Johnston Canyon – Banff

Just me

7 miles

The other girls were going to do the Via Ferrata at Mt. Norquay Ski Resort so I dropped them off. I have a hiking friend in Banff and she and her husband were doing the Inkpots so I headed over to Johnston Canyon to see if I could catch them. Johnston Canyon is one of those hikes that would be full on tourist mode if the weather was better. It is a 1.5 mile easy walk along a beautiful river that they built a wooden catwalk along canyon walls that go past 2 waterfalls. It is completely amazing to look at. The trail continues about 5 more miles to the Inkpots which are cold springs.

This is Canada so everything is in metrics and I completely misunderstood the mileage. The inkpot hike was all uphill and I was almost to them when the girls called and said they had cancelled the Feratta due to snow and ice. I decided to finish this hike then go back to get them. That made it extremely long time for them to wait since I can’t to metrics! . They ended up finding a shuttle to come to me.

The inkpots are a series of mineral springs in a meadow. They are usually colorful but because of the cloudy/rainy/overcast day they were not at their best. As I reached the inkpots I ran into my hiking friend. I hiked with her a bit then decided to hike faster to get back to the girls. Just as I thought while coming down through the canyon was lots of people. Go Early!