10 MUST SEE Hiking & Photography Spots in Banff National Park 🇨🇦 Travel Vlog 37

are you ready to witness some of the most stunning natural beauty in all of North America Banff National Park is without a doubt one of the most strikingly beautiful places on planet Earth we are here for seven days and we are taking you on a journey to some of the most incredible places for sightseeing hiking and landscape photography iconic places like Lake Louise and Johnston Canyon and also spots that maybe you didn't know about like morant's curve in Pato Lake every single one of them will blow your mind and give you a glimpse into the process that brings you images like this and this and this get ready to dive in and experience Banff National Park [Music] we begin with the moment that you leave behind the plains of Alberta and make your first entrance into the Canadian rocky mountains this is Highway One Making its way into the Rockies with Banff National Park Waiting ahead the mountains get more and more impressive with every turn they have a rugged Jagged twisted and contorted Beauty to them [Music] we made it to the entrance of Banff National Park and it is crazy there's long long long line This is an indication that the park is going to be packed with people [Music] and we are in we made it to Banff National Park now we're gonna drive to our Campground broke the bus and go and explore [Music] Banff National Park was established in 1885 and was Canada's first national park the park has been recognized as a UNESCO world heritage site and protects 2 564 square miles of the Canadian Rockies this park is home to several hundred glaciers endangered caribou and over a thousand miles of maintained hiking trails you could walk from here to San Francisco before you covered the distance of this hiking trail system this park is boundless and it would take years to see it all [Music] not long after entering Banff National Park you find yourself in the town of benf now this is really interesting the town of Banff was established in 1990 and was Canada's first municipality to be incorporated within the boundaries of a national park not just anyone can live here in order to reside in this town you must either work in the national park or for a business that operates in relation to the park it's federal law the town has less than 10 000 permanent residents but it is host to over 4 million visitors every single year the town of Banff is a good place to treat like a base camp from here there are numerous mini excursions and day trips that you can take all right we have made it to the campground all I have to do now is find our spot we're full-time rvers so we're staying at Tunnel Mountain Campground campgrounds and lodging in general in Banff is very limited and with those 4 million visitors every year Things fill up quick this is definitely a place you want to book everything ahead of time if you can [Music] we got a beautiful campsite right across from a Mountain View you can kind of see it through the trees there and we are going to go out and start exploring just driving in here we were both like the mountains are just they're just really striking beautiful mountains now that we're parked we can transition to our little Runner car and hit up three cool spots right in the area the first is a view of the historic Fairmont band Springs Hotel Rising like a castle out of the mountain landscape the Fairmont has been an iconic symbol event since its construction in 1886. it was one of many Grand hotels built by the Canadian Pacific Railway in the concerted effort to draw tourism and travelers to the railway system to this day the Fairmont bant Springs is an iconic symbol of the park our next stop is Lake Minnewanka located 10 miles outside of the town of Banff to get there we take the Lake Minnewanka Scenic Drive we are already in awe of the mountain scenes along this road and little do we know this really is just the beginning [Music] Lake Minnewanka is a man-made lake whose hydroelectric Dam supplies power to the town of Banff the lake is 13 miles long and a striking 466 feet deep and there's something quite unexpected hidden within those cold Waters an entire town the lake was first formed by the building of a dam in 1895. another dam was constructed in 1912 raising water levels by 12 feet but in 1941 a significantly larger dam was constructed resulting in a water level rise of 100 feet the resort town of Minnewanka Landing that had existed along the shores of Lake Minnewanka since 1912 was completely submerged to this day divers love to explore the Old Town well preserved in these frigid Waters so we're about to go on a little hike around Lake Minnewanka and just get to experience the woods a little bit oh so I can see what you were saying about the folding see it now you see the lid right there as we head back towards the town of band we catch our first Wildlife sighting guys you got some on that side too our final Excursion of the day is the stone's throw from the town of Beth [Music] and now we are going to watch the alphen glow light up this scene I am here I'm gonna do some sketching and Jose Luis is over there and he's of course gonna be capturing some photographs Vermillion Lakes Road is a couple minutes drive out of town numerous Lookouts and sitting areas line the road with spectacular Mountain views Dead Ahead it's the perfect spot to pitch your lawn chair and watch the alpen glow creep across the mountainscape with the town of band behind us we can now head deeper into the park the park stretches out in an elongated shape with a highway of over a hundred miles stretching between the North and South entrance this means it's really convenient to have base camps within each region of the park just like we use the town of Banff as a base camp in the southern part of the park now we're going to use protection Mountain Campground as our base camp in the middle region of the park protection Mountain Campground is first come first serve so we're crossing our fingers that there's space parking and lodging in Banff is tricky especially if you're in an RV parking on pull outs and waysides is illegal but reservations at campgrounds are hard to get and first come first serve campgrounds are well first come first serve you never really know if you'll get one for this reason we really recommend planning ahead and reserving your spots at reservable campgrounds so you can avoid slightly stressful scenarios like the one that we are currently in we really don't know if there will be a campsite available for us when we arrive so we got very lucky and we got ourselves a nice campsite at the first come first serve Campground you're gonna have to go around and do the whole Loop to get back I'm in a parking spot just making three minutes hours okey dokey this is much better than the other one look at this it's amazing yeah we lucked out and the campground is actually quite empty from this space camp we are now perfectly set up to hit up the most incredible lineup of Banff sites so get ready [Music] ice cream ice cream we are going out on a hike we have a bear Bell we have bear spray and a bear horn of any bear happens to cross our paths we are ready to scare it away we are going on the castle Lookout Trail and this Trail should be pretty awesome because it has an Overlook of the whole valley when we get up to the top and we'll be there just in time for sunset [Music] this looks like a big mudslide I don't want to be here when this fills up with water well thank you [Music] [Music] Castle Mountain Trail is 4.5 miles round trip and it is challenging but worth it the mission here is to reach the castle mountain Lookout just in time for some sweet sweet Sunset photographs oh wow yeah this is quite a spot [Music] Castle Mountain Rises 9075 feet above sea level we're not going to the top but we're certainly getting ourselves closer to it the mountain gets its name because from far away it really does resemble a castle Fortress from the front Castle Mountain looks impossible to climb without ropes but it actually has a gently sloping back making it a favorite destination among hikers we're sticking to the front side of the mountain climbing up an unrelenting series of switchbacks to reach that coveted Lookout Point [Music] [Music] I think we made it what what look at this we're surrounded by Beauty nerdout time see that U-shaped valley you guys tell me what creates a U-shaped valley like that put it in the comments Castle Mountain Lookout is an amazing spot to catch the sunset and if you're a photographer quite a location for some landscape photography today the air is unusually hazy because a wildfire just started north of here in Jasper National Park but it doesn't ruin the photography in fact the particles in the air make the sunset colors even more intense along with this soft and Eerie lighting [Music] next up is Johnston Canyon Trail we're hiking the Johnson Canyon path and we are on our way to see the lower pole Johnson Canyon is one of the most popular trails in the park and it's easy to see why this whole stretch all the way to the lower Falls is paved with a raised walkway allowing hikers of all levels in all ages to experience the beauty of the canyon and the falls if you want to avoid the crowds you might want to consider getting here earlier in the morning Johnston Canyon was formed and continues to be formed as the Johnson Creek cuts into the Limestone of this area the results are sheer Canyon walls that would be difficult for most to navigate were it not for the constructed walkways the canyon gets its name from a gold prospector who first mapped the canyon in the late 1800s unfortunately we don't know their first name the cold Waters of Johnston Creek give the canyon its own microclimate the temperature here drops drastically as you enter the canyon which is actually quite refreshing if it's a hot day out there once you reach the falls it really hits home just how popular this spot is it takes some time to snag a good angle for photography though somehow this guy always manages it if you intend to get great photographs here either arrive early or plan on being patient as you wait for the right spot to open up it's worth it when it finally does [Music] next up Moran's curve photographers this is a spot you cannot miss I want to get a picture here with the train passing so we probably have to wait about 30 to 45 minutes for the next train to pass this Viewpoint overlooks a beautiful bend in the Bow flanked by the railway all against the spectacular backdrop of the Canadian Rockies the Viewpoint is located on Highway 1A about four miles south of Lake Louise there's a small parking lot on the Eastern side of the highway and the Viewpoint is set up perfectly for photography we are setting up shop the other night I made a huge thing of pad thai so now we've been eating Pad Thai so check this out we've been eating Pad Thai for a while bedtime with a few minutes dinner with a view for those of us who don't do photography this is a great opportunity to appreciate a big part of a photographer's process and that is the matter of patience and timing there's often a great deal of careful planning timing and patience behind our favorite photographs waiting until the light is just right waiting for hours for that key moment when the train comes around the bend and then capturing that moment before it rushes by the final photograph that we see is pregnant with the time and planning that the photographer invested in it [Music] we're now on our way to one of the most popular destinations in Banff National Park Lake Louise chances are you have seen pictures of this Lake the sun is shining our Spirits are high and we can see the mountains that surround the lake off in the distance little do we know we are hopelessly naive to think we're actually going to see that Lake today [Music] Lake Louise is one of the world's most photographed glacial lakes it is profoundly popular receiving nearly 4 million visitors per year think about that there are only 365 days in a year and what does that mean traffic lots and lots and lots of traffic and even though there's a lot of parking up here it's no match for the amount of cars we are super naive to think that we'll be getting a parking spot midday so word to the wise if you want to get parking at Lake Louise you must show up before 6 a.m the park also runs shuttles leaving from the town of Lake Louise so today we are thwarted in our attempts to see the lake but that's okay because we have a backup plan here's the deal about Banff National Park if you stick to only the most popular spots like Lake Louise and Johnston Canyon expect to always be part of a big crowd but don't forget the park boasts over a thousand miles of hiking trails and hundreds of glaciers and lakes that means there is a heck of a lot of places you can go to have Mama nature almost all to yourself you're just gonna have to work for it and strap on your hiking shoes we're headed to one such spot called Hector Lake well we're at it again off on another hiking Adventure this time we're heading to Hector Lake we caught a little glimpse of it from the road and the color looks amazing the hike to Hector Lake passes through rich forests of the Canadian Rockies Banff has three ecoregions montane sub-alpine and Alpine right now we are in the sub-alpine region which makes up 53 percent of the Park's area it is dominated by Engelman Spruce with some areas of Suba playing Fur and Lodgepole Pine leaving behind the popular areas of the park also means leaving behind all those walkways and bridges that make it so easy to get where you're going this is the Bow River yep the same Bow River we saw last week snaking through the beautiful City of Calgary and we have to cross it to reach the spot we're aiming for ah what artists will do to get that perfect shot well we didn't expect this looks like we gotta take our shoes off and cross the river to continue to the lake fun and look what I'm wearing pants uh-oh should be wearing shorts oh before I was prepared she's wearing shorts thank you for carrying my shoes here we go [Music] Hector lake is only the second Lake after the Bow River Headwaters meaning we're not too far from where this River actually originates which also means this water is cold yeah we're almost there I made it high five ow are you cold well that was fun [Music] look at this beautiful Lake look at this amazing look at that color as they say good things come to those who wait and to those who Wade through frigid glacial Rivers this is what awaits us at the end of the trail it's really windy so I was expecting to come here and see the lake like calm and like a mirror but There's an opportunity for time lapse because it's windy it's cloudy the clouds are moving really fast so I'm gonna get ready to shoot a time lapse [Music] I'm gonna have it going for about 36 minutes which should give me about 30 seconds uh time lapse uh 24 frames per second so that'll be a nice little piece to use on one of the experimental films that we are planning to do over the winter of the Waves crashing on the Rocks here and a little bit of the wind as well this is the audio that will be used most likely in experimental films let's find a good spot for it I like to use it's called XY so basically it has two uh little two microphones in there that are capturing a stereo image so it's like mimics how your ear is here and so that way when you hear the recording of this you can close your eyes and you feel like you're there [Music] and now we leave it there for three minutes let it do its thing my job is a little less time intensive than Jose's which is why I get more time to do sketching Hector Lake covers an area of about two square miles it is a natural reservoir for the early Waters of the Bow River towering over the lake are Pulpit Peak Mount Balfour Crow Foot mountain and bow Peak on days where the air is still this Lake can form an almost perfect mirror for us we're satisfied with the windy day we got it makes for a more lively and wave-filled soundscape a more Dynamic time lapse and some pretty incredible long exposure shots [Music] good morning we got up nice and early to get here to Lake Louise someone is capturing some beautiful photos and video and I'm still waking up Lake Louise it's no wonder this spot is so insanely popular So Many Factors come together to make this an impressive place to stand for one the glacier carved mountains reach around in an almost perfectly symmetrical hug being at water level seems to make the Mountain's towering appearance even more impressive and the color of that water well we'll talk more about that in a bit no matter when you visit Lake Louise you will be surrounded by other people it's a guarantee take it as an opportunity to help other people get that once in a lifetime photo even if you're not a professional photographer with knowledge to share you can offer to take others photos so they get the full landscape and not just the selfie shot you never know who will return the favor and do the same for you if there is one day-long hiking trip that we highly highly recommend it would be this one the Beehive trail to the plain of six glaciers Trail and then back to the beginning via the Lake Louise Lakeshore Trail all in all it's an over 12 mile day but you'll enjoy every single inch of it bring plenty of water and all the food you need don't rely on the tea houses for food because well you'll see The Beehive trail passes right along Mirror Lake which isn't too mirrery for us today but it's still beautiful [Music] as you climb higher the views of the mountains towering over Lake Louise become even more Grand you begin to see some of the glaciers that feed into the lake we arrive at Lake Agnes and its famous Tea House only to find that the tea house is well truly that quite famous good thing we brought plenty of our own food so we were planning to have a little tea house date up here but as you can see the line is crazy I made some banana bread last night we brought chips and gorp and cheese banana bread it's pretty good fruit only pretty good foreign this is the big beehive and that's where we're headed [Music] [Music] foreign you have got to be kidding me look at the color that is unreal oh my gosh it's like a robin's egg this is the color that this color has not been manipulated or I mean this is straight camera capturing color of the real world I mean it actually looks this color it looks like turquoise milk okay I know you're thinking it the color of that water how is that even possible what is going on and make it that way the lakes and rivers of Banff are known for their characteristically bright turquoise Waters this is due entirely to the fact that they are fed by glaciers [Music] lots of them Glaciers are profoundly powerful they are heavy rivers of ice that grind and scour and dig into any landscape in their path glaciers have the power to pulverize the Rocks around and under them acting just like a mill crushing rocks into particles so fine it is called Rock flower these sediments are so fine that they remain suspended in the Lakes rather than sinking quickly to the lake bottom like heavier sediments would then the Milky Rock flower absorbs the shortest wavelengths of light while the water itself absorbs the longer wavelengths the only wavelengths left over to be reflected and perceived by our eyes are those middle wavelengths blues and greens onward to the plane of six glaciers Trail every foot of this Trail leaves us deeper in awe this is by far one of the coolest hikes that I've done every turn is just amazing look at this amazing these wildflowers make me think of my mama now is as good a time as ever to share the geology of Banff National Park these mountains were once the seafloor of shallow Marine environments that existed between 600 and 145 million years ago sediments were deposited in nice even horizontal layers that were then twisted and bent and folded between 80 and 60 million years ago since the last ice age glaciers and their Associated rivers and lakes had been carving this landscape into the Striking features that we see today many of those Glaciers are long gone and where they once flowed we see massive u-shaped valleys and many of these Glaciers are still here still sculpting and carving away at the landscape all right we're almost there [Music] this is the end of the trail and from here you are surrounded by mountain peaks and six glaciers lower Victoria upper Victoria Aberdeen laphroa upper luffroy and the popes that Glacier actually has a waterfall there's a from The Edge there see that white streak all the way down that's actually water [Music] okay and that's our adventure for the day we still have to hike all the way down it's about six miles down all the way to the car which is at the very end of that Valley it's been an awesome day this place is unbelievable it's been an amazing hike it seemed unbelievable things yeah we make our way back down the plane of six glaciers Trail which meets up with Lake Louise Lakeshore Trail which leads us right back to where we started this day 12 hours ago [Music] if you think getting parking for Lake Louise is difficult wait until you hear about Moraine Lake Moraine Lake is located a short drive from Lake Louise but it couldn't be more unreachable to say it is difficult to see Moraine Lake is the understatement of the century Jose had to get here at 1am to get parking now the road to Moraine Lake is closed to private Vehicles entirely and the only way to get here is to book a shuttle book a tour take a taxi or ride a bike in so if you hope to see This Magnificent Lake and witness this iconic Sunrise make sure you plan ahead it is well worth it a million times over we leave our base camp at protection Mountain campground on the very last day it is open for the season we are squeezing every last drop out of our time here we now head towards the northernmost region event once you start driving north of Lake Louise you begin the ice Fields Parkway this stretch of highway is in one word breathtaking the icefields Parkway in its entirety stretches from Lake Louise all the way up to the town of Jasper in Jasper National Park it is considered one of the most beautiful drives in the entire world this 140 mile two-lane road follows the bends and curves of the Continental Divide bordered on each side by towering mountain peaks glaciers and sweeping river valleys our last up in Banff National Park is pito Lake we arrive here not knowing quite what to expect the light is beautiful right now wow holy cow oh that is so cool you can see so far um so this is awesome I'm in love with this place look how amazing it is it just can't get enough of it I assume that in the morning this is gonna be a spectacular [Music] Pato lake is an incredible spot for photography but if you really want a full experience and insanely cool shots in this place come for the sunrise all right we're here we made it back to the spot we were last night unfortunately there's a lot of smoke from the wildfire this is not what I was expecting but this is the thing with photography is a game of patience it's a either hit or miss in the meantime we got Miss Cora here very comfy could you have coffee I got an awesome book I got my journal and colors ready to go you're probably gonna start sketching this no and I got my microphone in case there are any cool sounds that come up and binoculars the stuff of Dreams [Music] [Music] [Music] we're now ready to start heading towards Jasper National Park which is still about an hour north of here so we hit the icefield parkway once more we can't quite believe it but the landscape is getting even more unreal the mountains seem to be closing in and towering even higher on either side of the highway glaciers Peak around turn after turn the parkway continues to climb higher and higher into the Alpine region of the Rockies until finally we find ourselves face to face with not just the most impressive Glacier yet but also the ice field that feeds it this is the boundary between Banff National Park and Jasper National Park and if you liked band get ready for Jasper but for that you'll have to wait until next time on aren't we there yet hey guys if you enjoyed this video be sure to give us a like subscribe to our Channel send us a comment below and for exclusive content and a behind the scenes view of the art be there yet Journey join us on patreon see you over on patreon

Channel: Art We There Yet?

Views: 404,206

Keywords: art we there yet, art we there yet bus, art we there yet project, cora rose, jose luis vilchez, landscape photography, banff national park, banff canada, banff, banff hikes, banff national park vlog, banff canada hiking, banff hiking tips, banff hiking trails, banff photography, banff photography tips, banff national park photography, landscape photography tips, banff vlog, travel couple, travel couple vlog, travel vlog, canada parks

Id: uJ1kHtvhuTQ

Length: 37min 33sec (2253 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 23 2023