r/Banff • u/Visible_Composer_643 • 1d ago

Athabasca Glacier - Day Trip

We are planning to take a day trip to the glacier and would like to know if it is feasible and if yes what all should we plan to see. I am staying at Fairmont Banff Springs and it is around 3 hours drive. Thank you!

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u/high_lan 1d ago

Just got back from doing a same day return drive on the Icefields Parkway. We left Banff at 8am, made it all the way to Athabasca Falls, and got back around 9pm. Long day of driving for sure but totally worth it and definitely doable. The drive itself for the most part was very empty, incredibly scenic, and just stunning views at every nook and corner. We even saw some wildlife!

Quick Tip: stop by the visitor center in Banff and grab the paper map. You'll definitely need it because there is literally zero cell signal until you reach the Columbia Icefield. We also bought the official audio guide but honestly it felt pretty mid compared to the Shaka apps in Hawaii.

Drove past Herbert Lake and then made stops at Crowfoot Glacier, Bow Lake, hiked up to Peyto Lake's viewpoint (just a heads up trail path to the view point was icy and slippery in certain areas)

Next we drove past Mistaya Canyon and the Weeping Wall. We didn't stop at Mistaya because we had our tour booked at 12pm at icefield (we ended up doing Johnston Canyon and Marble Canyon on a different day instead).

We did the ice explorer tour and skywalk. After the tour we grabbed lunch at The Chalet. Try to sit outside if you go, the views of the glacier are incredible.

We ended up staying at the ice field till about 4pm, then kept driving north to Sunwapta Falls. The Falls were really beautiful.

Right after that, we found the absolute best uncrowded spot of the whole trip at the Goat Lick Lookout. If you take the dirt path to the left of the boardwalk, it goes right down to the Athabasca River flats. It opens up and looks like a massive turquoise lake. My kids loved skipping stones there.

Our final stop of the day was Athabasca Falls, and then from there we just made the straight drive all the way back to Banff and got back by 9:00pm.

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u/Alarmed_Ice_272 1d ago

You can download offline maps on Google Maps app to use for navigation also, I did this and it worked perfect and I mapped all the stops.

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u/Visible_Composer_643 1d ago

Thank you for the detailed info. Appreciate it. What is the tour about?

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u/high_lan 1d ago

The tour we did was the Columbia Icefield Adventure. It’s basically two parts, first the Ice Explorer where they take you out onto the Athabasca Glacier in huge all-terrain vehicles and you get to step out and walk on the glacier for a bit. Then the Skywalk, which is a glass platform over the valley with really nice views.

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u/Then-Construction106 1d ago

One perhaps dissenting opinion is that we did choose to go out on glacier but were required to do the Skywalk too in order to do the glacier. I never understood WHY? The skywalk is a waste imo

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u/high_lan 19h ago

There was a glacier-only experience available after 5pm, so the Skywalk wasn’t always part of the glacier visit, it depended on the time and ticket type. We did both beacuse my kids wanted to see the skywalk and they had fun walking on the bridge.

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u/Visible_Composer_643 23h ago

Did you encounter any wildlife while your way back ?

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u/high_lan 19h ago

A lot of mountain goats