The Rockies and the Rainforest Coast
British Columbia and Alberta in one line: the icefield parkway between Banff and Jasper, then west to the coast for temperate rainforest, orcas, and — if you go in autumn and plan far ahead — the spirit bears of the Great Bear.
Calgary to Banff
An hour and a half west and the prairie ends against a wall of rock. Banff townsite is busy and useful; the Bow Valley Parkway rather than the highway is the way to arrive, with a decent chance of elk on the verge.
Lake Louise and Moraine
Both lakes now require shuttle reservations or a very early start — private vehicles are restricted at Moraine. The colour is rock flour suspended in glacial meltwater. Walk the Plain of Six Glaciers rather than standing at the shore.
The Icefields Parkway
Two hundred and thirty kilometres north to Jasper, and among the great drives anywhere: Peyto Lake, the Columbia Icefield, Athabasca Falls, and glaciers visible from the road that are measurably shorter than they were on the last edition of the map.
Jasper
Bigger, wilder and quieter than Banff. Maligne Canyon, the boat to Spirit Island on Maligne Lake, and a dark-sky preserve that is among the largest in the world — worth staying up for.
West through the Cariboo
Out of the Rockies and down into British Columbia’s interior — dry, forested, and a long day. Wells Gray or Kamloops as a stop, depending on how far you want to push.
Vancouver
Stanley Park, Granville Island and the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, whose Northwest Coast collections — Haida, Kwakwaka’wakw, Musqueam — are the best introduction anywhere to the art of this coast.
To Vancouver Island
Ferry across the Strait of Georgia to Victoria or Nanaimo. Cathedral Grove on the way west has Douglas firs over eight hundred years old, standing beside the road because somebody drew a line around them.
Tofino
The open Pacific side: Long Beach, storm-watching in winter and surf year-round in a thick wetsuit, and Clayoquot Sound behind it — where over eight hundred people were arrested blockading logging roads in 1993.
Clayoquot by water
Boat or kayak into the sound for old-growth on Meares Island, hot springs reached only by sea, and grey and humpback whales offshore in season. The Tla-o-qui-aht and Ahousaht nations run several of the operations.
North up the island
To Telegraph Cove and the Johnstone Strait, where northern resident orca pods return each summer and where the rubbing beaches at Robson Bight are closed to boats entirely so the whales have somewhere to be left alone.
The Inside Passage
The ferry from Port Hardy north to Bella Bella or Prince Rupert runs a full day through fjords and islands with almost no settlement. It is public transport and one of the great boat journeys in North America.
Great Bear Rainforest
Spirit Bear Lodge at Klemtu is owned by the Kitasoo/Xai’xais Nation, and viewing is led by community Guardians. The Kermode — a black bear carrying a recessive gene that turns it cream — is found at meaningful frequency only here. Autumn, with the salmon.
Estuaries and inlets
Out at dawn by boat with a Guardian: black bears and grizzlies on the salmon rivers, coastal wolves that swim between islands, and a forest whose trees have been shown to contain nitrogen carried inland from the ocean by animals.
Out
Floatplane or ferry to Bella Bella and fly to Vancouver. Weather cancels flights on this coast routinely — build a buffer day before any international departure.
Good to know
The Great Bear leg needs booking a year ahead for the September–October bear season, and the lodges are community-owned with genuinely small capacity. Without it, this route still works as a Rockies-and-Vancouver-Island trip.
Banff and Jasper now use shuttle reservations for Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, and private vehicle access to Moraine is restricted. Book when the window opens.
Bear safety on trails is not optional: carry spray, know how to use it, make noise, and follow the food-storage rules at every campsite.
Shorter or longer?
Rockies and Vancouver Island only — no Inside Passage or Great Bear.
Fly or sail to the archipelago for Gwaii Haanas, co-managed by the Haida Nation, with village sites and standing poles.
Continue north to Whitehorse and Kluane for the largest non-polar icefield in the world.