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Bow Valley Parkway (Route 1a)

Driving time Banff - Lake Louise via Bow Valley Parkway (Route 1a): approx. 1 hour
(one day, if you stop at all proposed stops)

Bow Valley Parkway

Anybody who is not in a hurry should avoid the fast route on the Transcanada Highway from Banff to Lake Louise. Shortly behind Banff a parallel route turns off to the right, which is not used as intensively. Therefore chances are good especially during morning and evening hours to watch for wild animals. Grizzlies, black bears and bighorn sheep are spotted regularly along the road.

Hikers also find trails along Bow Valley Parkway. Some interesting trails turn off into the mountains along this road.
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Traces of forest fire

Shortly after the junction with the Transcanada Highway there is a forest area on a hillside to the right with obvious traces of a forest fire. Here the National Park Service started a controlled fire.

This method is used in Canadian National Parks to repair mistakes that have happened in forest management during the last hundred years. For decades fires were fought instantly. This increased the amount of old growth forests which tend to burn quicker than young trees. That is why forestry management tries to improve the situation in especially endangered areas by burning off the old trees in controlled fires.

In order to start such a burn, they wait for the best conditions: no wind in the forecast and the soil must be moist to ensure that the fire does not get out of control. Then selected forest areas are set on fire under the watchful eyes of Park Rangers. In this kind of forest management which resembles natural burns, single trees survive the fire and start spreading their seeds for young and fresh growth.
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Trees damaged by wild animals

A few kilometers further the Bow Valley Parkway passes a grove of trees where the bark has been bitten off in the lower parts of the trees. This has been done by wapiti elk during the winter. They feed on the tree bark during the cold months of the year.
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Johnston Canyon

About 28 kms west of Banff a parking lot on the right of the road gives access to Johnston Canyon.
Trail to the lower waterfall in Johnston Canyon Starting from the small restaurant a trail leads 6 kms through this canyon and passes the lower waterfall (20 min.) on its way to the upper waterfall (35 min.). If you continue from there you will reach the "Ink Pots" after 1 hour and 10 min., a group of seven springs.
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Der Rockbound Lake hiking trail

Follow Bow Valley Parkway to the west and you reach Castle Junction, where a warden station is located and you can choose to drive back to the Transcanada Highway.

This is where the Rockbound Lake hiking trail leads 8 kms to a lake in a hanging valley behind Castle Mountain. If you want to hike the whole distance to the lake count on about half a day. You can also just hike in for 15 minutes to Silverton Falls.
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Viewpoint of Castle Mountain

About one kilometer past the ranger station to the west there is a turnout on the right which leads to a viewing platform of Castle Mountain (2766 m). The castellate form of the mountain is the reason for its name. Castle Mountain
This mountain's appearance differs from the tilted mountains around Banff. Geologists think it is because the sediment layers in the main ranges of the Rocky Mountains were pushed up by enormous pressure. Erosion worked on the rock and created the castellate form through frost, wind and precipitation. This is how the main ranges of the Rocky Mountains were formed.
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Memorial for japanese prisoners during World War II

Hidden in the forest there is a small statue on the right side of the road that was erected in memory of a historic episode during World War II. Japanese citizens of Canada had been taken to internment camps until the end of the war.
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Junction with the Transcanada Highway

A few kilometers further Bow Valley Parkway splits in two. The lane to the west leads around a hill which is a favourite place for bighorn sheep. They often come here in the morning or evening, because they search for minerals in the soil.

Eventually Bow Valley Parkway joins the Transcanada Highway. The road to the right leads to the gondola up to Whitehorn Mountain. A ride to the top offers a beautiful view of Lake Louise with the Wenkchemna Range to the east and towards Kicking Horse Pass to the west.

If you follow the road across the Transcanada Highway you immediately reach the small village of Lake Louise.

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Are you interested in the following guides?
City Guide Banff
Guide Lake Louise

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