Interesting Facts About the Canadian Rockies

November 18, 2021 Tokyo

The vast landscape of the Canadian Rockies is a treasury of scenic splendor, with shimmering glaciers and vibrant lakes, limestone caves and craggy peaks, alpine meadows and dense forest

AT THE HEART OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES is Banff National Park, which became the country’s first (and the world’s third) national park in 1885 when the government set aside a 10-square-mile parcel of land. Here are twelve facts about this spectacular location that you probably didn’t know:

Hot tub time machine: In the 1880s, the discovery of a series of mineral-rich hot springs put Banff National Park on the tourist map. The Grand View Villa, which opened in 1886 alongside the therapeutic waters of the upper hot springs, quickly became popular as a health resort. According to legend, its handrail was built with wooden crutches left behind by “cured” patients.

Tea time: The Canadian Pacific Railway built Lake Agnes Tea House in 1901 as a hiker’s refuge at 7,000 feet in a hanging valley above Lake Louise. Hikers and horseback riders have been able to enjoy pots of loose-leaf tea and freshly baked banana bread while taking in the breathtaking views of Lake Agnes since 1905. Because there are no roads to this mountaintop location, staff members must hike in and out with supplies and trash on their backs. A helicopter drops off 10,000 pounds of flour, sugar, propane, and other dry goods once a year, a feat that takes 20 to 30 trips over the course of a single busy day.

Bridge and tunnel crowd: Moose, bighorn sheep, elk, and other large and small animals roam the Bow Valley along the busy Trans Canada Highway, which runs through Banff National Park. The park’s custom-built, naturally vegetated overpasses and underground tunnels provide safe passage and have become the global standard for animal highway safety.

Melt down: The Columbia Icefield, located between Banff and Jasper National Parks, contains some of the world’s purest water. It is the hydrographic apex of North America, with meltwater from the icefield flowing into the Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans.

The other cold war: Patricia Lake hosted a top-secret military project to build a ship out of wood pulp and ice near the end of WWII. The ice ship, designed to assist the Allies in striking German U-boats far out in the Atlantic Ocean, proved seaworthy, but the plan was scrapped—and its prototype melted with the spring thaw.

By any other name: After falling off his horse while fording its waters, a Belgian Jesuit missionary forever denigrated Maligne Valley, calling its river the French word for “wicked.” The river flows into a canyon and lake that have been given the same name. The largest glacier-fed lake in the Rockies—and the second largest in the world—azure Maligne Lake was named by a 19th-century rail surveyor after his own difficult journey through this remote wilderness.

Eyes on the prize: Banff’s main thoroughfare, Banff Avenue, was designed to align with postcard-perfect views of Cascade Mountain.

High calling: Mount Edith Cavell in Jasper National Park is named after a British nurse who helped Allied soldiers escape German-occupied Belgium during World War I. She was killed by a German firing squad in 1915, and Canada renamed the 11,033-foot “Mountain of the Great Crossing” in her honor a year later.

Blue light special: Because of the way sunlight strikes fine particles of eroded glacial silt suspended in the water, the lakes of the Icefields Parkway each reflect a distinct hue, ranging from turquoise Bow Lake to jade Lake Louise. The colors are most vibrant in July and August, when meltwater levels are at their highest.

The price of beauty: From 1969 to 1979, an image of Banff National Park’s Moraine Lake framed by the snowcapped mountains of the Valley of the Ten Peaks appeared on the back of the Canadian $20 bill. Locals still call the spot the “20-dollar view.”

Good dig: Opabinia, a primitive arthropod, was one of the 127 or so species discovered in the Burgess Shale fossil depository in Yoho National Park in 1909. The bizarre creature, which had five eyes and a clawed “nozzle,” made a room full of paleontologists laugh when the first reconstruction was revealed.

Wild things: Big mammals like grizzly bears, black bears, elk, bighorn sheep, moose, and caribou are popular in Banff National Park. However, in 2009, a small squirrel stole the show when it photobombed a vacationing couple’s photograph, becoming an Internet sensation and park mascot.