Observation peak, Banff National Park, AB - August 31st 2025

Описание: Trail : Obsevation peak
Date : Aug 31st 2025
Location : Icefield Parkway, AB
Trailhead location : We parked down the road from Peyto Lake Parking lot, across the highway from the trailhead
Distance : 9 km
Elevation gain : 1112 m
Starting time : 7h36 am
Time to summit : 3h00
Total time including lunch at the summit : 5h59
Difficulty : Very hard hike with easy to moderate scrambling
Trail traffic : We were a total of 8 people in the mountain today

A long weekend means only one thing… MORE SUMMITS!!! After tackling Glasgow North with my friends Jenn and Trevor yesterday, I had my eyes set on Observation Peak for Sunday. My friend Carey was brave enough to join in on the madness, and wow, did this mountain ever live up to its name. I knew it would be a beast, but I wasn’t expecting such a beast. 🫨 Holy slog, Batman!

We rolled into the parking lot at the base of Peyto Lake Road early in the morning, greeted by just two other cars. (Let’s just say it was a very different scene when we returned 😱). One climber set off just after us, and the other party, a dad and his fearless 17-year-old son Jacob, were already on the move. We caught up with them above treeline, where Jacob scrambled absolutely everything in sight while his dad tried not to have a heart attack. 😂

From there, the real work began. The infamous scree slog lived up to its reputation, one step forward, two steps back. Cairns are your best friends on this route, though it’s easy to drift off trail. We may have “accidentally” taken a few creative lines on the way up, which meant extra suffering. 😣 Still, we stuck close to the AllTrails map and kept grinding upward.
The crux of the day was a short but solid moderate scrambling section, the one true obstacle before the upper slopes. Once past that, it was a long slog scree, peppered with some easy scrambling, leading to the false summit. From there, you drop a touch of elevation before climbing a gentle ridge toward the true summit.

And oh… that ridge. 😍 A well-defined, beautiful trail with mind-blowing views in every direction. Glaciers draped across the peaks, massive cornices, endless summits stretching to the horizon, and even a turquoise tarn created by a melted cornice. Peyto Lake sparkled below like a jewel, stealing the show alongside the icy expanse of the Wapta Icefield. From our perch, we could spot Mount Temple, Bow Lake, The Onion, and countless more giants. Truly one of the Rockies’ most spectacular viewpoints.
The descent was, let’s just say… “adventurous.” Somehow it felt like we weren’t even on the same trail we came up. 🤔 But those cairns, sketchy as their placements sometimes looked, really do make sense once you follow them through. Key tip: stay high, don’t drop down too early and have fun scree skiing down!

By the time we hit flat ground again, we were beyond relieved… but also not quite ready to call it a day. So, naturally, we added more! We hiked up to the Peyto Lake Lookout, then tacked on another few km to reach Bow Summit Viewpoint. From there, we got a whole new perspective of Peyto Lake and could look straight back at Observation Peak, our conquest from just a few hours earlier.

What. A. Day. 🥵 A monster hike, endless views, and the perfect long weekend adventure. If you want to experience Peyto Lake without the zoo of crowds, definitely take the quieter side trails, you’ll thank me later 😉