---
title: "Canmore, the day before the mountains: what to do with the buffer day"
description: "Every trip into the Rockies or the Columbias needs a spare day in Canmore in case the flight or the weather slips. Here is how I would spend it: the Bow River path, Grassi Lakes and Ha Ling, Main Street and the breweries, the drive to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, the Icefields, and the day tours that do the driving for you."
author: "Ben Taft"
published: "2026-09-20"
updated: "2026-09-20"
canonical: "https://wildernessledger.com/guides/canmore-before-the-mountains"
about:
  - "Lamphouse Hotel Canmore: https://wildernessledger.com/experience/lamphouse-hotel-canmore"
  - "Basecamp Resorts Canmore: https://wildernessledger.com/experience/basecamp-resorts-canmore"
  - "Basecamp Suites Canmore: https://wildernessledger.com/experience/basecamp-suites-canmore"
  - "Basecamp Lodge Canmore: https://wildernessledger.com/experience/basecamp-lodge-canmore"
---

# Canmore, the day before the mountains: what to do with the buffer day

> Every trip into the Rockies or the Columbias needs a spare day in Canmore in case the flight or the weather slips. Here is how I would spend it: the Bow River path, Grassi Lakes and Ha Ling, Main Street and the breweries, the drive to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, the Icefields, and the day tours that do the driving for you.

Words, photography and film by Ben Taft. Published 20 September 2026, updated 20 September 2026. Canonical page: https://wildernessledger.com/guides/canmore-before-the-mountains

Photograph: Canmore's main street from above with the Rundle range and Ha Ling Peak behind the rooftops

The buffer day is the one nobody plans and everybody is glad of. A week at Purcell Mountain Lodge or Mistaya Lodge starts at the helicopter hangar in Golden at a time the lodge sets, and both lodges tell you to sleep in Golden the night before. If your flight into Calgary is late, or the Trans-Canada is closed for a slide or a storm, the day you lose is one you paid for. So the spare day goes in Canmore: in from the airport, an hour and a quarter, a night and a day in town with nowhere to be, then the drive west. I have spent a good many of those days there with a camera, and in 2024 I photographed and filmed the town for Basecamp Resorts. This is what I would do with the day.

Photograph: Canmore main street from above, the Rundle range and Ha Ling Peak behind the rooftops

Canmore is an hour and a quarter from the airport and outside the park gate. It is a working town with mountains at the end of every street, and that is the whole point of spending the spare day here rather than in Banff.

## The river path

Start with the Bow. The river runs along the bottom of the town with a flat path beside it, and a morning walk along it is the way to see where you are: the Three Sisters to the south-east, Rundle to the north, Ha Ling standing straight over the town. Policeman's Creek runs off it through the middle of downtown, and the footbridge over the creek to the pond behind [Lamphouse Hotel Canmore](https://wildernessledger.com/experience/lamphouse-hotel-canmore) is the view the hotel's 360 tour opens on. In October the aspens around the pond are gold.

Photograph: The Bow Valley from the air above Canmore, the river winding past the town with the Rockies on every side

Photograph: A guest crossing the footbridge over the creek towards Lamphouse, the hotel among the yellow aspens

## Flat, then not

The river path is the flat hour. It needs no car and no plan, and the coffee is on Main Street at either end. If the legs are stiff from the flight, this is the whole morning.

The walks that climb start from the same town: Grassi Lakes and Ha Ling from the road up towards the Spray, both close enough that the trailheads count as part of the day rather than a drive.

## Grassi Lakes and Ha Ling

Grassi Lakes is the short one: a walk up through the trees to two small green lakes under a cliff, with the town and the valley opening behind you on the way. Ha Ling is the long one, a steep climb to the summit of the peak that stands over Canmore, the peak in the round window at Basecamp Resorts. Do Grassi with a coffee and Ha Ling with lunch, water and the boots you brought for the week, and do not do Ha Ling the afternoon before a long drive and an early flight.

Photograph: A bedroom with the round window framing the mountains, white linen and a sliding barn door

The peak in the window

### Ha Ling, from the bed

The round windows at [Basecamp Resorts Canmore](https://wildernessledger.com/experience/basecamp-resorts-canmore) are in the bedrooms of the mountain-facing suites, and the peak in them is Ha Ling. Climb it in the afternoon and you can look at what you did from the pillow.

Ask for a mountain-facing unit when you book; the courtyard-facing bedrooms look at the walkway. The rooftop hot tub, nine to ten daily, faces the Three Sisters.

[Check availability on Expedia](https://wildernessledger.com/go/travel/basecamp-resorts-canmore/expedia)

## Main Street and the breweries

Main Street is a few blocks of coffee shops, gear shops and restaurants with flower baskets on the lamp posts and the Rundle range at the end of it, and the reason to sleep in Canmore rather than Banff is that it has three breweries and the prices of a working town. I will not name them here because I have not sat in all of them; walk the street and you will find them. Everything downtown is within ten minutes on foot of [Basecamp Suites Canmore](https://wildernessledger.com/experience/basecamp-suites-canmore), a block off Main Street, and two minutes from Lamphouse.

Photograph: Two guests walking down Canmore's main street past the shops and flower baskets

On foot

### Leave the car where it is

The town is built for the evening without a car: the breweries, dinner, the river path back. In spring and summer the front desk at Basecamp Lodge signs out cruiser bikes for nothing, and the Resorts run a complimentary shuttle to Everwild, the group's Nordic spa across town, on request. The spa is booked separately.

The buffer day is also the day to buy the park pass for Banff and Kananaskis, at the gate or online, and to check the highway report for the morning.

> The buffer day is the one nobody plans and everybody is glad of.
>
> Field note

Photograph: The lane beside the suites with the stone-clad entry and the mountains at the end of the street

Then the park gate

## The drive to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake

If the buffer day is a whole day, the lakes are what most people do with it. Lake Louise is up the Trans-Canada past Banff; Moraine Lake is over the hill from it, and the road up to Moraine is closed to private cars, so a tour or a shuttle is how you get there. I would rather not drive it on the day before a mountain week anyway, and the tours from Canmore do the whole loop and bring you back to the brewery.

The site links these on Viator, and a booking through them pays a referral fee that helps keep this record running:

- [Moraine Lake and Lake Louise, a full day from Canmore](https://wildernessledger.com/go/travel/tour-canmore-moraine-louise/viator), the whole day at the two lakes with the driving done for you.
- [The shuttle to Lake Louise, Moraine Lake and Johnston Canyon](https://wildernessledger.com/go/travel/tour-canmore-lakes-shuttle/viator), for people who want the ride and not the guide.
- [Sunset at Lake Louise and Moraine Lake](https://wildernessledger.com/go/travel/tour-canmore-sunset-lakes/viator), the evening version, which leaves the morning for Grassi Lakes.
- [The Banff gondola, the hot springs, Bow Falls and three lakes](https://wildernessledger.com/go/travel/tour-banff-gondola-springs/viator), the Banff day rather than the Louise day.

## The Icefields

The Columbia Icefield is the long day: up the Icefields Parkway from Lake Louise to the Athabasca Glacier and back, which from Canmore is most of the daylight in the car. It is worth it once, and it is the one to do if the buffer day is the day after the trip rather than before, when there is no early flight the next morning. [The Columbia Icefield, a full day from Banff](https://wildernessledger.com/go/travel/tour-banff-icefield/viator) does the driving; if you go in your own car, leave with a full tank and the park pass on the dash.

Photograph: The great room's dining table and armchairs under tall windows with the mountains outside

Photograph: Guests on the lawn behind the dark-clad Basecamp Suites building, balconies above and a fire table by the fence

## The evening back in town

Whatever the day was, it ends in Canmore. The great room at [Basecamp Lodge Canmore](https://wildernessledger.com/experience/basecamp-lodge-canmore) is open 24 hours with coffee on, which is the difference between a lodge and a motel at six in the morning before the drive west.

At the Suites the barbecues out the back are shared and first come first served, with a fire table by the fence, and the rooftop hot tub is nine to ten. The bags for the helicopter get packed on the long dining table.

## The night, then the mountains

Four beds in town are on this record as [gateway stays](https://wildernessledger.com/gateway-stays), all Basecamp's, all photographed and filmed by me and with 360 tours on their pages: the Resorts for the window and the rooftop, the Lodge for a single night and the great room, the Suites for a kitchen and a washing machine, Lamphouse for walking to dinner. None of them publish a rate; the booking engine sets the price by the date, with a flexible rate you can cancel free until 72 hours before arrival and a lower non-refundable one, check-in at four and check-out at eleven, and a $250 deposit per unit on the card at arrival. The Ledger on each page has the rest.

Photograph: The outdoor hot tub behind a cedar screen with the mountains above

Caption: The hot tub by the creek at Lamphouse, nine to ten daily. The towels are in the room and there are no change rooms, so go dressed for it.

Then the highway west: Golden and the hangar for Purcell or Mistaya, or on over Rogers Pass to Revelstoke. The buffer day was insurance. Most years you get to spend it.

## Questions

**Why do I need a buffer day in Canmore?**

Because the trips that start west of here do not wait. The helicopter into Purcell Mountain Lodge or Mistaya Lodge leaves Golden at a fixed time, both lodges say to sleep in Golden the night before, and if your flight into Calgary is late or the Trans-Canada is closed you miss it. A night in Canmore on the way in puts you an hour and a quarter from the airport with a whole day to fill if everything goes right.

**Do I need a car in Canmore?**

Not for the day. Main Street, the Bow River path, the footbridge over Policeman's Creek and the Grassi Lakes and Ha Ling trailheads are all reachable on foot or on the cruiser bikes Basecamp Lodge signs out in spring and summer, and the day tours to Lake Louise, Moraine Lake and the Icefields pick up in town. You need a car, or a shuttle, for the drive west to Golden or wherever the trip begins.

**Which Canmore stay is best for one night before a trip?**

For a single night between drives, Basecamp Lodge Canmore, for the great room that is open around the clock and coffee at six. For walking to dinner, Lamphouse Hotel, two minutes from Main Street. For a kitchen and a washing machine before or after a week in the mountains, Basecamp Suites. For the round window with Ha Ling in it, Basecamp Resorts. None of them publish a rate; the booking engine sets the price by the date.

## The experiences in this story

- Lamphouse Hotel Canmore: https://wildernessledger.com/experience/lamphouse-hotel-canmore (plain text: https://wildernessledger.com/experience/lamphouse-hotel-canmore.md)
  Lamphouse Hotel Canmore: a modern motel in downtown Canmore beside Policeman's Creek, king and double queen rooms for 2 to 4 (one king set aside for dogs), a queen suite and an apartment for 10, priced by the night in the booking engine (no fixed tariff), with a creekside hot tub and Main Street a two-minute walk. Read from Lamphouse Hotel Canmore, property page (rooms, amenities, contact) on 15 September 2026.
- Basecamp Resorts Canmore: https://wildernessledger.com/experience/basecamp-resorts-canmore (plain text: https://wildernessledger.com/experience/basecamp-resorts-canmore.md)
  Basecamp Resorts Canmore: townhouse suites from a micro studio for 2 to a six-bedroom for 16, priced by the night in the booking engine (no fixed tariff), a 15-minute walk from Main Street Canmore, with a rooftop hot tub facing the Three Sisters and a complimentary shuttle to the Everwild Nordic spa. Read from Basecamp Resorts Canmore, property page (rooms, amenities, contact) on 15 September 2026.
- Basecamp Suites Canmore: https://wildernessledger.com/experience/basecamp-suites-canmore (plain text: https://wildernessledger.com/experience/basecamp-suites-canmore.md)
  Basecamp Suites Canmore: apartment suites with full kitchens and in-unit laundry, a micro suite for 2 to a three-bedroom bunk apartment for 10, priced by the night in the booking engine (no fixed tariff), a 5-minute walk from Main Street, with a rooftop hot tub and covered parking. Read from Basecamp Suites Canmore, property page (rooms, amenities, contact) on 15 September 2026.
- Basecamp Lodge Canmore: https://wildernessledger.com/experience/basecamp-lodge-canmore (plain text: https://wildernessledger.com/experience/basecamp-lodge-canmore.md)
  Basecamp Lodge Canmore: hotel rooms rather than suites, king and double queen rooms for 2 to 4 with timber walls and gas fireplaces, priced by the night in the booking engine (no fixed tariff), on Bow Valley Trail with a 24-hour great room, coffee, a cedar dry sauna and cruiser bikes in summer. Read from Basecamp Lodge Canmore, property page (rooms, amenities, contact) on 15 September 2026.

Written by Ben Taft, Photographer and filmmaker, The Wilderness Ledger (https://wildernessledger.com/about). Ben Taft stayed at the places this story describes and wrote it afterwards. Every photograph and film is his. Publisher: The Wilderness Ledger. Corrections: hello@wildernessledger.com.