
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Best places to hike in Canada
Canada, just like the United States, is home to some of the most well regarded, pristine national parks in the world. While Canada's national park system isn't as well developed or as extensive as America's, it's still on par with America's in terms of the sheer quality and beauty of the parks. I personally have only hiked twice in Canada, so my experience with the parks there isn't as comprehensive. Both of my Canadian hiking experiences took place in Alberta at Banff National Park and Jasper National Park. My dad is from Calgary so my family and I have visited Banff National Park and the main attraction there Lake Louise many times before. Prior to the summer of 2014 we had only viewed and taken pictures of the dazzling, iridescent lake while at Banff, but never done any extensive hiking. We decided to do a hiking and camping trip at the two parks and the first hike we took while at Banff was directly adjacent to Lake Louise. The trail was a narrow, loose dirt trail that gradually ascended up the mountainside, climbing roughly 300-400 feet over the course of 1.5 miles. The trail ended at the top of a ridge overlooking the stunning lake and lake Louise hotel. In terms of the trail difficulty the lake Louise hike was moderately challenging and popular amongst a wide variety of people. Moving onto Jasper national park, which is a 15 mile drive directly north of Banff, and arguably the most pristine, least developed park I've ever been to. I remember seeing a grizzly bear mother with her three cubs eating on the side of the road on our first day in Jasper national park. Just like at Banff national park we hiked around a lake, known as Annette lake, which was equally as serene and placid as lake Louise. Unlike the hike near lake Louise, the trail around Annette lake had only a minimal amount of elevation gain, but still featured a plethora of aromatically pleasing vegetation. While I have only ever hiked at Banff and Jasper national park in Canada, I know there is some truly terrific hiking in British Columbia and around Vancouver. One of the more well known spots in the Vancouver area is Whistler mountain resort which is more highly regarded as a skiing destination but boasts one of the most extensive, appealing trail networks in all of Canada. Other great places to hike in British Columbia include Squamish and Yoho national park which both feature well developed trail systems and diverse topography. Eastern Canada also has some phenomenal hiking but since I don't have any experience hiking there, I don't know of any particular places.





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