. Below is a rough look at a timeline of our Canadian Rockies adventure!

Day 1 and 2 - Driving

Map of our route

We drove from Madison, WI to Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada to spend the night. Then we woke up early and finished our drive to Banff, National Park. We stayed at Irwin's Mountain Inn right in downtown Banff. It was a wonderful place to stay! Check out the link, Canadian Rockies Hotels, for more information on where we stayed!

Day 3 - Lake Louise

We spent all day exploring Lake Louise. There is a lot of hiking and we chose to do an all day hike of about 8 hours to get the full experience! It takes about 40 minutes to get to Lake Louise from downtown Banff.

Here is a rough map of driving through Banff National Park to Jasper and a few of the stops we made along the way.

Day 4 - Lake Moraine, Emerald Lake, Takakkaw Falls, Johnston Canyon

Since our feet were pretty tired from our all day hiking adventure the day before, we did a lot of short pretty hikes and sight seeing of numerous lakes and waterfalls! All of these were within an hour or so of each other and the scenery is so beautiful it doesn't feel like a long time spent in a car. The places we got to explore were, Lake Moraine, Yoho National Park specifically Emerald Lake, Takakkaw Falls, and Johnston Canyon.

Day 5 - Road to Jasper

We left Banff and took the Icefields Parkway or the Road to Jasper. There are A LOT of stops along the way with hikes, quick sights, picturesque spots, etc. that there is no way you can hit them all. What we found helpful was the Gypsy App. This app is like having a tour guide in your backseat. It is only $5 and it runs off of GPS so you won't lose signal! This app told us where to stop and information about each stop, so we could decide if it was worth pulling over or not. The places we decided were worth the stop were: Peyto Lake, Mistaya Canyon, and Parker Ridge Trail. We also pulled over a few other times for quick picture taking opportunities! The drive from Banff to our hotel in Jasper was roughly 3 hours and 30 minutes. However, with stopping time for hikes it easily took us about 6 hours, so plan on taking all day to get there.

Day 6 - Jasper National Park

There are many things you see and do in Jasper, so you have to decide what you want to see the most. We decided to see the Athabasca Falls, Sunwapta Falls, Meeting of the 2 Waters, and then a long but rewarding hike at Mount Edith Cavell.

Day 7 - Drive to Calgary

We had a hotel booked in Calgary for the night and we decided to opt for the slower drive back through the Icefields Parkway, in order to hit a few things that we had missed on the way to Jasper. We stopped at the Columbia Icefields, a few other waterfalls, and then did some touristy shopping in Banff before ending with a late but delicious dinner in Calgary. We didn't have a lot of time in Calgary, but we did get an hour or so to explore the city and enjoy some fancy ice cream!

Day 8 - Glacier National Park

Since Glacier National Park was on our way back to Wisconsin, we decided to stop and do 1 last hike! We hiked out to Iceberg Lake and enjoyed dipping our feet in the very icy cold water! Then we continued on and drove a few more hours before stopping for the night.