Hi Everyone! Here's What’s Happening This Week!
The eastern Bow Valley Parkway reopens to cars today. That 17km stretch between Fireside and Johnston Canyon has been pedal-only all season, and from this morning, you're sharing it with traffic again until September. If a quiet ride was on your list, you've missed the window - though the autumn closure tends to be the better one anyway.
The bears, meanwhile, are not respecting anyone's plans. There were two separate encounters in Kananaskis this week, one of them a campsite tent that did not survive the experience. None of it is unusual for late June, but it's a reasonable prompt to tighten up how you store food and how close you let curiosity take you.
If that has cooled your enthusiasm for sleeping outdoors, Skyridge Glamping is a fair compromise - private cabins, mountain scenery, and four solid walls between you and the local fauna.
Or step away from the overnight question altogether and let the wagon ride and cowboy cookout do the work - a horse-drawn trip along the Bow River with a steak cooked over a backcountry fire at the halfway point. Everything else is below.
Plan a visit to Moraine Lake | How to get to Moraine Lake | Moraine Lake in August | Moraine Lake Rockpile Trail
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👉 Find out what is happening this week and beyond on our Events Page.
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This is a great way to experience a little of Banff’s ranching history while enjoying a BBQ steak lunch in the mountains. Instead of the usual sightseeing tour, you’ll travel by horse-drawn wagon along trails beside the Bow River and beneath Sulphur Mountain, with wide views of the surrounding mountains.
About halfway through the ride, the wagon stops at a backcountry cookout spot where your steak is cooked to order and served with roasted potatoes, cowboy baked beans, coleslaw, buns, and dessert.
Afterwards, you can relax by the fire, try a little lassoing, or play horseshoes before settling back in for the scenic ride through forest and meadow on the way back to the stables.
🏔️ Fresh from the Rockies
The Athabasca Glacier
🐻 Multiple Bear Warnings Across Kananaskis. A family of grizzlies tore open a tent at Lower Lake Campground, while another approached a hiker near Rummel Lake. June fills the valleys with people and bears at once.
🚴 Cyclists Lose the Parkway Today. The car-free season on the eastern Bow Valley Parkway ends today, returning 17km between Fireside and Johnston Canyon to traffic. It comes back in September - and locals say the autumn closure, with the aspen turning, is the one to wait for.
🥞 Pancakes First, Parade at Noon. Canmore's Canada Day celebrations close downtown roads from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on July 1. Expect limited to no access, and a great deal of red and white.
🦟 Golden Throws Money at Mosquitoes. High water and repeated rain have turned Rural Golden into an ideal breeding habitat, so the CSRD is releasing up to $50,000 in reserves for extra larval treatments. Contractors warn it gets worse before it gets drier.
🎶 Music on Main Returns Friday. Live music takes over Main Street West in Radium Hot Springs every Friday evening from tomorrow through September. Two hours a week, ice cream optional, running until the long weekend.
🌧️ Showers settle in for a few days - Friday brings 19°C with a chance of showers, Saturday cools to 15°C with more of the same, and Sunday sees steady rain at 14°C. Cool, green, and unmistakably Rockies. Full Forecast Here
⭐ Most Popular Last Issue
🚴 Earn your views by pedal! This half-day outing fits an e-bike ride, a canyon walk, and a shuttle back into one trip - the kind of outing that looks like effort and mostly isn't. Check out the Johnston Canyon e-bike and walking tour.
🚣Activities You Might Enjoy
🚌 Banff Hop-On-Hop-Off Bus - With Moraine Lake now closed to private cars, this yellow-bus day pass is one of the easiest ways to reach Johnston Canyon, Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. Catch the 07:45 departure to fit all stops in comfortably.
⛏️ Canmore History Tour - Before the boutiques arrived, Canmore ran on coal and cowboys. This easy 1.5-hour guided walk through the town's mining past covers flat trails and quiet streets, with mountain views along the way.
🐴 Bow River Horseback Ride - Fancy seeing Banff from the saddle? This gentle hour-long ride along the Bow River suits beginners and passes the Cave and Basin, birthplace of Canada's national parks. Wear long trousers and closed-toed shoes, and leave the backpack behind.
❓Your Questions Answered
🏔️ Can you enjoy good food in Banff without a big budget? Absolutely - Banff's food scene covers the full range, from relaxed casual dining to special-occasion splurges, so there is something for every type of visitor.
📅 What is the best time of year to visit Bow Falls? The trail is open year-round and rewards a visit in every season - spring brings powerful flows, autumn colour, and winter transforms it into a quiet, icy scene.
🐾 Why has Split Lip been linked to killing other bears' cubs? It is a natural behaviour called sexually selected infanticide, common among dominant male grizzlies - but the incidents involving Split Lip are more dramatic than most, and well worth reading in full. See the full guide
🏛️ Three Banff Hotels That Were Here Before The Gift Shops
Banff in peak season is a lot of things, most of them crowded. Staying somewhere with a bit of genuine history behind it doesn't fix the queues, but it does give you something more interesting to come back to at the end of the day.
👑 Mount Royal Hotel - Open since 1908, rebuilt after two fires, and still standing on the corner of Banff Avenue and Caribou Street like it owns the place - which, historically, various people have paid a great deal of money to do. The lobby museum and rooftop hot tubs are the two things guests consistently don't expect and consistently mention afterwards.
🏨 King Edward Hotel - Twenty-one rooms, built in 1904, the second oldest hotel in Banff. None of that sounds like a selling point until you realise it means a small, unfussy, central base with none of the resort-scale impersonality. Walk out the door, and you're on Banff Avenue. That's genuinely it.
🏰 Fairmont Banff Springs - First opened in 1888 as a Canadian Pacific Railway hotel, declared a National Historic Site exactly a hundred years later, and still the building most people photograph before they've even checked in. It's a short taxi ride from town rather than a walk, but with twelve restaurants on-site, that's less of a problem than it sounds.
🏕️ Quiz
What is the main street that runs through the town of Banff?
Yesterday’s Question: Which lake is shown in this photo, popular for swimming and paddleboarding in summer and wild skating in winter?
✅Answer: 1) Johnson Lake - 29% Correct
Johnson Lake is a local favourite for swimming, paddleboarding and winter skating. While you’re in the area, it’s also worth checking out nearby Lake Minnewanka.
If you like the idea of being surrounded by mountain scenery but don’t want the effort that comes with camping, Skyridge Glamping sits nicely in between. The private cabins are set in a quiet natural setting, giving you a real sense of being away from it all.
🎸Events, Activities & Live Music
📅 Featured events for today are listed below. Visit our website for a complete list.
FULL EVENT CALENDAR | BANFF & LAKE LOUISE | CANMORE | JASPER NP
BANFF HAPPY HOURS | CANMORE HAPPY HOURS
Friday, June 26
17:00 | Rooftop Sessions | Rose & Crown Banff | Banff
17:30 | Night of the Zoopocalypse | artsPlace Canmore | Canmore
18:30 | Live Musician Night | The Dusty Boot | Banff
18:30 | Books & Brews | Canmore Brewing Co | Canmore
19:00 | Bingo Night | Canmore Legion | Canmore
19:00 | Timmy & The Ducks | Mineshaft Tavern | Canmore
19:30 | The Cheezie Musical | Carter-Ryan Theatre | Canmore
19:45 | Les Furies | artsPlace Canmore | Canmore
21:00 | Jam Night | The Stand Easy | Jasper
21:00 | Andy Curtis: Live | Tavern 1883 | Canmore
21:00 | Jamie Allanach: Live | Rose & Crown Canmore | Canmore
22:00 | Friday Night Vibes DJ LT | High Rollers | Banff
22:00 | ADEQUATE! | Rose & Crown Banff | Banff
📅 Got An Event To Share? Submit Here (3 days before the event date) for a FREE LISTING
👋 That’s All For Now 🎬
Another week of mountain magic awaits!
We're so glad you're here for the ride.
Keep exploring and sharing, and we'll see you in the next issue with another full lineup of Banff happenings.
Jill & Kevin | Editor | What’s On Banff
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