The Crown Jewel of the Canadian Rockies
Years ago, I heard Heath and Alyssa Padgett talking about Banff National Park on the RV Entrepreneur podcast. Alyssa asked Heath in an interview about his favorite places and Banff National Park was at the top of the list. I heard him mention Banff on several podcasts after that and decided to look into the place myself. A quick search on Google images brought up some of the most breathtaking views I had ever seen. Banff National Park immediately became one of the top places on my “bucket list”.
Banff National Park is on the way to the AlCan Highway
Back in the Spring of this year, we began planning our RV trip to Alaska, and we saw that our route to the famed AlCan highway would be taking us right by Banff National Park. We decided that we wanted to spend as much time in Banff as we possibly could. The reservations opened at the end of March, and I was online at the very second they started allowing reservations in order to book nearly 2 weeks at the Lake Louise Campground at Banff National Park. It was an absolute dream come true.
We loved our RV campground!
We ended up having to delay our arrival by one day and arrived to Banff National Park on June 13. When we booked our spot in March, I noticed that the Canadian Parks website showed pictures of each site. I was sure to book a site that had epic mountain views. We arrived to site number 6 in the Lake Louise Campground and were awestruck by the grandeur of the mountains before us and the rushing river across the street. It was everything we had hoped and more. 
The lakes in Banff National Park look like something out of a fairytale
Ask anyone familiar with Banff National Park and more than likely they will likely mention 2 things, Lake Louise, and Moraine Lake. Access to both lakes is provided by a shuttle service. Let’s start with Lake Louise. Lake Louise is a glacier fed lake known for its beautiful turquoise water surrounded by high mountain peaks. The beautiful water color is from a powder called rock flour that flows into the lake with the melting snow. Many people rent the bright red canoes to really take in all of the views surrounding the lake. 
One of the most special experiences at Lake Louise is to hike up the trail to the Lake Agnes Tea House up in the mountains above Lake Louise. The trail starts at Lake Louise and quickly climbs about 1500 feet up to Lake Agnes where a quaint little operational tea house serves up teas and sweets. Despite being the middle of June, a snow storm rolled through and we got to experience having our tea and snacks while the snow fell all around us. It was an experience I will never forget. From the Lake Agnes Teahouse, you can continue hiking up the Beehive Trail or the Little Beehive Trail. Both trails offer exceptional views of the lake and the valley below. 
The other popular lake at Banff National Park is Moraine Lake. Moraine Lake sits in the middle of the valley of 10 peaks. It is one of the most spectacular natural scenes I have ever seen anywhere. The Lake itself is an incredibly bright blue and it is surrounded by huge snow covered mountain peaks. It looks like something out of a dream. We ended up hiking to another lake about 1600 feet higher up in the peaks. But the best view that I saw of Moraine Lake was just up the trail to the rocks on the left of the lake. The rock trail provided an area elevated enough to to have spectacular views of the lake below. But, the trail was easy enough that anyone could make the hike. This short hike led me to one of the most beautiful mountain views I have ever seen in my life. 
We left Banff National Park nearly 2 weeks after we arrived. It was way too soon. We left knowing that we would be back. We made an instant connection to Banff and it is most definitely one of our favorite national parks. 
