When I was planning my trip to Jasper and Banff, I had no idea that the drive between the two was an attraction in itself. The drive reminds me of Maui’s Road to Hana or California’s Highway 1 / Pacific Coast Highway drive. There are so many stops along the way to see some waterfalls, lakes, rivers, and gorgeous landscape, or to just hike. I highly recommend carving out the time to make the drive. If you need any recommendations or tips, then check out my general tips and full itinerary below. 

General Tips

• How long does it take: The drive is ~3 hours straight (without stopping or traffic). However, I would allocate around 5 to 8 hours if you plan to make some stops to hike or get food. The itinerary below took us around 6.5 hours. 
• Things to buy beforehand: Pack enough water since many of the stops and trails do not have water stations. Also, I would bring plenty of snacks as well since we didn’t see too many restaurants or shops along the way.
• What car should I get: The roads were well maintained when we went so no need for a heavy duty car. We opted for a gas-efficient car instead, which was great given how many miles we ended up driving.
• What should I prepare beforehand: Have enough gas before you start the drive because we only saw two gas stations along the way (maybe there are more but requires more driving) and traffic could be bad since it is only a one-lane road. Also, service is spotty so I would download offline maps on Google maps beforehand so you can look up directions. 

Itinerary from Jasper (North) to Banff (South)

1. Jasper National Park
2. Athabasca Falls
3. Sunwatpa Falls
4. Tangle Creek Falls
5. Parker Ridge Trail head / Hike
6. Peyto Lake
7. Bow Lake
8. Banff / Chuck’s Steakhouse

We started from our hotel in Hinton and drove through Jasper National Park. We debated whether or not we should make the detour to Medicine Lake and Maligne Lake, but ended up not going given timing. Once we started driving, we were already in awe by the sights from just the car ride.

We had spent the previous day exploring Jasper National Park so we headed straight to Athabasca Falls. We spent ~30 min walking around to see the falls, river, and the potholes formed into the canyon.

We then headed to our next stop, Sunwatpa Falls. There was a restaurant, a small resort, a viewpoint for the falls, and some hiking trails. Compared to Athabasca Falls, we thought Sunwatpa was less impressive and probably could have skipped it to save time. 

Our next stop was just down the road to Tangle Creek Falls. This was literally off to the side of the road. Be careful with Google Maps since it will direct you to the falls instead of the parking lot. The parking lot is located before the falls and to the right (if coming from Jasper) so keep an eye out. 

After Tangle Creek Falls, we passed by the Glacier Skywalk but skipped it since it wasn’t on our plan. The Skywalk is an attraction where you can pay to walk out onto a glass floor to where there is a viewpoint of Sunwapta Valley. Further south is the Iceland Glacier Center, which offers various hikes and viewpoints of glaciers. 

We decided to skip the Iceland Glacier Center since we heard the Parker Ridge Trail head had better views of glaciers. We were able to put in “Parker Ridge Trail” into Google maps and parked at the lot to the right of the road. This is a 5km (~3mi) hike and has been rated as easy, but honestly it should have been rated as moderate given the elevation gain (and all of the members of my group are decent hikers). We didn’t expect to hike pretty much uphill the entire time, especially in wet mud and snow. When you reach the top, you get to see the Saskatchewan Glacier headwaters of the Saskatchewan River (totally worth it). Tip: Prepare beforehand and bring good shoes (such as hiking shoes), layers, gloves and a hat because it can get windy at the top. 

We were pretty exhausted after the hike so we drove straight to Peyto Lake. Tip: In the GPS / Google Maps, type in “Bow Summit” instead of “Peyto Lake”. We almost missed it because we didn’t see any signs for Peyto Lake. We drove into the summit and parked in the lot. There are other hiking trails available or you can just walk up to the summit with a view of Peyto Lake, which takes about 10-15 minutes. We were blown away by the lake (and also by how many tourists there were). I ended up walking off to the rocks so that I could get away from the crowd (sorry for not staying on trail). The lake looks so similar to Moraine Lake as they both have that milky turquoise water. 

A little south of Peyto / Bow Summit is Bow Lake, which is literally off to the side of the road.

We were running out of gas and couldn’t make it to Emerald Lake so we decided to head straight to Banff and check into our hotel, Banff Rocky Mountain Resort. After showering, we headed off to one of our favorite restaurants from the trip, Chuck’s Steakhouse. They work with local ranchers to get the best quality meat. I highly recommend getting some of their sides to share, especially the corn creme brûlée and mac and cheese truffle croquettes. We also loved the steak frites. It was the perfect way to end a day of hiking and driving.