Banff, Canada: June 26 - July 2, 2026
- Cecilia Clark
- Jul 26
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 28
Dan took me to Alberta, Canada, for our 37th anniversary and my July birthday. We visited Banff, Lake Louise, and Jasper National Parks with no admission charge due to the Canada Strong Pass giving free admission from June 19 to September 7, 2026. The scenery throughout our entire journey was magnificent, and my posts of our time in Alberta, Canada, are mostly photos.
Banff was cool with very changeable weather during our stay. The clouds were beautiful, and when there was rain it mostly didn't make any difference as it usually passed by quickly. Banff is surrounded by mountains, and daily trains skirt the town sounding their whistle as they move along.
Vermilion Lakes, about a 5-minute drive west of Banff, are chain of three shallow lakes in Banff National Park. The day we visited, the lake was like a mirror and the sun made the lake grasses sparkle like diamonds.
Banff is a very walkable city with great public transportation. We stayed at Hotel Canoe and Suites; they have free parking and provide a bus pass to each guest for the entire stay. The bus pass is handy to get to trail heads and even just up and down Banff Avenue. Banff has a lot of visitors and a lot of traffic.
Sudden Sally is the restaurant at Hotel Canoe. Breakfasts are huge. The first day I ordered something that seemed Canadian: Maple Fried Oatmeal. In addition to steel-cut oats, it has dried fruit, hemp and squash seeds, lime curd and spiced cream with maple syrup. The fried oatmeal with seeds came as a large rectangle topped with lime curd and maple syrup cream. It was delicious. After that we just grabbed some breakfast pastries and hot drinks and brought them back to our room. We also ate at Balkan Restaurant Banff (Greek): our meal was fabulous. Despite the coolness of the weather, we stood in long lines to get ice cream on Banff Avenue.
We walked the Bow River Trail, and on the rainiest of days, our anniversary, we took the bus to the Cave and Basin Historic Site. For over 10,000 years the thermal springs was and continues to be a special place for Indigenous Peoples. In 1883, three railway workers found the thermal springs, sparking a series of events that led to the creation of Canada’s first national park. The subsequent thermal bathing pools created after the railway workers "discovered" the thermal springs no longer exist but the cave is still open for visitors.
The Bow River was really rushing after a day of rain. Earlier in the year Banff had flooding due to excessive rainfall and early warm temperatures in March.
On our last morning in Banff we took the bus to the Banff Gondola to ride up to near the top of Sulfur Mountain. It seemed like it would be the best weather day to see the view. We ate lunch at the mountain's Northern Lights Alpine Kitchen--not much to see outside due to fog, but the buffet was wonderful.
We took the Bow Valley Parkway (Canada 1A) to Lake Louise stopping in a Johnston Canyon for a hike. This was our second attempt to hike there. The first time we arrived around 11 am and all available parking was full so we were turned back by park service employees. This time, it was late afternoon and we were able to park in the closest parking lot. The hike to the lower falls is about 1.2 km each way from the trailhead. At the lower falls there is a rock tunnel cave but at that point it was raining quite hard and there was a line to get into the tunnel. Beyond the tunnel the trail will take you to the lower falls and the ink pots. Next time.
Next stop: Chateau Lake Louise
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