The Best Hikes in Canada

Passes and quotas

Parks in British Columbia and the Rockies control numbers on busy days. Garibaldi Provincial Park requires a day-use pass in peak season for Panorama Ridge, and Joffre Lakes near Pemberton issues a free day pass that is booked two days ahead. At Lake O'Hara in Yoho National Park the shuttle bus is allocated by lottery; anyone without a seat walks the 11 km fire road, which takes two to four hours, and the quota keeps the trails around the lake quiet.

Turquoise lakes

Turquoise lakes are the usual goal in the west. Joffre Lakes has three, and the water turns more turquoise at each one on the way up. Panorama Ridge looks down on Garibaldi Lake after a round trip of about 30 km that takes 9 to 12 hours. The Lake O'Hara Alpine Circuit loops past chains of smaller lakes in different colours.

Ridges and passes

Tent Ridge Horseshoe in Kananaskis climbs about 800 m onto a high ridge with an exposed rock scramble, and most people walk it clockwise so that they go up the scramble instead of down it. Sentinel Pass in Banff starts at Moraine Lake and goes up through Larch Valley to a steep final stretch.

The east

The two eastern trails are short walks to cliff edges. Skerwink Trail near Port Rexton in Newfoundland is a 5.3 km loop along the cliffs of Trinity Bay, past sea stacks with nesting birds. Cup and Saucer Trail on Manitoulin Island climbs through hardwood forest to unfenced lookouts on the Niagara Escarpment, and a side trail adds ladders and small caves.