In September 2018, eight of my friends and I went to Alberta, Canada to visit Banff National Park. We stayed in Canmore, which is right outside the National Park. This was the exact listing we stayed at with AirBnb, if you’re interested (mind you there were 9 of us).
Our first day there, we went to Lake Louise. We got there as early as possible, as the crowds were at a minimum and the water was undisturbed (no boats on the water, and luckily it was not windy); the reflections in the lake were breathtaking. We hiked to the Plain of Six Glaciers Tea House, which was 8.6 miles Out & Back (there is another possible hike, called The Lake Agnes Tea House Trail). We enjoyed some tea and snacks while up there, but also made sure to walk the extra mile to the Overlook to get a view of the Fairmont Hotel sitting over the lake. We even saw an avalanche occur from there (that was certainly a first for me)!
The second day, we visited Moraine Lake – another stunning lake. Since we went later in the day, there were lots of tourists and boats on the water, but it was still beautiful. It was SO busy that when we first got there they weren’t letting people in., we almost had to fight our way towards the parking lot/trail (aggressive, but semi-accurate) . We hiked to Larch Valley, which gave us a beautiful view of the Ten Peaks. If I recall correctly, it was about 4 miles Out & Back, but you could continue past the valley to the Sentinel Pass (we did not do this part). This hike is particularly steep and exhausting, but worth the views. Also, right by the parking lot is the Rockpile- you can’t miss it, as it’s right where the trails start - which is a simple climb with a magnificent view of the lake in front of it, as well as the mountains all around it.
Day three was spent in Canmore, where we hiked the West Wind Pass trail (3 miles Out & Back), a great hike in the **Kananaskis region.**This trail was not well marked, and was another particularly steep hike. A few of us fell a couple times – but the view from the top was spectacular, and worth every almost broken/sprained limb on my body!
Banff itself is a cute, fun town – with lots of restaurants (one I remember us going to was Park Distillery Restaurant and Bar), but other than that, we didn’t spend too much time in town.
