Peyto Lake – Banff National Park
Alberta’s Banff National Park is world renowned for its vibrant blue glacial lakes. While Moraine Lake and Lake Louise are probably the most popular, there is a strong argument to be made for Peyto Lake being the most beautiful lake in the park. In addition to the view being stunning, the fact that Peyto Lake is farther removed from the busiest areas that get constantly swarmed by tourists (Lake Louise and the town of Banff), makes it a much more pleasant lake to visit than Moraine Lake, for example. Make no mistake, it’s still crowded, but in comparison to Moraine and Lake Louise where the parking lots are full first thing in the morning, it’s much less of a headache.
If you’re planning a trip to Banff and Peyto Lake isn’t on your itinerary, you should reconsider…
Getting There
The scenic overlook is located off of the Icefields Parkway, approximately 62 miles north of the town of Banff and 26 miles north of Lake Louise. Driving from Banff will take about an hour and driving from Lake Louise will take about 30 minutes. If you’re coming from Jasper National Park to the north, the drive will take about 2.5 hours from the town of Jasper. The road to the parking area is clearly marked by a sign that reads “Peyto Lake” – “Bow Summit”. From here you’ll drive up a hill before reaching the parking area. We visited at 9 AM on a Saturday and had no trouble finding a parking spot. By contrast, we visited Moraine Lake at 7 AM on a Friday and had to take a shuttle from the overflow parking lot just to get to the parking area.
Peyto Lake Overlook
From the parking area you will follow a paved path uphill through a pine forest for about 10 minutes or so. According to signs along the way, it’s known as the “snow forest”, and it lived up to its name. We visited at the very end of August and the pine trees that surrounded the path were blanketed in a thin layer of snow…so dress warm regardless of the season.
At the end of the paved trail you will arrive at a wooden viewing deck overlooking Peyto Lake. You won’t be the only one at this official viewpoint. Even though we’ve mentioned that it’s a more pleasant experience than Moraine or Lake Louise, it’s still a popular stop along the Icefields Parkway and the viewing deck will almost certainly be full of tourists snapping photos of the incredible view. There is also an area just below the viewing deck where you can walk around to take pictures, but that will likely be fairly crowded as well. The unfortunate reality is that crowds are just as much of a nuisance in the popular Canadian parks as they are in the US National Parks. If you want to get away from the crowds, there is a 1.7-mile loop trail that takes you to a few other less-popular (but equally impressive) overlooks. Crowds aside, the view is stunning…
The viewing deck is at about 6,900 ft. above sea level and the lake itself sits below at about 6,100 ft. It is flanked by Caldron Peak (9,551 ft.), Peyto Peak (9,780 ft.), and Mt. Jimmy Simpson (9,701 ft.). Like many of the glacial lakes in Banff, the impossibly blue water gets its tint from the glacial runoff called “glacial flour”, which in this case comes from Peyto Glacier. It might seem as though all the photos you see online are photoshopped to give the water that gatorade-like hue, but that’s actually what it looks like in real life.
With so many amazing mountains, glaciers, and lakes, it’s difficult to say one view in Banff is better than the rest, but the view overlooking Peyto Lake is easily in the conversation. If you said it was the best view in the park, we wouldn’t argue with you.
Gorgeous photos! Peyto Lake is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. Thanks for sharing your views and the information. I really enjoyed seeing it again.
Thanks! The view was incredible, especially with the clear sunny skies.
Beautiful pics! I was there first week of August. What a breath taking spectacular views of mountain scenery! It was like heaven on earth. Peyto lake was just most beautiful lake, not enough words to describe its beauty. Lake Louise Emerald Lake Moraine Lake and list goes on… for amazing gorgeous lakes. Loved it!!
Thank you! There were so many beautiful lakes in Banff and Jasper but I think Peyto Lake was our favorite.
Next time, take the easy trail leading past the lake viewpoint to the old site of the Bow Summit Fire lookout. It’s a former road, so wide and an easy walk, with marmots and pikas. The viewpoint’s stunning, back north towards Bow Lake. And almost always crowd free. Proud to live less than 90 min from there.
Thanks for the tip!
There’s an unmarked trail leading from the main viewing platform down to the lake. We took it and had the whole trail and the lake for ourselves. We even had a dip there in the frigid waters. The trail was short, maybe 1 km in length, but while all the tourists battled to take the same a million-time taken picture, we found ourselves in a much more beautiful and unique place. I think people who want to drive all that crazy distance just to take a snapshot of the famous lake, should seriously consider downloading the pics from the Internet and using a photoshop software to insert their faces into it. It will save them some time and money.