Ride the shuttle to Moraine Lake and Lake Louise, drive Kananaskis’s Highway 40, meet the dinosaurs at Drumheller, or spend a weekend on the Icefields Parkway or in Waterton. We’ve put the stops, routes and practical details together so your day out of Calgary is easier to plan.
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A full summer day in Banff from Calgary: the big blue lake and Stewart Canyon at Lake Minnewanka, Mount Rundle over Two Jack Lake, lunch on Banff Avenue, the hot spring cave where Canada's national parks began, Bow Falls, and an evening ride up Sulphur Mountain on the Banff Gondola.
Ride Parks Canada's shuttle to Moraine Lake and the Valley of the Ten Peaks, take the Lake Connector to Lake Louise, hike up to the Lake Agnes Tea House for lunch, then drive home along the Bow Valley Parkway past Morant's Curve to the falls of Johnston Canyon.
Drive the Kananaskis Trail, Highway 40, south from the Trans-Canada: turquoise Barrier Lake, a short forest walk to Troll Falls, a picnic and a climb to Rawson Lake above Upper Kananaskis Lake, the top of Highwood Pass, Canada's highest paved road, and dinner in Canmore on the way home.
Drive out of Calgary across the prairie and drop into the Red Deer River badlands: the rim of Horseshoe Canyon, the dinosaur halls of the Royal Tyrrell Museum, Canada's last wooden coal tipple at the Atlas Coal Mine, the capped sandstone pillars of the Willow Creek Hoodoos, and a swaying miners' footbridge over the river at Rosedale.
A day in the ranch and prairie country south of Calgary: the Cowboy Trail to the Bar U Ranch, the North-West Mounted Police fort at Fort Macleod, and Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, the UNESCO World Heritage Site where the Blackfoot people drove bison over a sandstone cliff for thousands of years. Dinner on Fort Macleod's historic Main Street.
One full day of the Calgary Stampede: the downtown parade on opening Friday (or a free pancake breakfast on other days), Elbow River Camp and the barns at Stampede Park, the afternoon rodeo, a walk through the site of Fort Calgary to dinner in Inglewood, and the chuckwagon races and fireworks of the Evening Show.
A two-night summer weekend from Calgary up the Icefields Parkway to Jasper and back. Friday is the drive north past Bow Lake, Peyto Lake and Mistaya Canyon, with a hike up Parker Ridge to a glacier view. Saturday is Jasper's day: a cruise to Spirit Island on Maligne Lake, the SkyTram and an evening at Pyramid Lake. Sunday heads home by Athabasca and Sunwapta falls and a ride onto the Athabasca Glacier.
Two nights in Waterton, where the prairie runs straight into the mountains: Cameron Falls and the Prince of Wales Hotel on Friday evening, a hike to Lower Bertha Falls, a cruise down Upper Waterton Lake and the red rock of Red Rock Canyon on Saturday, and a calm early morning at Cameron Lake before the drive home. The park is still growing back from the 2017 Kenow Wildfire, and the guide says where you'll see it.
Every guide lists the date and time it was last updated and when the trip is best experienced, from a single week to all year. Each includes official links to verify roads, tides, hours, fees and closures for your travel date. Buy once and the guide is yours forever: read it online any time from your account, always in its latest version, or keep it offline in the Greg’s Guides app for iPhone and iPad, which updates it for you.
No juggling a dozen tabs or guessing how much you can squeeze into a day. Get a realistic starting plan, then make the day your own.
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Guides in the app work offline. Navigation needs a connection or maps saved in your navigation app.
A relaxed beach day, a mountain outing, or a bigger coastal adventure. Choose what fits your time.
Pay once and read it online right away, or open it in the Greg’s Guides app to keep it on your phone.
Check current conditions, open your route, and head out. Linger where you like. Skip what you don’t.
A digital guide with a timed itinerary, stop-by-stop details, a schematic route map, navigation links and a plain-text plan. This is a self-guided plan; attraction admission, parking, food, and transport are separate. We update trips regularly, and you’ll always have access to the latest information: you own your guide forever, so you can read the latest version online any time or keep it up to date in the app.
No, but it’s worth having. Tell us your home city and we’ll unlock a free guide to a day trip, event or activity near you. Your account also keeps every guide you buy, so you can read it online any time and use it in the Greg’s Guides app.
Yes. Read it online in your phone’s browser: sign in to My account and open your guide. Or, as we recommend on iPhone and iPad, use the Greg’s Guides app: sign in with the same account and your guides are saved on your phone, so they work without cell service. Navigation links open in the relevant app or browser when supported.
In the Greg’s Guides app, yes: your guides and route maps are saved on your phone. Reading online needs a connection. Guides don’t include offline road maps or turn-by-turn navigation, so save the area in your navigation app and prepare your route while connected.
Route links open in Google Maps, Apple Maps or Waze, which calculate directions using their latest available road, traffic, closure and detour information. This information depends on your app, coverage and connection and may not include every restriction. Check official road alerts, review the route before leaving and obey posted closures. The guide’s route map is a saved overview.
Each preview tells you the time commitment and activities. Beach sand, stairs, steep paths, weather, and road access can affect suitability. Choose shorter options and check accessibility at the stops you want to visit.
Each guide shows the date and time it was last updated and the time of year it is best experienced; some stops also note their own best season. Roads, services, prices, tides and rules can change, so every guide includes official sources to check before departure. Online, you always see the latest version, and the app updates the guides on your phone. You own your guide forever.
Stripe returns you to an order page with links to read each guide online as soon as payment is verified. Bookmark that page and reopen it any time for fresh links. Sign in or create a free account to keep your guides together and use them in the Greg’s Guides app. No subscription is required. Please keep the order link private.
I’m Greg Pasquariello, a software engineer living in the Pacific Northwest and the owner of Tecnicl LLC. I love a good day trip, and I host a lot of out-of-town visitors who want to know what they can do while they’re here. Greg’s Guides began as the plans I kept putting together for them. Now anyone can use them.
Tell us about a day trip you love. If we turn it into a guide, you get every guide we make free for a year, and your name on the guide. If we don’t, pick any guide free as thanks.
Moraine Lake hero photo: Florian Fuchs · CC BY 3.0. August 2012 photograph; resized and displayed with crop.
