Hiking Hector Lake

September 26, 2026September 16, 2026 / Maria / Leave a comment

Considering how busy Banff National Park is throughout the summer, I couldn’t believe how empty the trail was to Hector Lake. The idea that tourists are all overcrowding the same spots holds some truth because on my long weekend trip to visit Kristine, she took me to a lot of places that were surprisingly not busy.

Hector Lake is the first lake you pass on Highway 93 (the Icefields Parkway) after you leave Lake Louise. You can see it from the highway when you drive past, but there’s no formal parking lot for the trailhead. Looking on my Gaia GPS app, I could actually see 3 trailheads for the lake that all connect along slightly different trails. They all have pull-outs where you can park and since they’re not popular, it’s not hard to find space.

Hector Lake was another hike on Kristine’s list of hikes she wanted to do this summer. After a noisy night at Preacher’s North Campsite, we packed up and drove to Nordegg to get breakfast and a slice of pie at the Miner’s Cafe, before starting the long drive back to Calgary. We planned to break up the drive with the hike to Hector Lake, which is a 5km round trip hike along mostly flat terrain.

The first part of the trail is a bit muddy, but fairly easy. You hike through the trees along a gentle downhill until you reach the Bow River. From here, my GPS showed two options, one continuing along the river and the second crossing the river. I could see the trail continuing on the other side of the river, but there is no bridge, so if you want to cross, be prepared to ford the river. It didn’t look very deep, but we hadn’t brought sandals with us, so we opted to continue along the river.

The trail along the river is a bit harder to follow and disappeared completely near the end. The river eventually turns into more of a delta and we lost the main trail, instead selecting our own path across the braided river channels. Depending on the water level, this could be a challenge and it was a bit muddy right before the foreshore, but we eventually managed to make it to the lake and had an uninterrupted view of the mountains.

It really is a very beautiful lake, but what made it more striking was that we were the only people there. We only saw two other groups on the trail while we visited, but we were alone while at the lake. It’s not a super well established trail, so I can understand why it’s not popular among tourists, who seem to favour Bow Lake and Peyto Lake. We had a nice snack and I went for a quick skinny dip in the lake to cool down. There were some beautiful wildflowers hanging around the river.

Overall, it took us just under two hours to do the full there and back again 5km hike, along with a break. Of the 3 hikes that I did during my short weekend trip to the Rockies, I think this one may have been my favourite because it was such an easy hike and it was so peaceful. The smoke was definitely rolling in while we were there, but it left the photos looking a pretty dreamy. It was a great trip to Banff National Park.

Hiking Vision Quest

September 19, 2026September 16, 2026 / Maria / Leave a comment

Last week I wrote about hiking Parker Ridge in Banff National Park. After spending the morning on the ridge, Kristine and I backtracked through the park to Saskatchewan Crossing, leaving Banff to explore along Highway 11. This area is mostly public use lands, I’m not sure if it has a formal name, but given that the highway travels to the small town of Nordegg, Kristine referred to the area as Nordegg too. It was my first time visiting the region and it was surprisingly uncrowded and very beautiful. A large part of the area is dominated by Abraham Lake, which people are familiar with in the winter because the surface of the lake freezes and bubbles can be seen frozen in the ice. The area is just as beautiful in the summer, but not very popular.

We followed the highway along the North Saskatchewan River to the start of the lake. We hadn’t originally planned to stay in area overnight, so we hadn’t booked any campsites. However, there is a large first-come, first-served campsite called Preacher’s North rustic camping. It’s a series of campsites along the lake. There is an outhouse, but no other facilities. We didn’t even see a water tap and the lake is too silty to take water from, so be prepared with your own water. I’ve been staying in more rec sites in BC in recent years, but a lot of those sites are small and off the beaten track. I was pleasantly surprised with this campsite. I guess things really are bigger in Alberta because the campsite was huge and we didn’t have any trouble finding a place to pitch our tent. Once settled, we decided to explore further along Highway 11. There’s a hike called Vision Quest about halfway up the lake that Kristine wanted to check out, so that’s where we headed.

To access the hike, you park at the dump and follow signs up around the dump and up through the trees. It is a little confusing at the start because the GPS track doesn’t match the new trail. There used to be an old trail that took a more direct route up the slope from the trailhead, but that area has been closed for restoration, so now you have to hike around the back of the dump instead. If you’re on the right trail, it’s easy to follow, but we started on the wrong trail and it was confusing. If you’re having trouble following, you’re on the wrong trail, go back to the parking lot to find the correct one.

It’s a steep hike that continues through the trees for approximately 1km before the view opens up. From there, you can hike another 7km along the ridge up to the Vision Quest Peak, but that’s a full day hike and our goal was only to hike high enough to get out of the trees. We didn’t quite make it to the alpine as it was very hot and steep (and a little bit smoky), but we hiked just far enough to get a full view of Abraham Lake. It only took us 45 minutes to hike up to our viewpoint, but it was a really phenomenal view for the amount of effort required to get there.

We hung out at the viewpoint for a half hour, enjoying the hazy view of the surrounding mountains and Abraham Lake, before hiking back down to the car. In my opinion, this was the most challenging part of the hike. Whoever constructed this trail wasn’t familiar with switchbacks and it’s extremely steep with a lot of loose rock, so it took me some time to crawl my way down. That might just be my bad knees though, Kristine found the downhill a lot easier. In total, including our break, it took us a little under 2 hours to hike up, but we only did 2km in total.

We returned to our campsite at Preacher’s North and decided to go for a swim and eat supper down by the water. Like I said, I was really impressed with the site. The only problem is that it’s mostly campers and RV’s and since it’s an informal campsite, there are no rules on quiet time. Most of the RV’s turned off their generators overnight, but some didn’t, which is really loud and annoying if you’re sleeping in a tent. But overall, a great option if you forgot to book a campsite in the National Park!

Hiking Parker Ridge

September 14, 2026 / Maria / 1 Comment

I spent a few days visiting my friend, Kristine, in Calgary in August and we spent the weekend traveling around Banff National Park. Kristine is very familiar with Banff and wanted to do a few day hikes that she hasn’t gotten around to visiting over the years. We took off from Calgary early on Saturday morning to spend two days road tripping around the park, our first stop of which was Parker Ridge on the far north end of the park.

This was a fun trip for me because, in the 12 years I lived in BC, I’ve never driven highway 93 past Lake Louise, also known as the Icefields Parkway. I drove it once as a teenager on a family trip, when my parents took us to visit Jasper and the Columbia Icefield, but I’d yet to return. I still haven’t made it back to Jasper National Park, but hopefully one day soon! On this trip, we drove past all the hot spots – Bow Lake, Peyto Lake, and the Waterfowl Lakes – until we hit the parking lot for Parker Ridge, right on the edge of the Columbia Icefield.

Parker Ridge is a 5km hike with 300 metres of elevation gain in mostly exposed alpine terrain. The entire hike is a climb, but you are rewarded with gorgeous views at the top. From the parking lot, you hike along switchbacks through the trees. If you’re thinking this means you’ll get a bit of shade, think again. It’s a sub-alpine environment and the trees are pretty low and sparse, so they don’t provide much protection against the sun. Eventually you exit the trees altogether and continue following switchbacks up to the ridge.

Once you hit the ridge, the view really opens up and there’s a couple of large plateaus. It’s easy to think you can walk wherever you want once you hit the ridge, but please stick to the trails. It’s a very sensitive alpine environment and while it’s easy to walk anywhere, avoid damaging the alpine shrubs, they take a long time to recover. There are the main trails and a couple of side trails that go to views, please try and stick to those.

Once you’ve done most of the elevation gain, you hit a small saddle. From there, you can walk up to a small summit, or you can walk down the other side of the ridge for a view of the Saskatchewan Glacier, which connects to the Columbia Icefield. We did the summit first, which I recommend doing as there is a really nice panoramic view up there, but you can’t see the glacier from the summit, so it’s also worth heading down the ridge a little bit to see the glacier. We didn’t go the whole way down, so potentially there are better views than what we saw, we just walked until we found a nice little viewpoint and then hung out there for a break. As you can see from the photos, it was quite windy and cold, despite being mid-August.

It’s a quick walk back to the car from the top since it’s all downhill. In total, the hike took us 2.5 hours, with a half hour break at the viewpoint. It’s not a longer hike and even though it’s steep, it has a really good payoff for a relatively short distance. I was recovering from a cold when we did the hike, so I did struggle, but I still had a great time and would absolutely recommend this hike. It was fairly busy when we were there as this is a popular hike. We were still able to find a spot in the parking lot, though it was much busier by the time we finished.