Banff, Jasper and the Icefields Parkway
The Rockies are now a logistics problem dressed as a scenery trip. Moraine Lake is shuttle-only, Lake Louise parking sells out months ahead, and the difference between a queue and a canoe at half past six in the morning is entirely administrative.
The 230 kilometres of the Icefields Parkway are the trip, not the transfer. We break the drive at Bow Summit for Peyto, at Mistaya canyon, and at the toe of the Athabasca glacier, so the day is six hours long and worth every one of them.
Jasper is the quieter half and the reason to keep going north. Maligne canyon on foot, a boat to Spirit Island, and a dark-sky preserve that in September gives clients the aurora often enough to be worth mentioning.
In from the east, the drive west onto the Bow valley, and a first night in Canmore under the Three Sisters.
The gondola up Sulphur Mountain at opening, the hoodoos along the river, and Vermilion Lakes for the evening light.
The first shuttle to Moraine Lake, a canoe on flat water, then the Larch Valley trail into the afternoon.
The lakeshore before the buses, up to the teahouse at the Plain of Six Glaciers, and Yoho’s Emerald Lake after.
North all day: Bow Summit for Peyto, Mistaya canyon, the Weeping Wall, and the Athabasca glacier toe by late afternoon.
A guided walk on the Athabasca glacier with crampons and a mountain guide, then down into Jasper for two nights.
The canyon on foot at opening, the boat down Maligne Lake to Spirit Island, and the dark-sky preserve after dinner.
The drive back south down the parkway, or the Rocky Mountaineer west to Vancouver for clients extending.
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