Itinerary Planning Tips

Based on previous itineraries, you need an average of 2.4 days per stopover.   Do not forget to include time for travel between stopovers (½ to one day).  Every important place add an extra day in case of weather delays or changed plans.

When to Go 

Except for low altitude walks, hiking trips are limited to the period from June to September in the northern hemisphere.  It can snow at anytime of the year or there can be snow fields leftover from winter.

Hiking Tips

If you want to enjoy true wilderness you have to go on one of the many hiking trails.  Be prepared by wearing hiking shoes/boots with Vibram-type soles and having lots of layers, especially a Patagonia and a Gore-Tex jacket.

Make sure you bring at least a one litre (34 oz) water bottle.  The insulated stainless steel Thermos model especially keeps water cold.  MSR Alpine is another make but you have to understand how to open it.

Water Tips

Bear Tips

Don’t put bear bait (food) in your clothes or your tent — ever.  You don’t want those smells to persist and attract the attention of those “bruins”.  Place your snacks in your day bag or backpack, and all food and aromatic products (like cosmetics and toothpaste) in your vehicle.

Yes we have seen bears in the old days in the campgrounds because silly tourists left food on their tables and the old-fashioned garbage cans (on the right) were easy for bears to open.  We have even seen people feeding bears from the campers — feeding all wildlife is now banned.

BTW, this photo is historic.  We were having lunch inside our van at this picnic area.  This bear came to the garbage can.  A tourist got out of his car to take a photo.  We won’t mention where he was from.  His poodle dashed out of the door and started running towards the bear and barking.

We froze.  We thought we were about to see the bear miss swiping the poodle then chase it back… right to the owner!  Suddenly a park maintenance worker drove his pickup truck right towards the bear.  Crisis averted!  We have heard so many horror stories about what tourists have done that led to injuries and even deaths.

Most of our bear sightings were from inside a car.  we have even seen a bear sun tanning on a roadside picnic table!  On the plus side in all our years hiking in the Rockies, we have only had one close encounter of the bear kind.

in fact, we were just enjoying a close encounter of the deer kind.  A curious deer came face to face within one or two metres (yards) to me — perhaps it had never seen a human before?  I was close enough to touch it.  This seemed to go on for minutes.

Suddenly the deer disappeared and my wife spotted a bear!  The bear was about 30 m (yd) away and actually hiking on our trail — ok, it’s really the bear’s trail.  Thus it was in our way of getting out of this enclosed glacial cirque at Goat Lake, Waterton NP.  As it was almost dusk, we were the only hikers left around the lake.

Thank goodness for the Parks Canada presentation the evening before.  So I hooted like an owl.  The bear reversed direction.  We had clear views of the bear as we followed along the lake.  Unfortunately, s/he was heading towards the dangerous part of the trail — a narrow, treeless descent on scree slopes.  Fortunately, just before the descent, the bear found a berry treasure trove off the trail.  We nervously passed the bear and continued down the hill.  The bear ignored us in its feeding frenzy.