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A visitor turned up in Banff last week having walked almost every national park in the United States. Johnston Canyon crowds were the thing that finally broke him.
The plan had been Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, which held together right up until he looked at the shuttles. Both were sold out, and parking at either lake remains less a possibility than a folk memory.
He could live with the wildfire smoke, apparently. It was the people that finished the day off.
Johnston Canyon Crowds Have Turned the Tunnel Into a Turnstile
So he fell back on Johnston Canyon, which is where you go when the lakes are shut. It is also where the other thousand people went.
The short rock tunnel at the lower falls is the whole point of the walk, being the one spot where the water lines up properly for a photograph. The queue for it ran to roughly an hour.
He waited, shuffled, and came away without the picture. A thousand people on one boardwalk does complicate the composition.
His summary, worth something from a man who has seen the American park system end to end, was that it felt like cattle being moved along a chute. He is not the first to reach for that comparison.
The Boardwalk Belongs to Whoever Gets There First
None of this makes Johnston Canyon a poor walk. It makes it a walk with a schedule, and the schedule is not yours to negotiate.
Get there at first light and the boardwalk is a different place - damp, loud with water, and largely empty. The catwalks over the creek were built for exactly this number of people, which is to say roughly eight.
Coach traffic and late risers arrive together mid-morning, and from that point the trail runs at capacity until the afternoon. If you are still deciding over a second coffee in Banff, you have already made your decision.
The same logic applies to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, where the shuttle booking window closes long before most visitors think to look at it. Early is not a preference in this valley. It is the entire strategy.
For anyone unwilling to set an alarm, there is a straightforward alternative: go somewhere else and let the ten o'clock crowd have it. More planning notes for the season are over at The Banff Guide.
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