In my last blog post, I detailed why we had chosen Banff as our vacation destination for our 10th wedding anniversary trip. We had been eager to take the pups along on one of our more grand vacations, and Banff was the perfect destination because it was a reasonable driving distance from Colorado (making it an easy for us to tow our pups along) and it had a lot of the outdoorsy activities we seek on our vacations. Little did we know that it would so perfect for the pups because of how dog friendly it is! Read on for our dog-friendly, 10-day itinerary in Banff.

DAY 1 >> BIKE AND HIKE TO GRASSI LAKES

Teal blue lakes are relatively abundant near Banff, Canada; despite that lack of scarcity, every single one of them seems to draw quite a crowd. One of the things we were most concerned about with our Banff trip was how touristy, and therefore, busy, all the sights might be. On our first full day, we decided to “test the waters” and visit Grassi Lakes, which are two gorgeous blue lakes near our condo in Canmore that were supposed to be a little less crowded than some of the more-popular blue lakes in Banff National Park.

On a whim, we decided it would make sense to bike to the Grassi Lakes trailhead since the hike was close by and we could skip the parking fee (little did we know that every tourist sight, big and small, would end requiring a parking fee and we should have just opted for the annual parks pass to cover everything we visited during our trip rather than inconveniently paying one by one). We had hauled our bicycles along for our roadtrip to Banff because there was one particular teal blue lake in Banff National Park that we wanted to visit later on in our trip that had become so popular and crowded over the years that visitors were now required to book a shuttle to see it. We thought it would way more fun to skip the shuttle and bicycle to the lake instead. We had also purchased doggy backpacks so our pups could come along for the ride!

We decided to take the shortest route option from our Canmore condo to the Grassi Lakes trailhead, only to end up adding extra mileage later when we got lost on what turned out to be a confusing and unmarked dirt trail most of the way. Not only that, the shorter option ended up being so steep that we had to walk our bikes almost the entire way.

Although one of us was cursing our mode of transportation the entire way up, once we arrived at the packed trailhead with tourist buses dropping off visitors, we were proud of the fact that we had earned our ride to the destination. The hike itself was an easy mile and the this set of lakes was indeed a little less busy than some of the other lakes we visited later on in our trip.

DAY 2 >> CANMORE ENGINE BRIDGE

The wildfire smoke in Canada had been really bad all summer and happened to pick up worse just in time for our trip. The tough bike ride the day prior, coupled with the wildfire smoke, really did a number on my lungs, so I was trying to take it easy this day. On our second day, hubby went on a solo bike ride from Canmore to Banff on the Legacy Trail, while I took the pups for a long walk back to a gorgeous blue river we had crossed via the Canmore Engine Bridge the day before during our bike ride.

We also took a quick drive to the town of Banff later in the day for dinner with the pups.

DAY 3 >> LAKE LOUISE, LAKE ANGES TEA HOUSE, & LITTLE BEEHIVE TRAIL

The third day of our Canada trip was our 10th wedding anniversary. We decided to visit Lake Louise, which is one of the most popular blue lakes in Banff National Park. Since it’s so popular and the parking is limited, we had to arrive well before sunrise in order to secure a parking spot.

After seeing sunrise at Lake Louise, we hiked the Lake Agnes Trail and Little Beehive Trail, which spurs off of Lake Louise. This hike has an optional stop at an old tea house where they serve tea/coffee and food. It’s a tough hike, so it’s incredible that the staff complete the hike to get to work everyday and haul in their own food and supplies!

We hauled butt up to Lake Agnes Tea House in order to line up early and hopefully get a coveted spot on the tea house patio overlooking the gorgeous Lake Agnes below, only to find out that pups are not allowed on the patio. We were bummed, but grabbed some goodies to-go instead and had a little celebratory anniversary breakfast picnic (with beer!) to ourselves at the lake. The gift theme for a tenth anniversary is tin/aluminum, so I had purchased custom labels for our aluminum can bevies that said “Cheers to Ten Years.”

The Little Beehive trail continues past the Lake Agnes Tea House and ends with a bird’s-eye view of the lake we began at, Lake Louise. We were bummed about the wildfire smoke making the views so hazy, but it was still such an incredible activity to do on our special anniversary day!

DAY 4 >> OLD GOAT GLACIER

The wildfire smoke got much worse on our fourth day. It really made us not want to go outside, but the wildfire smoke forecast maps that we were keeping an eye on showed no signs of the smoke clearing up any time soon. We had no choice but to just deal with it.

Rain was also in the forecast this day, but we decided to chance it with a nearby hike for Old Goat Glacier. We ended up just making it to a really cool view of a waterfall coming off the glacier when the rain started. That was our cue to turn around!

DAY 5 >> JEEPING GHOST VALLEY ROAD & MARGARET LAKE

On the fifth day of our trip, Bryce took us Jeeping so we could take a little break from breathing in the wildfire smoke on hikes. Canada doesn’t have nearly the amount of forest service roads that the United States seems to have for public exploration, but Bryce was able to find an area an hour away that we could explore. Our intended destination was a lake, but once we reached the lake, there were a couple of ATVs riding around obnoxiously. This wasn’t the peaceful stop we had hoped for, so we retreated to a nearby stream for a much more relaxing mini-picnic before heading back to the condo.

DAY 6 >> MORAINE LAKE & JOHNSTON CANYON

The sixth day of our trip was one of our favorites. This was the day we decided to do the long-awaited bicycle ride to the popular Moraine Lake. We had kept putting off this tough activity, hoping that the wildfire smoke would clear up, but it seemed more and more unlikely that would happen during our stay.

We had a 3 a.m. wake-up call this day because we wanted to arrive at the lake before sunrise. We knew it was going to be another smoky day, but held out hope that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all. As soon as first light began to break, we could tell it was definitely going to be very smoky.

Biking to this lake is not a common activity to do yet, since the mandatory shuttle rule was just implemented a year ago, so there wasn’t much information on close we could park or how long and tough the bike ride would be. It ended up being way more tough than we anticipated, especially since we were hauling the dachshunds on our backs. To make matters worse, my bike was also having problems and not shifting to the easiest gear. It was also pretty scary not being able to see in the darkness around us if there were any bears, but I probably did a pretty good job scaring them away with all the cussing I did at my bike because we ended up not encountering any bears.

Despite all that, we thoroughly enjoyed the incredible views at the lake and having our pups by our side while we ate leftover pizza for breakfast that hubby graciously hauled for us on the bike ride.

After our bike ride to Moraine Lake, we refueled again with brunch in Banff. After brunch, we made an impromptu decision to do a popular and short hike in Johnston Canyon, which had several waterfalls. The hike was not something we were going to be disappointed if we didn’t get a chance to do on our trip because it was known for being very touristy and popular, but since we were nearby from our brunch stop and the day was still young, we decided to give it a go. Indeed, the hike ended up being a bit unpleasant with the number of people and the touristy guardrails that lined the entire trail definitely killed the vibe.

DAY 7 >> ICEFIELDS PARKWAY TO JASPER

Our seventh day was yet another smoky day, and even though we didn’t have any physical activities planned, we were still hoping for clear skies for the all-day scenic drive we had planned. The popular drive along Icefields Parkway starts in Banff and ends in the town of Jasper, going through two national parks along the way with several several roadside sights, as well as longer hikes. Although most people choose to stay overnight in Jasper, we weren’t planning to do many stops along the way so we could blast to Jasper for dinner and be back before nightfall.

After still not seeing much wildlife on our trip except a bear on Day 1 and a sheep on Day 4, this was the one activity we thought we’d for sure see wildfire on…but spoiler alert, we didn’t see a single animal!

One of our quick stops along the Icefields Parkway drive was a picnic lunch by a glacier run-off river. It was tough to get away from the touristy crowds and stops along this drive, but we spotted this unofficial and hidden spot to pull over to while driving over the bridge above.

Shortly after our lunch spot, we found a waterfall that was yet another hidden gem that we happen to stumble upon that didn’t have a single tourist around. We happened to be stopped on a pull-off for a puppy pee break and as I was walking further away from the vehicle, I spotted a trail sign for a short hike to a waterfall. This waterfall was absolutely incredible… and no guardrails and crowds like the touristy hike in Johnston Canyon the day prior!

DAY 9 >> LAKE LOUISE & PLAIN OF THE SIX GLACIERS

We had to take a day off after the Icefields Parkway drive because of all-day rain, but we were ready to get outside again on the ninth day for a long hike called the Plain of the Six Glaciers. This hike started again at the famous Lake Louise that we visited at the start of our trip.

The jaw-dropping views of lanky waterfalls running off glaciers and peaks so tall that they were cropped by clouds will speak for themselves, but what couldn’t be captured in photos were the crazy sounds of glacier ice cracking in the distance far above us. This might have been our favorite activity of the whole trip!

This hike also had an old tea house partway up the hike that people could get tea/coffee and little snacks at, but we had our own picnic overlooking the waterfalls coming off the glacier.

Another cool sight of this hike was that we could see a tiny snippet of Lake Louise, from which we came, in the far distance.

We ended up finishing this hike just in time for rain that moved in. What luck!

DAY 10 >> YOHO NATIONAL PARK

On our last full day in Canada, we did a drive through Yoho National Park. The highlight of the day was doing a short hike around another one of Canada’s many enchanting blue lakes, aptly named Emerald Lake. This lake was so dreamy and somewhat less crowded than some of the other blue lakes we visited.

After spending ten days adventuring in Banff, Canada, we were exhausted!! But we still had three days of driving and two nights of camping before we reached home.

On the first night of our return trip, we camped south of Kalispell, Montana, by Van Lake. This lake had an eerie vibe to it, which wasn’t helped when we starting hearing a strange type of howling at dusk across the lake. We didn’t find out until after the trip that what we thought was maybe a wolf making that noise, was actually a duck-like aquatic bird called a loon.

On the second night of camping, we chose a quiet spot outside Jackson, Wyoming, by Granite Creek, where we watched the perfect colorful sunset to conclude our special trip.