Bow River, Banff National Park

This summer, we had a chance to float down the Bow river in Banff, downstream of Bow Falls. You can also paddle upstream of the falls as well as into the Vermilion Lakes. Instead of putting our kayaks in, we decided to take a raft trip. You could easily duplicate this one-hour trip in your own boat or float all the way down to Canmore (maybe three hours).



We launched on the Spray Creek but lots of folks were launching directly onto the river from the Bow Falls parking lot.

Floating downstream, you get to see the Banff Springs as well as the golf course and several views of Mount Rundle.

We had a pretty smoky day for our trip so the mountains were a bit obscured. The river was lovely and quite crowded.

The paddling here was fairly easy. There were some gentle rapids (we never got a drop on us) and a few sweepers to be mindful of. Overall, though, this wasn't much more adventurous than the North Saskatchewan.

The most interesting feature we passed was some hoodoos. Apparently animal sightings are pretty common but the smoke and the late season meant we didn't see anything too interesting.

The pull out is a small beach (complete with stairs) on the righthand side of the river. This is right beside golf course road, which leads back to Bow Falls.

Overall, a nice easy trip with the option to extend to Canmore. Probably not the best place for a first river paddle (upstream of Bow Falls would be better--fewer rapids and other hazards).