The Canadian Rockies located across Alberta and British Columbia are a vast region of mountain ranges where you can spend days upon days of getting your fill of beautiful nature, amazing hikes, glacier lakes, and lots of other outdoor activities! If you only have a short time visiting the Canadian Rockies, it’s doable to optimise your time in just 3 days!
Day 1:
We rented a car from Calgary and drove to Banff National Park from there. Driving into the mountains is so picturesque. On the first day, we drove through Canmore to get some lunch. This is the first town you will drive through on your way to Banff. There are a few nice cafés and restaurants here, nothing spectacular just enough to get you full for your busy day ahead of adventuring! We then headed straight for Lake Louise. This lake is renowned for its turquoise blue-green water, its beautiful mountainous surroundings, and numerous hiking trails. There is also an option to rent a canoe to take out onto the lake but it’s quite pricey for those travelling on a budget! We spent most of the day here doing the hiking trails and admiring the lake. We headed back to our campsite to cook dinner – there is plenty of campsites in the park which cost about $20-$30 a night for 1 tent! After dinner, we drove to Moraine Lake to watch the sunset. Moraine Lake is just a 20 minute drive from Lake Louise so it’s ideal to see both of these lakes on the same day. Moraine Lake is bluer in colour than Lake Louise, it’s a glacially-fed lake surrounded by a stunning landscape of snow-covered mountains (even in the summer months!). Sunset was a perfect time as it wasn’t too busy. Climb up the rocks to the top to watch the sunset beyond the mountains, it’s so peaceful and the perfect way to finish off the day.
Day 2:
We packed up our campsite and drove towards Banff town to find an activity centre to rent SUP boards. Once you get on the roads around Banff National Park, there are loads of signs for walking trails and hikes. We didn’t need to research any hikes, we just pulled over when we saw a sign and went exploring! Sometimes no plan is the best plan, especially travelling a region like the Canadian Rockies! And that’s exactly what we did! Found a lovely, easy trail right beside our campsite that followed a river through the forest. After our stroll we found an activity centre to rent SUP boards. There are so many more water activities you can choose from in Banff, we went for SUP boards to take in the scenery of the mountains. We followed a river that led us into a lake surrounded by mountains. It views were incredible, and we had enough time to chill out on the SUP boards to enjoy the moment.
Day 3:
On our last day, we took the time to drive around the Rockies and appreciate the scenery before driving back to Calgary. This was the most exciting part of the trip as when we were driving down a road in the Banff National Park, we spotted a group of tourists gathered around by the wall separating the road and the forest. We pulled over immediately to see what the fuss was about and right there, 3 metres away from us was a bear! We didn’t even have a camera with us to take a picture and didn’t have enough time to run back to the car to get it as once more people came to witness the wild bear, he fled! We were waiting for this moment the whole time we were in Banff and we finally got it, by just driving around. So my best advice for travelling the Canadian Rockies is to set 2-4 main sites you want to see, but other than that, driving around and exploring the walks, nature and unexpected bears (!!!) are the best part about the experience and that’s what makes your Banff experience unique and so special that you will never forget it.
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