Peyto Lake, Banff National Park

This was an unplanned stop and my partner and I were pleasantly surprised by both the scenery and how enjoyable the hikes were around the lake. Informative panels talked about the history of the area, the native flora and fauna, and a great viewpoint at the end of the trail produced some great pictures of the unearthly blue waters.

Stunning Lake! Peyto Lake is one of the most colourful glacial lakes in the Canadian Rockies. It is located along the Icefields Parkway, Peyto Lake is famous for its brilliant aqua colour which is created by the meltwater from the Wapta Glacier. The lake is surrounded by a forest. You can click some beautiful photos of the lake with a short, easy walk 10-15 mins from the parking lot to the viewing platform. For even better views, you can take a short trail up to Bow Summit for an elevated, less crowded view. Parking is available near the lake but it gets full pretty fast. Visited in July so it was not cold and trail was good too. A must visit place when visiting Banff and Jasper!! Highly recommend!!

Unreal and absolutely jaw dropping beautiful. The lake is an amazing Turquoise Blue color, and is surrounded by amazing mountains. The lower parking lot is abput 0.6 mile to the viewing deck. There is an upper parking lot, but that's for public buses, if you come late in the evening, you could park there, when the buses are not running and thats a 5 minute walk to the observation deck. A must stop if you're on hwy 93 to Jasper.

Worth visiting. 15 minutes moderate hike from the base. Visited in mid June, hike was snowy and slippery but worth it. Must see while travelling on Banff Jasper highway.

Stunning views though the trail has lots of snow, if you have hiking shoes or poles it should be manageable. The hike through the snow was worth it , the lake was not frozen and the views were amazing!!