We are coming to the Canadian Rockies June 17-24th. I have our itenerary planned and just wanted to see if anyone could comment on our plans. We cannot change the order of the cities, but are flexible on the activities since we are renting a car.
17th arrive in Calgary around noon. Drive to Banff.
18th Gondola ride in the early morning, then rent a canoe, later go to the Luxtom Museum (I love Indian artifacts), &/or Cave Basin national Historic Site.
19th Leave Banff head toward Jasper.
Go up the Icefields Pkw. stop at Athabasca Glacier, maybe go on the Snocoach, visit Peyto Lake and enjoy the drive.7:00 pm church service in Jasper.
20th Jasper- Go to 10am church service if you didn't go on Sat. night. Maligne Lake Cruise,,Maligne Valley, Mount Edith Cavell,maybe whitewater rafting (we have done this several times on the Ocoee in TN.)
21st Lake Louise On the way take a tramway to The Whistlers. Canoe ride on Moraine Lake, Yoho Sightseeing Tour enjoy Lake Louise, Moraine Lake and Emerald Lake.

Any restaurants that are a must? We would like to have meals that are nice,but not too costly.We love a view.

All these activities may be too much, but I don't know what to leave off. We are 53 and 55 and moderately active. This is an anniversary trip, but who knows if we will ever be able to come back again so we hate to miss anything important.
Sorry this is so long. Thanks!

Hello Haney20,

It sounds like a nice trip.

If you want to go to Maligne Lake, Maligne Canyon and Mount Edith Cavell on the Sunday, then I think you would be wise to aim for the 7.00 p.m. church service in Jasper on the Saturday.

On our most recent visit to Jasper (August 2002), Maligne Lake, Maligne Canyon and Mount Edith Cavell fully occupied a day. And that was with a reasonably prompt start in the morning too. We didn't make enquiries about white water rafting, but I don't see how we could have fitted that into the same day.

It's a good 45 minute drive from Jasper townsite to Maligne Lake. Boat cruises to Spirit Island and back take 90 minutes. If they still are following the familiar schedule, then during the season you'll be there, they'll be departing from the dock every hour on the hour. The first cruise will start at 10 am, and the last one at 4 pm.

If I were you, I would leave Jasper townsite by 8.45 am at the latest and drive to Maligne Lake. This would leave a comfortable amount of time to view any wildlife you may encounter en route, park your car, and purchase tickets. Then you could catch the 10 am - 11.30 am cruise.

(If the above mentioned time frame is too ambitious, I'm sure you could get away with doing the whole thing an hour later. )

Following the cruise, you could have lunch at the restaurant overlooking the lake. I have no idea what the food is like, but it certainly would qualify as a restaurant with a view.

We didn't eat at the restaurant at Maligne Lake. Rather we had a picnic on the shores of Medicine Lake on the way back to Jasper townsite. That too qualified as a restaurant with a view.

Oh yes, a recollection is coming back to me. We were strolling through downtown Jasper the evening before we went to Maligne Lake, and we happened to see a place where we could buy tickets for the boat cruise to Spirit Island. We went ahead and bought the tickets then and there. I don't know that it was essential to do so, but I now do remember that it was kind of nice to have the tickets in hand when we arrived at Maligne Lake. We had stopped to look at some black bears that happened to be near the road on the way there, so when we reached Maligne Lake we didn't have too much time to spare before the start of the next cruise. I think the place where we bought the tickets in Jasper was the office of Maligne Tours at 627 Patricia Street. Here is their website, which says they're open till 10 pm 7 days a week during the summer:

http://www.malignelake.com/ticket.html

Hope you have a great trip.

Thank you so much. I was afraid we were trying to cram too much into one day,the rafting is something that I could probably do without anyway. I would really like to take the boat ride. The picnic idea sound great to me, too.

Haney20, when you get back to Lake Louise towards the end of your trip, I strongly suggest you take a day trip to Lake O'Hara. You are not allowed to drive there in your own vehicle. You have to park your car in a parking lot off the TransCanada Highway and catch the Lake O'Hara Lodge bus for the ride to the Lodge. If memory serves me correctly, the bus ride is 17 kilometres.

The hiking in the area is absolutely delightful, and you can make it as easy or as ambitious as you choose.

Staying at Lake O'Hara Lodge overnight is expensive and, as Brookwood once said here at Fodors, you almost have to inherit a reservation.

But a day trip is a feasible way of getting in there. If you have afternoon tea (scones, whipped cream and strawberry jam) on the Lodge's verandah, I'm sure you'll never forget it.

According to the Lake O'Hara Lodge website, people who want to do day trips to Lake O'Hara need to call Parks Canada at 250 343-6433.

See more details at

http://www.lakeohara.com/

Thanks for the idea, I doubt we can fit that into our schedule since we have reservations for each night of our trip already, but it does sound interesting.I will check on our schedule. Thanks again!

I think having a plan like yours sounds great. We did also--an idea of what we wanted to do--and then only had to make some changes to it due to weather and some things taking longer or less time than we thought. For instance, one day it was cloudy, so we postponed our visit to Whistler's until the next day--which was sunny and the views were better. It sounds like you have a nice mix of activities--don't worry about seeing everything--there is no way you could--just enjoy what you do. I figured our trip would be the only time we went there -- and it may still be --but after being there, I wouldn't rule out going back. I agree with buying the tickets for the Spirit Island cruise in Jasper--I don't know how crowded they are at that time of the year--but I would have hated to drive out there and then have to sit and wait for the next cruise. Although you can walk around the lake, eat at the restaurant, etc. while you wait--so it depends on what you want to do.

Thank you, I will make a reservation for the cruise. Do you think dinner reservations are a plus? Is there anything else I mentioned that need reservations? I do so want this anniversary trip to be well-planned, but not so much we can't be flexible.

You don't really need to make dinner reservations before you get to the mountains. That way you can look a place over, check out the menus, decide on the type of cuisine that you would prefer etc.
We have never had problems with reservations in Banff or Jasper even when making them just a few hours ahead of dinner, and the day before is usually far enough ahead of time.

Thank you,we will just hold off on the dinner reservations, but will make the cruise reservations as was suggested earlier.