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Canadian Rockies Trail Guide

Canadian Rockies Hiking Blog

Backpacking Banff’s Dormer-Panther Circuit

Backpacking Banff’s Dormer-Panther Circuit

  More and more backpackers are exploring Banff National Park's Front Ranges every year. Mostly they enter the region on the Red Deer River, either from the headwaters at Red Deer Lakes or from the park's eastern boundary at Ya Ha Tinda Ranch. But there's little...

Classic Loop Hikes in Banff and Yoho

Classic Loop Hikes in Banff and Yoho

Most of the day hikes in the Canadian Rockies are one way, up-and-back. But there's no doubt hikers prefer loop trips, or circuits, that don't require retracing their steps. Here are a few of the best. One of my favourite guidebooks is the UK's Classic Walks in the...

10 favourite waterfall hikes

10 favourite waterfall hikes

Springtime is the unofficial start of the hiking season in Canada’s National Parks and the best time to visit some of the Rockies’ spectacular waterfalls.

New access to Banff’s most popular trails

New access to Banff’s most popular trails

Update September 3, 2021: Parks Canada reopened the eastern 17 kms of the Bow Valley Parkway between Fireside and Johnston Canyon to vehicles on September 1st. This section of the Parkway was closed to vehicles and used primarily by cyclists from June 1st.  Banff...

Floe Lake—a poem by David Zieroth

Floe Lake—a poem by David Zieroth

Sometimes moving through landscape can become art. In the mid-1970s, David (aka Dale) Zieroth was working as a park naturalist in Kootenay National Park when he hiked on an overnight to Floe Lake with some of his Parks Canada colleagues. The poem that came out of that...

Hiking around Storm Mountain Lodge

Hiking around Storm Mountain Lodge

The original Guide to Hiking Trails in the vicinity of Storm Mountain Lodge was published in 1978. The text and design was created by then lodge co-owner Jim Thorsell. After the lodge changed ownership, the book was out of print for three decades. Many things changed...

The Great Divide Trail—1970

The Great Divide Trail—1970

The Provisional Trail Guide and Map for the Great Divide Trail was published in 1970. It contains a description for the original route, which remains useful to backpackers today.

Last Tango on Stoney Squaw

Last Tango on Stoney Squaw

Some of the most popular short-hike destinations in the Bow Valley have experienced name changes over the past 40 years or may do so soon.