Canadian Rockies summer 2020

First of all, plan on three weeks. This is a huge area with lots to see. With travel time, you'll still realize you left a lot undone.

If you want a pretty comprehensive trail guide to the Canadian Rockies parks, check out "Canadian Rockies Trail Guide" by Patton and Robinson. Covers not just the usual front country trails, but lots of info on backpacking routes and options. Our go-to book when visiting.

For backpacking, popular places like Egypt Lakes and O'Hara Lake often sell out quickly. If you don't want to carry a tent, you can try to get a backcountry cabin (Alpine Club of Canada)

Even popular places like Lake Louise are still worth the hastle with the crowds. Moraine Lake is even prettier and parking more difficult, but the hike up the valley above the lake is spectacular (Colorado native speaking here, and this is more amazing than anyplace here in CO!). Hike all the way to Wenkchemna Pass for views into Yoho NP.

Cory Pass - Mount Edith loop. Great spires of rock visible from the summit.

Healy Pass above Sunshine Meadows ski area - from the pass, you can look up and down the range for ovee 40 miles (70 km). Great wildflowers too.

North out of Jasper is Mt. Robson Prov. Park. We did a long day hike around the backside to Berg Lake (we cheated and rode the first 7.2 km on muontain bikes). If you backpack in, there are a number of day hikes out from this area. If you want to save some time and energy, you might consider a helicopter dropoff. Again, reservations for all this is required. You are planning far enough in advance to get things lined up properly.

We did enjoy having our mountain bikes with us. We could park and ride into Banff townsite to explore and rode right out of town on some trails. We rode from our campsite at Wapiti CG south of Jasper, toward town and then along the Athabasca River trail to Sixth bridge, where we locked our bikes and hike up and back along the Maligne Canyon Trails. There are quite a few nice (non technical) trails right around Jasper that were quite fun. And at Mt. Robson, it saved us a lot of time to ride right from our campsite and up the Berg Lake trail as far as permitted. Really nice on the return when we were tired and could go downhill on our bikes.

You should post more info on what you are looking for in a campsite. Hookups, location, quiet? Easier to give you ideas that way.

You might also want to look at Cathedral PP and Wells-Gray PP.

On our trip to northern B.C. from Ca., in Wash. we entered through Sumas border crossing which headed us into Abbotsford, B.C. Stayed at a Good Sam campground there for a couple of nights. Picked Sumas instead of Vancouver border crossing because of the heavy traffic and time to get through that border-Sumas took maybe 30 minutes, at most.

You will find fuel more expensive but you will also get about 25-30% more value from your American dollar.

This is a good time to plan and get your reservations made. Entering Canada is as easy as stopping at the booth, showing your passport and answering a few questions unless you have a criminal record. Leave firearms at home. Gas prices 18 months from now? Who knows? BTW, the speed limit of 120 is kilometers per hour not miles.:B

You could start by looking up campgrounds on the Canadian National Parks website. National Parks you could explore during your trip if starting in the PNW would be Waterton (hiking seriously effected by wildfires last year), Kootenay (the Rockwall is an excellent backpack which goes over several high passes above the tree line), Banff (busy but some nice hiking), Yoho (in my opinion the best day hiking National Park), Glacier (smaller, hikes are more demanding due to steep trails), and Jasper. Many nice hikes along the Icefields Parkway between Lake Louise and Jasper.

AN additional couple of hiking destinations would be Assiniboine Provincial Park and both Height of the Rockies and Top of the World provincial parks. The Top of the world is easier to access though it is possible to helicopter in to Assiniboine if you don't have time for the full day hike in.

You can PM me if you want more hiking information.