After visiting sights between Banff and Lake Louise, we decided to detour over to neighboring Yoho National Park for a few days. First we came upon a small crowd of folks awaiting the passing of a train through the spiral tunnels that climb Kicking Horse Pass. We then continued on to see the Takakkaw Falls, one of the tallest waterfalls in Canada before returning to our Kicking Horse campsite.
Photo op in the red Adirondack chairs below Takakkaw Falls
The following day we had a nice quiet hike up to Sherbrooke Lake, visited the town of Field and strolled around Emerald Lake late in the afternoon – which is another beautiful and popular (and thus very busy) destination. We drove all the way out to the town of Golden for dinner before heading back to find a wild camping spot along a forest service road that skirted the edge of the park boundary. We hiked down from our campsite the next day to see the wide and roaring Wapta Falls. We moved to a new campsite in the park the next day and hiked up the Hoodoo Creek trail to see the views and a group of hoodoo formations.
Emerald Lake
There was plenty more to see in Yoho and I would’ve liked to experience a long day on the Iceline Trail but instead we returned to Banff National Park to continue our road trip north.
Banff National Park is huge and full of incredible scenery. There is so much to see and explore even just via short day hikes. Unfortunately, it’s also very busy in the summer months and there are always crowds of people at the more popular sites, much like many US national parks. Some locations are so popular that special planning is required. For example, Moraine Lake Road is closed to personal vehicles year-round and the parking lots at Lake Louise fill up at sunrise in the summer months. It’s even difficult to secure time slots on the required shuttle buses a day or two in advance because they sell out so quickly.
Mountains towering over Lake Louise
We ended up spending two five-day stretches in the park over two weeks (visiting Yoho National Park in between) before continuing north on the Icefields Parkway to Jasper. Wild or dispersed camping isn’t allowed in any of the national parks and we didn’t have any advance reservations so we just had to grab spots here and there as they showed up online. We managed to snatch up a few consecutive nights at one of the large campgrounds near the town of Banff, another few nights near Lake Louise and then some first-come, first-serve sites further north at Waterfowl Lakes. We also stayed in a hotel in Banff when we couldn’t get a campground site (like Friday and Saturday nights) to avoid having to drive all the way out of the park. It was probably even more difficult than usual this summer because the Canadian government had granted free access to all the national parks along with discounted camping fees.
View of Banff from top of gondola
We explored the town of Banff by bike and on foot, visiting the Cascade of Time Gardens, the Buffalo Nations Luxton Museum, the river walk and Bow Falls, hiking up the Sulphur Mountain Trail and riding the Banff gondola back down. We also rode the Lake Louise gondola up to the ski area for lunch and to go hiking and enjoy the ultra wide views of Lake Louise and the surrounding mountains. It was kind of freaky to pass through the big gates of the electrified fence that protects the top of the gondola visitors area from grizzly bears.
Peyto Lake viewpoint
A major highlight was visiting Moraine Lake for sunrise and hiking from there up towards Wenkchemna Pass on the Eiffel Lake Trail. Afterward we briefly visited Lake Louise itself but never ended up doing any of the classic hikes up from the lake. Another favorite was the gorgeous Peyto Lake viewpoint and hiking up the valley from there. We enjoyed hiking through Johnston Canyon despite the crowds and the insane lines for photo ops at the waterfalls. It is impressive but admittedly still cooler to see the canyon iced over in the winter (without crowds of people) as we’ve done in the past.
Hector Lake and the Pulpit Peaks
We enjoyed still more hiking from Bow Lake up towards Bow Glacier Falls on a cold wet morning, a late afternoon hike from our campsite to Chephren Lake and a short hike to more stupendous views at the edge of Hector Lake.
We crossed into Canada from Idaho in the camper van on the morning of July 28th, heading for the Canadian national parks in the Rocky Mountains. We stopped in Cranbrook for lunch and groceries and challenged ourselves to the “voted most challenging mini golf in Canada” at Elizabeth Lake Lodge (it was pretty cool) before continuing on to Kimberly. We checked out the town that evening and found a good overnight spot near the mountain biking trails above town and rode some of the trails the next day before heading on to Kootenay National Park.
In Kootenay National Park, we managed to snag a campsite for a couple of nights and spent one day hiking the beautiful Stanley Glacier Trail and checking out the incredible Marble Canyon gorge. The following day was a bit of the rest day to enjoy the Radium Hot Springs as well as visit the town of the same name. We made a couple more stops while making our way on to Banff.
Nearing the end of our southern Utah road trip, we swung south and around from the eastern side of Canyonlands National Park, crossing the Colorado River on the northern reach of Glen Canyon to eventually make our way to Capitol Reef National Park. We had only one day to spend hiking among fantastic towering rock walls on some trails accessible from the main highway before boondocking overnight just outside the park and then having to head home. I’m sure there’s plenty more to see in Capitol Reef and of course there’s still so much more to explore across all of southern Utah in future trips!
Continuing our road trip through southern Utah, Darlene and I moved on to Canyonlands National Park. Canyonlands is actually divided into three separate districts which can only be accessed separately. We spent four days exploring the Islands in the Sky district, repeatedly blown away by the incredible vistas revealed in every direction. Most of our time was spent hiking various trails on the mesa top but we also spent one day biking down from the mesa on the White Rim Road. Would be great to come back sometime and fully explore that 100-mile rough dirt road.
We lost a half day here and there arranging to get the van’s badly-wearing tires replaced but I got a taste of some of great mountain biking trails outside the park while we were hanging out in the area. After getting the new tires installed, we headed south from Moab in the midst of snow flurries to spend a couple of days in the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park, including a long day of hiking and scrambling through the Chesler Park area.
We didn’t try to reach the western, third district of Canyonlands, The Maze. It’s much more remote and much less accessible.
Following our week of skiing in Colorado, we continued our road trip in the campervan by moving on to southern Utah, starting with several days of hiking among the rock formations and arches throughout Arches National Park. Darlene was also able to snag a permit for us to spend a day scrambling over and squeezing between rocks in the Fiery Furnace.
Our last stop on our road trip home was to Saguaro National Park which is split into two halves on either side of Tuscon, Arizona. After our cave tour at Colossal Cave, we spent the afternoon cactus-touring along the scenic loop of the east park and then found some dispersed camping in the foothills back near Colossal Cave.
The next morning we made our way across Tuscon to explore the western half of the park. Each half is a little different, including the visitor centers. I wouldn’t skip either one. We didn’t do any hiking but just toured the scenic loop, checking out the cactus varieties up close. That evening we were treated to a grand sunset out in the open desert west of Phoenix, near Saddle Mountain.
Oh look, another cave system! Colossal Cave Mountain Park is a privately-owned park and cave system near Tucson, Arizona. We hadn’t planned on going here but decided to stop by and check it out. As there happened to still be space available on their next scheduled tour, Darlene and I joined their mid-grade “Ladder Tour” – a little more than their basic walking tour but not so much spelunking as their “Wild Cave Tour”. Anyway, it was fun – we’re glad we stopped for it!
