Bow Valley parkway – Johnston Canyon and Vermillion Lakes

After the beautiful Lake Louise, we headed towards Banff and Calgary along the Bow Valley Parkway. The amazing weather we had at Lake Louise  was gone and was now varying between dramatic and saturating! The drive towards Banff was beautiful, although the most beautiful roadside vista is as you see it here, and nowhere else came close. Most of the drive was fir trees and more fir trees.

Our first stop was at Johnston Canyon, a canyon with a series of beautiful waterfalls. The hike is an easy 2.7 km to the upper falls or a shorter 1.1 km to the lower falls. Mikayla and Chris opted for the shorter, while I headed for the longer one.

The lower falls were pretty with a little rainbow across the middle. The viewing bridge and cave sections were busy with tourists.

The walk to the upper falls was fantastic, not because the upper falls themselves were anything special, but because of the beautiful, smaller falls along the way and the forest walk.

The water was an amazing blue colour again:

The upper falls were taller than the others, but with the amount of water present in early autumn / fall, were not particularly special. Perhaps I was just spoilt, by all of the other falls we had seen this day and recently?

As always, I had to find some mushrooms to photograph!

We drove on to Vermilion Lakes near Banff, while the weather was worsening. Although the lakes were also beautiful, especially when the reflections were visible, the rain spoilt the view a little. These lakes are a short distance from the Banff township and perfect walk or bike ride, along fairly flat terrain.

Still no luck with spotting wildlife though….! We’ll see you again soon in Banff.