We visited both national parks as a side trip from our stay in Banff National Park in Alberta. To see both parks comfortably, we needed to be lucky enough to get a campsite at McLeod Meadows Campground in Kootenay National Park. And we did.
McLeod Meadows Campground offered us not only the last available spot, but also everything we needed. A quiet, relaxing spot in a wooded area (but not so much that Starlink wouldn’t work), plus a nice trail for a walk. In this case, the trail to the Kootenay River. More photos of McLeod Meadows Campground & Kootenay River.
The next trail we chose was Marble Canyon on Tokumm Creek in Kootenay National Park. The trail is not long and not difficult. But all the more beautiful.
More photos of Marble Canyon in Kootenay National Park.
In Yoho National Park, we chose a few places to see the most beautiful parts of the park. But not all of them were possible to see. The shuttle to Lake O’Hara was still sold out, and we didn’t even receive notifications from the national parks reservation system that places would become available…as in other cases of chasing vacant places in campgrounds or shuttles.
And so Wapta Falls became the first place on our itinerary. All we had to do was get there, park at least along the driveway, and head out on the hiking trail to the falls. We managed to do all of that…including the driveway, which was in truly disastrous condition.
Wapta Falls themselves are on the Kicking Horse River and are impressive. 107m wide, 18m high. Their name comes from the Nakoda language and means “river”.
More photos of Wapta Falls.
Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park is one of the iconic lakes in the Canadian Rockies. If someone wants to see it in the high season as we did, they have to be lucky enough to park in the adjacent parking lot. We were warned about this at the park’s visitor center. We tried, and it worked. The area around the bridge to the lake was really crowded. After walking about 500 m, we turned on the bear bells… Most people come here to take a few photos, without any interest in seeing more and walking more. We walked at least as much as the time allowed. The circuit around the lake is 5 km long.
More photos of Emerald Lake.
On the way back to the Two Jack Main campground in Banff National Park, where we had booked a spot based on a notification and were happy to return, we had a nice, interesting place called Natural Bridge, which belongs to the territory of Yoho National Park.
More photos of Natural Bridge.
After visiting those two parks in British Columbia, we drove back to Alberta and continued on towards the west. We returned to British Columbia after the town of Jasper on a road called Yellowhead Highway 16.
Yellowhead Highway 16 connects Edmonton, Alberta, with Prince Rupert, British Columbia.
Along the Yellowhead Hwy, we stopped at a very interesting place and did a very interesting hiking trail. Its name is Ancestral Forest. We recommend it to every traveler as a pleasant stop on the Yellowhead Hwy. There are cedar trees that are more than one thousand years old. More photos of Yellowhead Highway and Ancestral Forest.
In the village of Kitwanka, we not only spent the night in a nice, quiet place, but also filled up on diesel, saw the seven tallest totem poles in Canadian territory placed outdoors, and most importantly – turned onto the Cassiar Highway heading north. Cassiar Highway is also marked as BC 37.
At first, the rainy weather slowly changed for the better, and towards the end it cleared up. Cassiar Hwy is very sparsely populated. Approximately halfway along its length is Dease Lake, where we refueled at a similar price to that in Quebec or Labrador (1.80 CAD/l). The first half of the road is of relatively good quality; later it deteriorates, and the last third is narrow, without markings.
One of the places where almost all travelers stop is Jade City. There is a shop with products made from this gemstone, a parking lot, and a general resting place.
There are many warnings about wild animals along the entire Cassiar Hwy – bears, caribou, mouflons. But the only species we saw more than once was the fox, for which there were no warnings. More photos of Cassiar Highway.
After stopping at the Jade City, we headed irresistibly towards the Alaska Highway, more precisely the YK 1 road in the Yukon province.
July 2025