If you got a car for the day

Two of my ‘must see’-places here in Banff National Park is a short drive outside of Banff. This is a good reason to befriend someone with a car or spend the money it costs to rent one for a day or two.

Johnston Canyon

Lower Falls

It’s a 20 minutes drive from Banff towards Lake Louise. The first time I was out there was in my first week here in Banff, where I was deadly bored, just living at the HI Hostel, and we pretty much didn’t do anything else but drink (the first couple of weeks, or my 3 first weeks, where I was just waiting and waiting to get started with the winter season, start my job being a lifty at Sunshine Village, tend to get a bit boring and expensive!).

SO! One day, two of the amazing girls that I got to know in the first week of my stay here in Banff, rented a car and started touring around to all these cool places that you need a car to get to. We started out with Johnston Canyon, which is this long passage with walls of stone rising up on each side of you and this amazing clear turquoise-blue water below you.

It is hard to describe how beautiful it is walking around out there.

When I brought my mom out there this summer, and she have not heard of it before, she was doubting if it was worth the time, when she only had few days in Banff and wanted them to be the best, and see all the most important things that Banff has to offer. But even though she has been here before, and thinks she knows a lot about Banff I brought her out to Johnston Canyon, it’s a place you just need to see.

Upper Falls

My mom didn’t regret it at all, she kept saying that it was the most amazing place she has ever seen, and that she was so glad that I brought her there. And I loved being back, it always changes from time to time, and the first time I was there I spent an hour or so just walking to the Lower Falls and back. When I was there with my mom we decided to walk all the way out to the Upper Falls, because she didn’t believe that we could spend half an hour on walking 1.1km. We spent around 3 hours on walking around out there taking pictures and just enjoying the most spectacular scenery I’ve seen in Canada. The route to the Upper Falls is only 2.7km, 5.4km roundtrip. You can choose to walk even further out if you have the time. I haven’t done it yet, but will definitely be up for it!

On the way back from Johnston Canyon this summer was also the place I saw my first bear of this season. So, I definitely recommend that you visit Johnston Canyon sometime while you’re staying in Banff.

Lake Louise

Lake Louise

Living in Banff you’ll have to visit Lake Louise at some point, if not to see the Fairmont Hotel and the view over the lake and glacier, then at least to ski there. I will recommend though, that you go before the snow falls, or when the snow has melted again. It gives a better view over the glacier, so that it doesn’t just look like a big pile of snow on the mountaintops.

This summer I hiked up the Lake Agnes Tea House, which is a really easy and nice hike. You get the view over Lake Louise and the glacier a bit from above, and you get to Mirror Lake and Lake Agnes, which are so beautiful too. I really can’t emphasize this enough, but I think it is SO important that you get out and hike as much as possible to see the extraordinary nature that you are going to live in. The Lake Agnes Tea House is closed from the 10^th of October until start of June though, but bring your own lunch, and have a little picnic with good friends at Lake Agnes, or if you are still on Banff in June you could hike up there and get a nice bite of food or a cup of tea.

Lake Agnes

The hike is about 7km roundtrip, and took me about an hour to hike up and about the same amount of time to hike down. We enjoyed a nice cup of tea in the Tea House, where there is no electricity, so they heat up the tea over an old fire-stove and all the food that they are selling up there the people who works there are carries up every day, by the same trail you might hike up there by. So respect to the guys and girls who are working up there all summer long!