Tour Overview
Banff National Park and neighboring Kananaskis country treat the adventurous to more than 10,000 square kilometers of wilderness: jagged peaks, expansive forests, transparent glacier-fed rivers, and a diversity of wildlife including elk, grizzly bear, and bighorn sheep. Each day brings a new adventure, and each adventure takes us through some of the most breathtaking scenery to be found in the Rocky Mountains. We have designed this tour for those looking for a bit of adventure coupled with variety. Designed with the light adventurer in mind, this tour offers instruction on bike handling and technique, horseback riding, and whitewater rafting. The routes we have chosen can easily be catered to varying ability levels, and our itinerary is flexible, providing something for everyone.Day by Day Itinerary
Day 01: CALGARY – BANFF, ALBERTA, CANADAArrive in Calgary, Alberta. Collect your luggage, rental car and enjoy the remarkable transition from city to mountains as you drive into the Rockies. The Rimrock Resort Hotel is located in Canada's renowned Banff National Park, in the heart of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Nestled in a pristine mountain setting above the Banff Townsite, the Rimrock Resort Hotel offers comfort and luxury combined with the most breathtaking mountain and alpine valley views to be found. With unmatched style, decor and superb hospitality, the Rimrock Resort Hotel is a very special place to visit for a truly remarkable experience. Enjoy the Canadian Rocky Mountains in Rimrock style. You will see the difference!
Rimrock Resort Hotel Day 02: BANFF
Today you have at your leisure to explore Banff & Banff National Park. Several outdoor activities can be enjoyed all year round. The Canadian Rockies are world renowned for their ski resorts. From the Rimrock Resort Hotel you are only minutes from some of the best skiing in the world. Canada's Banff National Park and the surrounding areas have a variety of magnificent mountain golf courses to challenge you as well. In addition to great skiing and golfing, Banff area offers horseback riding, fishing, tennis, heli-hiking, white water rafting, gondola rides, outdoor hot springs pool, heli-skiing, snow shoeing, dogsled rides, Winter festivals. As well, the town of Banff offers many wonderful shops, art galleries and museums. In the evening enjoy a 2-hour guided tour where you will travel through a variety of landscapes and learn about the wildlife of Banff National Park, their needs, and their inter-relationships. You have a very good chance of seeing wildlife! Rimrock Resort Hotel Day 03: BANFF – YOHO NATIONAL PARK
Enjoy a very scenic drive through Banff and Yoho National Park. Emerald Lake is located 25 miles west of Lake Louise on the Trans Canada Highway. Tonight’s stay at Emerald Lake Lodge is a highlight of your tour: comfortable, elegant and with a pleasing informality, the lodge exudes a warmth that makes you never want to leave. Fine dining is a highlight to look forward to and wine lovers will be delighted with the cellar. Standing at the base of a placid aquamarine lake beneath Yoho National Park's towering cliff-faced mountains, the rural Emerald Lake Lodge in Field, British Columbia, represents an ideal Rocky Mountain escape within 30 kilometers, or 20 miles, of Lake Louise Ski Hill and even nearer pristine waterfalls and the Canadian Pacific Railroad's famous Spiral Tunnels. Outdoor adventure seekers can enjoy snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, hiking along numerous trials, rowing or canoeing, and fishing. Emerald Lake Lodge Day 04: YOHO NATIONAL PARK – GOLDEN – FAIRMONT HOT SPRINGS You will travel through Golden and south to Fairmont Hot Springs.
When the Rocky Mountain range was created, the resulting collision of two tectonic plates created small fissures that extend deep into the earth. Every year, water from melting snow-packs or rain enters these cracks and penetrates deep into the earth's mantle. Tectonic forces cause the rocks at these depths to be quite warm; this in turn heats the water. As the water re-emerges, it contains many of the elements found in the rocks themselves; Calcium, iron, magnesium and phosphorous etc. One place where this naturally warmed, therapeutic water bubbles back to the surface, is in Fairmont Hot Springs Resort.
In the evening soak in the hot springs and maybe treat yourself with a relaxing massage in the spa of the resort. Fairmont Hot Springs Resort Day 05: FAIRMONT HOT SPRINGS – WATERTON LAKES NATIONAL PARK Travel further to Waterton National Park area today. En route you may want to visit the heritage town Fort Steele. Continue your drive via the winter resort town Fernie and over the Crowsnest pass. In Pincher Creek stop by the interesting Remington Carriage Museum before you reach Waterton. Waterton Lakes Lodge Day 06: WATERTON LAKES NATIONAL PARK
Enjoy a full day at leisure. Rugged, windswept mountains rise abruptly out of gentle prairie grassland in spectacular Waterton Lakes National Park. Here, several different ecological regions meet and interact in a landscape shaped by wind, fire, flooding, and abundant plants and wildlife. The park helps protect the unique and unusually diverse physical, biological and cultural resources found in the Crown of the Continent: one of the narrowest places in the Rocky Mountains. The highlight of Waterton’s sparkling chain of lakes is the international Upper Waterton Lake, the deepest lake in the Canadian Rockies. In 1932, the park was joined with Montana's Glacier National Park to form the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park - a world first. Waterton Lakes Lodge Day 07: WATERTON LAKES NATIONAL PARK – CALGARY
Today head north through the rolling prairie lands of southern Alberta to Calgary. En route take a side trip to Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, a UNESCO World Heritage Site located outside of Fort Macleod. In the evening visit the Calgary Tower. Delta Bow Valley Hotel Day 08: CALGARY – DEPART
Transfer to airport in Calgary on own, return rental car and depart Calgary.
