On Alberta's western edge, 6,641 square kilometres, the Trans-Canada Highway follows the Bow Valley through; north it meets Jasper, west Yoho and Kootenay.
Alberta, Canada — National park with glacial mountains.
First stand in the open and read the ridge's direction whole.
The lakes and icefields are separated by a highway; see them separately.
One valley holds railway and hotel traces each in its stretch.
In 1883 railway workers came upon the springs at Cave and Basin and parties vied for ownership. Two years later the government set aside 26 square kilometres around it as a public reserve; in 1887 the Rocky Mountains Park Act expanded it to 674 square kilometres and renamed it Rocky Mountains Park, Canada's first national park, after Yellowstone and Mackinac in North America.
Subalpine dense forest covers 53 percent of the park, above the treeline 27 percent, and the lowest montane belt just 3 percent. The treeline is about 2,300 metres; low down are lodgepole pines, higher Engelmann spruce, then rock and ice.
The 1930 National Parks Act fixed the area at 6,697 square kilometres and renamed it Banff. The name came from a station on the Pacific Railway, which in turn borrowed the Scottish county of Banffshire. When the new east gate was completed in 1933 it added 0.84 square kilometres; after minor boundary tweaks it settled at today's figure.
Don't slot it on a transfer day. Stay in the valley the night before, leave early for soft light, and you'll still have energy for a stretch of forest in the afternoon.
The rock layers here once lay at the bottom of a shallow sea, the oldest Precambrian, the youngest Jurassic. Between 80 and 55 million years ago the Laramide orogeny pushed them east, over younger strata, and the ranges rose. The orogeny ended about 55 million years ago; erosion took over.
Water first cut the outline; 2.5 million years ago the Quaternary ice age sharply accelerated it. Today the park shows cirques, aretes, hanging valleys, moraines and U-valleys, the mountain form almost entirely finished by glaciers. Ranges mostly run northwest-southeast, rock dipping west 40 to 60 degrees, so east and north faces are steeper than the other side.
Mount Rundle beside Banff town slopes straight along the rock dip; Castle Mountain stacks Cambrian layers; Sawback Mountain shows near-vertical layers cut by cross gullies. You needn't memorise viewpoint names; walking the valley, these three shapes appear in turn.
Lake Louise village is 54 km northwest of Banff town, its southwest framed by the Victoria Glacier. Fifteen km further is Moraine Lake, with the Ten Peaks behind, this scene appeared on the back of the 1969 to 1979 twenty-dollar note. The two waters share a colour; the cause is up the mountain.
The Icefields Parkway runs north from Lake Louise to Jasper, 230 km long. It passes Hector Lake, the park's largest natural lake; then Bow Pass at 2,088 metres, the highest point reached by a Canadian public road. At the end, the Columbia Icefield crosses the two parks' boundary, its Snow Dome sending meltwater to the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic.
Continuous observation of Peyto Glacier since the 1970s is among the world's longest. The Rockies lost about 150 glaciers between 1920 and 1985, and another 150 in the following two decades. Banff alone had 365 glaciers in 1985 and lost 29 by 2005, ice area retreating from 625 to 500 square kilometres.
In 1875 the transcontinental railway broke ground, choosing Kicking Horse Pass rather than the more northern Yellowhead; a decade later the last spike was driven at Craigellachie, British Columbia. The railway company then built the Banff Springs Hotel and Lake Louise chalets to carry more guests into the mountains.
Roads followed. In 1911 Calgary and Banff were linked by car; 1916 brought auto tours, 1920 the road to Lake Louise, 1923 a road west. The first Winter Carnival in 1917 built an Ice Palace from people interned in the park during WWI; 1930s Depression public works laid the Upper Hot Springs pool and the road to Jasper, reaching the icefield at the park's north end by 1940.
Treating this as a year-round destination waited until the Springs Hotel's winter conversion in 1968. The 1972 Winter Olympics bid lost government support to environmental groups. In 1984 Banff and other Rocky Mountain parks joined the World Heritage list; the 1988 Act put ecological integrity first in management; the mid-1990s Bow Valley study produced over 500 recommendations, with the town population cap of 10,000 and popular-trail limits from there.
First read the ridge direction in the open, walk a stretch by the water, connect Lake Louise midway, then return to the valley mouth for raking light.
A full day for a Bow Valley short trail or two plus Lake Louise and Moraine Lake; allow extra for the Icefields Parkway.
Which road sections, trails and shuttles are open changes by period; the Icefields Parkway adjusts in winter and Moraine Lake Road is closed to private cars year-round.
Lakeside trails are gentle; routes to passes drop sharply with many bends and high-sun exposure. Slow movers stay at the water's edge.
Late summer deepens the lake colour; thin-cloud days show the ridge layering. High roads close after winter.
If you're planning those days in Canada's Rockies, tell me whether you'll keep one day or two, and whether anyone moves slowly.