Mistaya Canyon
A Narrow Limestone Canyon Carved By The Mistaya River With Swirling Potholes, Smooth Walls And A Footbridge, Reached By A Short Wooded Trail From A Roadside Car Park. A Quiet And Impressive Stop On The Icefields Parkway, With Cold Spray And Slippery Rock · Lake Louise, Alberta
Mistaya Canyon is a narrow limestone gorge carved by the Mistaya River beside the Icefields Parkway, about 70 km north of Lake Louise, between Bow Summit and Saskatchewan River Crossing (confirm). A wooded trail of roughly 500 m leaves a small roadside car park and descends by gravel and steps to a footbridge over the gorge. From the bridge and the rock ledges nearby you see smooth, curved walls, round potholes ground by stones, and green water squeezing into a slot only a few metres wide. The river starts as meltwater and drainage from Peyto Lake and the Bow Summit area and runs north to join the North Saskatchewan. Mistaya is usually translated as grizzly bear in the Stoney Nakoda language (confirm). It draws far fewer people than Johnston Canyon, and the sound and cold spray are the main reward, and entry costs nothing beyond the park pass. Allow thirty to forty-five minutes for the walk, the bridge and a rest at the rail.
Mistaya Canyon, a short walk from the Icefields Parkway (Highway 93) about 70 km north of Lake Louise, between Saskatchewan Crossing and Bow Summit in Banff National Park; coordinates approximate, Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada
The trail and the canyon have no gate and can be visited at any hour in summer, when the Icefields Parkway is clear. The small car park is plowed only when the Parkway is open, and in winter the path may be snow-packed, icy or unplowed (confirm). Daylight lasts past 10 pm around the June solstice and fades by about 4:30 pm in December. The bridge and the viewing ledges can be closed for repairs or after rockfall, so check the Parks Canada notices for Banff before you set out. Washrooms at the car park, if any, are basic and seasonal (confirm).