Alberta

01 / Alberta

Banff National Park

Canada's most visited national park offers glacier-carved valleys, turquoise lakes, and alpine hiking trails across 6,641 square kilometres of the Rockies. The park has excellent infrastructure but rewards visitors who explore beyond the town of Banff — the quieter trails away from the main corridors reveal an enormous wilderness that the car-based visitor barely scratches.

02 / Alberta

Lake Louise

The most recognisable lake in the Canadian Rockies — a glacial body of milky turquoise water at the foot of the Victoria Glacier, with the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise providing scale on the western shore. The colour comes from glacial rock flour suspended in the meltwater, and it is exactly as vivid as every photograph suggests. The Plain of Six Glaciers hike above the lake is outstanding.

03 / Alberta

Icefields Parkway

The 230-kilometre highway between Banff and Jasper is consistently ranked among the most scenic drives in the world, passing glaciers, waterfalls, and mountain lakes that appear around every corner. The Columbia Icefield, midway along the route, feeds six glaciers including the accessible Athabasca Glacier where ice walk tours operate in summer.

04 / Alberta

Moraine Lake

Ten kilometres beyond Lake Louise, Moraine Lake sits in the Valley of the Ten Peaks — a setting so dramatic it once appeared on the Canadian $20 bill. The Rockpile viewpoint above the lake takes 15 minutes to reach and delivers one of the great mountain panoramas in Canada. Arrive early or take the Parks Canada shuttle — the parking lot fills before 7 a.m. in peak season.

05 / Alberta

Jasper National Park

Larger and less crowded than Banff, Jasper National Park preserves over 10,800 square kilometres of boreal forest and mountain wilderness. The Athabasca Falls are among the most powerful in the Rockies. Wildlife is more frequently seen here than almost anywhere else in Canada — bears, elk, wolves, moose and caribou all inhabit the park.

06 / Alberta

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

One of the oldest, largest and best-preserved buffalo jumps in North America — a UNESCO World Heritage Site where Plains Indigenous peoples drove bison over sandstone cliffs for nearly 6,000 years. The interpretive centre, built into the cliff face, presents the history with exceptional depth and Indigenous authority.