Where are the best spots to view wildlife?
Especially bears. We will be going to both
Jasper and Banff at the beginning of June.
Any suggestions on available tours? etc.

I am mostly familiar with the Jasper area.
Bears can be hit and miss for seeing. You might see one wandering through your cabin area at Alpine Village! Not really likely though. I see the most bears on the Icefields Parkway and on side roads such as up to Maligne Lake or Miette Hot Springs. Look for a number of cars stopped at the side of the road blocking traffic (pet peeve!)
The previous is for black bears - I have seen only one Grizzly in Jasper Park in 25 years living in the area.
Black bears can also be encountered on all the hiking trails in the area. Grizzlys too in the higher country.
Elk are often seen at that time of year close to the Jasper town site. They are probably still in their calving season so can be quite aggressive if approached.
Moose are quite rare in Jasper, although they are sometimes seen feeding in the shallows of Talbot Lake (on Highway 16 east towards Miette Hot Springs)
Mountain sheep can usually be seen at a rock outcropping on Highway 16 about 30 minutes east of Jasper. On rare occasions ther will be goats there also.
Deer are in abundance and most trips through the park we will see one or more.
Thompson Tours at (780) 852-7269
"Offers professional custom-tailored guided excursions in English, French and German."

We've have good luck in viewing wildlife, including black bears, on the road from Jasper townsite to Maligne Lake. The Yellowhead Highway (Hwy #16), from Jasper townsite eastwards towards the Jasper Park Gates, also is known as a good place for wildlife viewing.

If you do a Google search for JASPER + WILDLIFE, you'll find some tour offerings.

Sometimes one has good luck along the Icefields Parkway (the road that connects Jasper and Banff).

In my experience, wildlife viewing in Banff National Park is a hit and miss affair. You just never know when you'll see wildlife and when you won't see it. I don't see wildlife all that often in Banff National Park, but sometimes the animals really surprise me. One time we passed a couple of black bears next to the outlet stream that flows from Lake Louise (which is the start of the Bow River that flows through Calgary). To our surprise, these bears were not all that far from the crowds of people looking at Lake Louise.

In June 2006 visiting friends of ours were gobsmacked when they saw a grizzly bear at Lake Louise. They were at the far end of the lake, near the start of the Plain of Six Glaciers hiking trail. The bear was on the slope on the other side of the Victoria Glacier from them. Hence the bear was far enough away not to be a threat, but close enough that they could observe him/her clearly. They spent about an hour watching the bear.

Having said that, I should warn you that the wildlife in Jasper and Banff National Parks is nowhere near as prolific as it is in Alaska (according to accounts I've heard of Alaska).

If you want to see an area that is relatively rich in wildlife in the easily accessible parts of Alberta, you really ought to be going to Waterton Lakes National Park, which is in the southwestern corner of Alberta. It receives fewer visitors than Banff does, and your chances of seeing bears there are better than in Banff or even in Jasper.

Sorry, lunabug, I didn't see your message when I posted mine.

That was my next question. Since we have
a full 2 weeks, should we take in waterton Park? and how far of a drive from Calgary is it? Also, we will be
staying in Calgary for 2 days and i am told the shopping is awesome!!

When we visited the area in June, we took a ride on the Lake Louise gondola and they offered a package deal that included their breakfast buffet. We were a little early for the breakfast so we sat on the deck outside waiting and watched 4 grizzleys feeding on the ski slopes above us for about an hour until they all ended out of sight in the woods. We saw deer and elk alongside the roads in both Banff and Jasper parks. They are wild animals and will be where they want when they want. Hard to predict.

Hi jimresp,

You could consider this itinerary.

1 - Land in Calgary, drive to Banff.

2 - Explore Banff’s environs (2nd night in Banff).

3 - Drive to Jasper.

4 - Explore Jasper's environs (2nd night in Jasper).

5 - Drive the Icefields Parkway to Lake Louise. Stay in Lake Louise.

6, 7 – From your Lake Louise base, explore the western end of Banff National Park and Yoho National Park.

8 - Drive down the west side of the Canadian Rockies to a point that is on the west side of Montana's Glacier National Park (Whitefish, WEst Glacier or Lake McDonald).

9 -Drive the Going to the Sun Road through Glacier National Park and overnight in the Many Glacier / Swiftcurrent area on the east side of Glacier National Park.

10 - Explore Many Glacier / Swiftcurrent area of Glacier National Park, and spend a 2nd night in this area.

11 - Cross the US-Canada border and drive to Waterton Lakes National Park.

12 - Explore Waterton Lakes National Park, and spend a 2nd night in Waterton.

13 – Drive to Calgary. If you take the wide, straight highway across the prairies, it will take you 3 hours. Then you can spend the afternoon shopping in downtown Calgary.

However, I recommend that you take the longer, slower Cowboy Trail (Hwy #22), which takes you through the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains. After passing through extensive forests and farmlands, you eventually will reach the small villages / towns of Longview, Black Diamond, Turner Valley and Bragg Creek.

Each of those little towns has a couple of nice little restaurants. But interestingly enough, Longview, which is such a small place, is blessed with a particularly pleasant little collection of restaurants. You probably would reach Longview around lunch time, so it would make a good stop.

The hamlet of Bragg Creek has some cute galleries that feature local artists’ crafts. I find it a charming little place in which to shop.

Overnight in the northeast quadrant of Calgary, near the airport.

14 - Fly home.

NOTES

If you want to have a full day for shopping in Calgary, you could cut the Swiftcurrent / Many Glacier stop in GNP down to one night.

If you spend a full day (2 nights) in Calgary for city sight seeing and shopping, you probably would be better off locating yourselves downtown.

The northeast quadrant is convenient if you're just spending one night in Calgary before flying out.

I don't know who told you that the shopping in Calgary was awesome. I personally do not find it remarkable. But it is interesting for visitors who are new to cowboy culture to see the western outfitting stores on Stephen Avenue Walk (the pedestrianized stretch of 8th AVenue South, in the downtown core).

Hope that helps.

I think best place you can see wild animal most is Kananaskis.
I visited there last June.
1 hour drive from Calgary. If you'd seen movie "Brokeback Mountain", that's the place the movie was shot.
Just south of Kananaskis golf course, we saw Grizzly bear, black bear.
Elks and deer, they are just everywhere.

We saw black bear in Jasper area, too.
Actually east of Jasper, Hot springs area. They were family.
Good luck!

Seeing wildlife in those parks is based on luck, being in the right place at the right time.

I have been there many times and only once I have I seen a bear. At that time, I did NOT want to see a bear because s/he wanted to use the same trail. Being as the bear had a big hump on his/her shoulders, I decided my bruin friend was too close to being a grizzly to venture farther in the animal's direction! Grizzlies don't take too kindly to humans who interrupt their feeding.

As for other forms of wildlife, it is luck and chance. On the Icefields Parkway we spied a moose. People were stopping and trying to get photographs. My adult son must have chased that darn critter half way to Jasper trying to get a picture. We had to drive down the road to pick him up, red faced and breathing hard. But he got his photo.

I once discovered a bull elk on the road to Maligne Lake. I was able to go into the woods and get a closeup. I wasn't too worried that he could charge at me with that rack of antlers through dense lodgepole pines. I could hardly squeeze through myself - at 6 feet and 180.

You can see other animals along the road between Jasper town and the park entrance on the road toward Hinton.
There is a natural salt lick there and it seems to attract the mountain sheep.

If you see any at all, count yourself fortunate. All I usually find are squirrels and mosquitos.

There is one plant you should look for. Let me quote from Ben Gadd's Handbook of the Canadian Rockies. Before I do so, I would like to state without reservation that it is one of two books that is absolutely essential to full enjoyment of that spectacular part of the world.
Mr. Gadd has put together a classic that is loaded with useful information about just about every thing you could want when it comes to geology, climate, flora and fauna.

Here is the quote, and it is particularly important if you are searching for rare plants.

The scientific name according to Mr. Gadd is infansdorsum unidactyl.

"Exceedingly rare but interesting, known from one location halfway up the Palidade cliff near Jasper ..."

"Leaves are oppposite and deeply cleft. Striking odor."

To learn more about all the animals in those woods, may I recommend Mr. Gadd's unrivaled, unprecedented book.

Oh yes, the other book. The Canadian Rockies Trail Guide by Brian Patton and Bart Robinson. It is a classic. I think it is the best hiking guide in the English language. Last I heard, it was in its 7th edition. Needless to say most authors are happy to get a second edition; this one may now be out in the 8th edition.

Like Judy, I saw the most wildlife on the drive from Jasper to Maligne Lake.

I once saw a young grizzly on the paved trail near the Cave and Basin hotsprings in Banff. For those of you who are not familiar with the area, that is a very well travelled trail. In fact, on that day there were several families riding bikes and generally enjoying the views. Most of them did not even notice the big bear feeding above the trail.

That said, I agree it is hit and miss. I think the best chances are Kananaskis and Waterton.

We have visited Banff and Jasper during different times of the year. June & end of September were among the month, where we spotted most bears. We saw more bears (black bears) in the Jasper area and we saw the bears traveling very close to the town of Jasper (especially end of September). I have read a notice of the park warden in June, that the bears prefere middle eviations as location in June. So the raods towards Maligne Lake and Miette hot springs might be good locations. We never saw a bear close to Banff. I don't know why, but we saw during June 10 black bears in Jasper and only 1 black bear on the icefield parkway between bow summit and columbia icefield and no bears in the area of Banff or Lake Louise.