Chasing Sunrises in the Canadian Rockies

The Canadian Rockies had been on my bucket list for years, but I wasn't prepared for just how beautiful they would be in person. There are some places you see so many times on social media that you wonder if the photos have been edited or the colors exaggerated. After spending six days exploring Banff, Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, Peyto Lake, Grassi Lake, Minnewonka Lake, and the Icefields Parkway, I can tell you the water really is that blue.

In some places, it was even more beautiful than the photos.

We traveled at the end of September, which turned out to be such a beautiful time to visit. There was already snow on the mountain peaks, the larch trees were turning golden yellow, and the fall colors were everywhere. Best of all, I got to experience it with my favorite travel partner.

We flew into Calgary, picked up our rental car from Turo, and immediately started driving toward Banff. It doesn't take long before the landscape begins to change. The city disappears behind you and suddenly the Canadian Rockies start rising in the distance.

Our first day was meant to be pretty easy. We stopped at Lake Minnewanka, Grassi Lake, explored downtown Banff, and of course tried a BeaverTail. Banff is such a cute little mountain town with restaurants, shops, and beautiful mountain views in almost every direction. 

But I was most excited about what was coming the next morning.

Sunrise at Lake Louise

Our alarm went off early the next morning. We left around 6:00 a.m. so we could arrive at Lake Louise around 7:00 a.m. for sunrise.

It was worth every minute of lost sleep.

Lake Louise is surrounded by mountains with Victoria Glacier sitting in the distance. Early in the morning, before the lake gets busy, everything feels incredibly peaceful. We walked along the shoreline, took what felt like a million pictures, and watched the light slowly change over the mountains.

Around 8:30 a.m., we started our hike to Lake Agnes Tea House. The trail climbs steadily above Lake Louise, and as you gain elevation, you start getting completely different views of the lake below. Eventually you reach Lake Agnes and the little tea house tucked into the mountains. There's something fun about hiking up a mountain and finding a tea house waiting for you at the top.

After spending the morning hiking and exploring Lake Louise, it was time to head to the place I had been looking forward to the most.

Moraine Lake.

Love at First Sight at Moraine Lake

I don't know if I was prepared for Moraine Lake.

Love at first sight.

We checked into Moraine Lake Lodge that afternoon, and staying there ended up being one of the best decisions of the entire trip. Most people visit Moraine Lake for a few hours. We got to wake up to it.

For the next several days, we could walk outside early in the morning and experience the lake before most visitors arrived. And Moraine Lake seemed to look different every single time we walked outside.

One morning around 7:43 a.m., the sunrise cast a soft pink hue over the snow-capped mountains. Another morning, the first rays of sunlight hit just the tops of the Ten Peaks, turning them golden while the rest of the mountains remained in shadow. When the lake was completely still, the mountains reflected perfectly in the water.

It didn't look real.

I remember standing there feeling blessed and grateful to witness something so beautiful. Photos and videos simply don't do this place justice.

One of the reasons I wanted to visit Banff at the end of September was to see the larch trees. For just a few weeks each fall, the larch trees turn from green to this incredible golden yellow before losing their needles for winter.

We hiked Larch Valley from Moraine Lake, and I had never experienced anything quite like it before. Golden trees surrounded by snow-capped mountains. It felt unreal, almost like walking through a painting.

This was one of those moments where our timing couldn't have been better. Come a little earlier and the trees may still be green. Come later and the needles may already be gone. Seeing the golden larches against the snow-covered mountains was one of my favorite surprises of the entire trip.

Another thing I loved about staying at Moraine Lake Lodge was that we didn't feel like we had to experience everything in a few hours. We could slow down. We walked the shoreline, climbed the Rockpile Trail, watched the sunrise, and took a canoe onto the lake.

It became almost a ritual to wake up and see what Moraine Lake was going to look like that day. Some mornings were cloudy. Others gave us beautiful reflections. One morning the sky turned pink. Even after seeing it over and over again, I never got tired of the view.

Driving the Icefields Parkway

Another highlight of our trip was driving the Icefields Parkway. I didn't realize before visiting that the drive itself would be one of the experiences I remembered most.

This isn't one of those roads where you're just trying to get from point A to point B.

The scenery IS the destination.

We drove surrounded by mountains, glaciers, forests, and turquoise lakes. Around almost every bend was another view that made us want to pull over. If you're planning to drive the Icefields Parkway, give yourself plenty of time. Don't rush it. Part of the experience is stopping when something catches your eye.

Our first big destination along the route was one I had been especially excited to see.

Peyto Lake.

Peyto Lake Really Is That Blue

I had seen so many pictures of Peyto Lake that I wondered whether the color had been exaggerated.

It hasn't.

The blue in the water of Peyto Lake is truly THAT blue. Unbelievable.

We first went to the main viewpoint, where you get that famous view looking down over the lake. But I had read about another viewpoint that required a little more effort to find, so naturally, we went looking for it.

From the main Peyto Lake viewpoint, look for the sign pointing toward Bow Summit. There is a paved path leading toward Bow Summit, but instead of following that paved path, we looked for the trail going into the woods to the right. It's not well marked, and it's easy to get confused about whether you're actually going the right way.

We kept walking through the woods looking for a large rock I had seen while researching the trail. Eventually, we found it.

And that's when we knew we were in the right place.

The view opened up in front of us with Peyto Lake below, surrounded by mountains, and hardly anyone around. After experiencing the busy main viewpoint, having this beautiful view almost to ourselves made it even more special.

If you decide to look for this trail, be careful. It isn't as obvious as the main trail, so pay attention to where you're going and make sure you're comfortable finding your way back.

For us, finding that hidden viewpoint was absolutely worth it.

Athabasca Glacier

After Peyto Lake, we continued north along the Icefields Parkway toward Athabasca Glacier. Our itinerary had the drive from Peyto to the glacier at about an hour, but this is another part of the drive you don't want to rush. Everywhere you look, there's another mountain, glacier, lake, or view.

Our plan was to do an ice walk on Athabasca Glacier. Unfortunately, travel doesn't always go according to plan. Our ice walk was canceled because they had mechanical problems with one of their vehicles.

I was disappointed because I had really been looking forward to actually walking on a glacier. But we were already there, so we changed plans.

Instead, we decided to walk toward the toe of Athabasca Glacier, which you can visit without doing a tour.

The hike is about a mile, and one of the most interesting parts isn't just the glacier itself. It's what you see along the way. There are markers showing where the glacier used to reach in different years. As you continue walking, those markers become a visual timeline of how much the glacier has retreated.

Seeing it in person made climate change feel much more real to me. You're not just reading numbers or looking at old photographs. You're literally walking across land that used to be covered by ice.

Eventually, we reached the toe of the glacier. And since I didn't get to walk on the glacier, I decided I at least needed to taste some glacier water. 😂

It was ice cold and incredibly refreshing.

Not exactly the glacier experience we had planned, but definitely one I'll remember.

My Favorite Places in the Canadian Rockies

One thing this trip reminded me is that you can plan every detail of a vacation, but nature doesn't care about your itinerary. Some mornings were cloudy. Some plans changed. Our glacier walk was canceled. Sometimes we woke up ridiculously early hoping for a beautiful sunrise and had no idea what the weather was going to give us.

And then there were mornings when the clouds opened just enough and the mountains turned pink or gold.

Those were the moments that made all the early alarms worth it.

It's difficult to rank this trip because every place was beautiful for a different reason. Lake Louise was peaceful in the early morning. The golden larches were something I had never experienced before. Peyto Lake was probably the most unbelievable shade of blue I've ever seen. The Icefields Parkway made me realize that sometimes the road between destinations can be just as memorable as the destinations themselves. Athabasca Glacier made me stop and think about how much our planet is changing.

But Moraine Lake stole my heart.

Maybe it was because we stayed there long enough to experience it instead of simply checking it off a list. We saw it cloudy. We saw it reflected like glass. We saw the mountains glowing gold. We saw the sky turn pink. We walked beside it, hiked above it, and went out onto the water.

And every morning, it somehow looked different.

I think one of the reasons I love traveling so much is because it reminds me just how much of this world we haven't seen yet. You can look at thousands of pictures of a place, but there is something completely different about standing there yourself.

Feeling the cold air. Watching the sun slowly hit the top of a mountain. Walking through a forest of golden trees. Seeing water so blue you can't believe it's real. Standing near a glacier and realizing the ground beneath your feet was once covered in ice.

And getting to experience all of it with my favorite travel partner.

We spent six days chasing sunrises, hiking trails, driving through mountains, changing plans when we needed to, and stopping way too many times to take pictures.

The Canadian Rockies reminded me to slow down, look around, and appreciate how much beauty there is in this world. Sometimes you don't need to do anything more than stand still for a minute and take it all in.

Canada, you were absolutely beautiful. 

And Moraine Lake, I think you have a little piece of my heart.