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North to Jasper

  1. Lac des Arcs: A quiet first glimpse of water and stone before the road enters the national park.
  2. Banff Gondola + Sulphur Mountain: The journey rises above Banff, with Cave & Basin below and the Bow Valley opening in every direction.
  3. Banff Town: The town sits at the threshold of the drive: familiar streets framed by impossible scale.
  4. Bow Valley Parkway: A slower road through forest and river bends, built for looking rather than arriving.
  5. Johnston Canyon: The trail follows water into limestone, narrowing until the canyon becomes the whole world.
  6. Storm Mountain Viewpoint: A roadside opening where Storm Mountain interrupts the forest with a wall of rock.
  7. Morant’s Curve: Rail, river, and mountain fold into the same curve—an old Canadian Rockies composition still in motion.
  8. Lake Louise: Glacial blue, early light, and the first pause long enough to understand the scale of the drive.
  9. Yoho + Takakkaw Falls: A western detour beneath a waterfall that seems to leave the cliff before deciding where to land.
  10. Peyto Lake: A short climb reveals a lake shaped like a wolf, bright against an almost monochrome valley.
  11. Saskatchewan River Crossing: Three rivers and three highways meet beneath broad, layered ridgelines.
  12. Big Bend Viewpoint: The highway curls back on itself and reveals the valley it has just climbed.
  13. Columbia Icefields: Ice becomes architecture here: creased, blue at the edges, and visibly retreating into time.
  14. Sunwapta Falls: The river compresses into a narrow canyon, loud enough to erase every conversation around it.
  15. Goats and Glaciers Viewpoint: A broad Athabasca Valley view where wildlife and hanging ice compete for attention.
  16. Athabasca Falls: Water works through the rock in layers, leaving a map within the map.
  17. Jasper National Park: The route ends in a valley that feels less like an arrival than an invitation to keep going.