Before our patience ran out, we hit Canmore, a cute, small mountain town. The most prominent thing there was the view of three mountain peaks that have hijacked about a billion tourist postcards. These three, originally named Faith, Hope, and Charity, royally took over the horizon.
The peaks are so popular that they have been named twice. In 1883, Albert Rogers, a surveyor working on the Canadian Pacific Railway, dubbed them the Three Nuns after a snowfall covered the mountains’ north faces in a veil of white. Three years later, the geologist George Dawson called them the Three Sisters, and this time the name stuck.
Today, they are known individually as Big Sister, Middle Sister, and Little Sister and are easily spotted from the Bow River Valley section of the Trans-Canada Highway.
The Big Sister requires a steep, challenging scramble, while the Middle Sister is easier to climb.
The minute the peaks are visible, we will know that we have reached the gateway to Canmore and surrounding Kananaskis Country.
However, for the most iconic photo reflection, one has to go to the Three Sisters Viewpoint near the Bow River.
We walked down the street, which was a very pedestrian-friendly stretch packed with beautiful boutique shops, colourful art galleries, and outdoor gear stores.
Canmore is known for its vibrant local dining and exceptional outdoor trails without the heavy crowds of nearby Banff.
A historic, picturesque wooden mining bridge located right next to the town centre offers easy walking paths along the river and is an excellent spot for sunset photography.
Much before Canmore was known for hiking trails and craft breweries, it was a working coal mining town. From 1883 to 1979, coal mining was the heart of the local economy and the center of daily life.
While the last mine shut down decades ago, one can still see the town’s quarrying roots in the names of trails, lakes, and streets, the bones of historic buildings, and the character of the community.
If we wander through the trails of Canmore, though we couldn’t do so due to lack of time, we may even stumble across old mine shafts, remnants of railway cart tracks, and hillsides of broken shale.
As we walked ahead, we saw vibrant murals and sculptures that decorated the streets. These artistic expressions added a splash of color and creativity to the streets, giving us a taste of the local art scene and the inspiring landscapes surrounding Canmore.
People prefer to walk or bike to get where they’re going, to embrace active transportation, travel sustainably, and enjoy the views.
Along main routes in Canmore, I noticed that the sidewalks are often split into two lanes, grey for pedestrians and red for cyclists. It’s a subtle detail, but it helps everyone move safely and efficiently. On shared pathways, pedestrians should keep right and be aware that cyclists may pass on the left.
Life in Canmore seemed to move at a different pace. There was less urgency and more intention. The mountains invited us to slow down, tune in, and find balance between grit and grace, challenge and humility, and exploration and introspection.
We stopped at a roadside restaurant and thoroughly enjoyed a meal of fish and chips, as I usually do whenever I fall in love with a lovely place. I tentatively suggested to my husband that we could settle down there; he just gave me a big grin. L.O.L!
The mountain culture of Canmore and Kananaskis is deeply rooted in the Indigenous Peoples who have called these lands home and cared for them for generations.
Visitors can connect with these cultures and experience true mountain legacy through Indigenous–led tours and experiences. They offer a deeper understanding of the people’s enduring relationship with the land.
Locals in Canmore are used to sharing space with wildlife. Encounters with elk, deer, and smaller critters are most common in the area, but even bears and coyotes are often spotted in town. I thanked my stars that they skipped a trip to the town that day!
We then proceeded to Lake Louise, where we immediately entered parking purgatory. It was a confusing sea of massive tour buses. We spotted the Roam Transit bus from Banff, which costs $10 CAD one way. One has to buy tickets months in advance, or prepare to stand in a much more organised queue.
Lake Louise is globally renowned for its surreal, vibrant turquoise water, dramatic mountain backdrop, and iconic alpine experiences.
The Stoney Nakoda First Nations people originally gave it the much better name Ho-run-num-nay (Lake of the Little Fishes). Later, it was renamed after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, daughter of Queen Victoria.
The lake is huge, 2.0 km long, 0.5 km wide, and 70 metres deep, at a high alpine altitude of 5740 feet.
Its famous turquoise hue comes from "rock flour," a term for ground-up glacier dust suspended in the water, due to light refraction. It also remains completely frozen for most of the year, finally thawing around June when the tourists arrive.
Right on the shore sits the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. In 1890, this was a simple one-story log cabin. Today, it is a massive 5-star premier resort with seven restaurants, fancy afternoon tea, and a steep price tag that very few of us can afford.
Apart from this, there are several highly rated chalets tucked into the surrounding wilderness of Banff National Park.
The shore was so crowded that we were taking group photos with complete strangers, and some young couples could be seen risking their lives, standing precariously on the wobbly stones on the shore for a romantic selfie snap.
We saw people lining up to hire canoes to sail on the lake but didn’t dare do so due to our time constraints.
If one wants to escape the crowds, they can hike up to the Lake Agnes Teahouse or take the Fairview Lookout Trail. Fairview is only 1 km long with a 150-meter elevation gain, making it the fastest way to look down on the people who couldn't find parking, which is very frequent.
Our next stop was at Bow Falls, an iconic, wide, low-altitude waterfall located on the Bow River in Banff National Park. The parking was easy to find, and we walked to the waterfall.
The fall drops approximately 30 feet over a broad rock shelf just before the Bow River meets the Spray River. While it is not a towering drop, it is highly celebrated for its immense volume, roaring turquoise glacial melt, and incredible accessibility.
There is a dedicated viewing platform accessible directly by car via Bow Falls Avenue, providing a head-on view of the churning white water. One can visit the falls by the Bow Falls Trail, a highly accessible 1.2-kilometer trail running from the centre of Banff directly to the base of the falls. The path features minimal elevation change and stays right along the turquoise riverbanks, making it family- and stroller-friendly.
While visiting the waterfall itself does not require an entry fee, we must have a valid Parks Canada Pass to enter Banff National Park. Alternatively, visitors can take the local transit shuttle or opt for the easy 20-minute walk from downtown Banff.
In the calmer waters just downstream, local operators were offering rafting and float tours. Swimming is dangerous due to powerful undercurrents, and drone usage is strictly illegal because the site lies within a national protected area.
The dramatic, churning rapids of Bow Falls were famously featured as a central backdrop in the classic 1954 Hollywood western film "River of No Return," starring Marilyn Monroe and Robert Mitchum.
