Sunshine Meadows

An alpine park with trails with varying difficulty levels. There are guided walks too, and the area offers good views of the highest mountains in the Banff National Park. Shuttle bus access from Banff.

outdoors

Website: sunshinemeadowsbanff.com (opens in a new tab)

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Listing from Wikivoyage: Banff, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Updated 28 Sept 2026. Something wrong? Tell us.

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Sunshine Village
20 minutes west of the Banff townsite. It also receives more snow than the other two resorts and benefits from a higher elevation and a generally longer ski season. All natural snow, no snow-making. Also fantastic scenery. It is the only resort of the three to have on-hill accommodation. Buffet breakfast served in the lodge at the bottom of the gondola - not much else until lunchtime once you get to the top.
$85 full-day adult ticket
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Bow Valley Parkway
A scenic route from Banff to Lake Louise, running parallel to Highway 1. You have a good chance at seeing different mammals like bighorn sheep, wolves, elk, deer and grizzly bears. There are seasonal travel restrictions.
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Cave and Basin National Historic Site
See the birthplace of Canada's National Park system, where hot sulphur springs were found and the original bathhouse was built in 1887. There are also a couple of short nature trails that are free to access that explain the origin and the give you a view over the pools that are free to access.
Hours vary seasonally, check website$3.90/person, free if you have Parks Canada Discovery Pass
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Sulphur Mountain Trail
Rather than taking the gondola up Sulphur Mountain, you can hike the trail up to the top of the ridge and catch the gondola down. (It's half price to just take the gondola down, but it's free before 10AM and after 7PM.) The trail is steep but manageable for those with a reasonable level of fitness. Note that there is a little-used road that goes down the side of Sulphur Mountain that is away from the town, which has been mistaken for the hiking trail; the road is much longer than the hiking trail. If you opt to hike down after taking the gondola up, you should be able to see the gondola towers and cables on your way down, as the hiking trail zigzags below the gondola lift.