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BANFF NATIONAL PARK is the most famous of the Canadian Rockies' parks and Canada's leading tourist attraction - so be prepared for the crowds that throng its key centres, Banff and Lake Louise , as well as the best part of its 1500km of trails, most of which suffer a continual pounding during the summer months. That said, it's worth putting up with every commercial indignity to enjoy the sublime scenery - and if you're camping or are prepared to walk, the worst of the park's excesses are fairly easily left behind. The best plan of attack if you're coming from Calgary or the US is to make straight for Banff, a busy and commercial town where you can pause for a couple of days to soak up the action and handful of sights, or stock up on supplies and make for somewhere quieter as quickly as possible. Then head for nearby Lake Louise, a much smaller but almost equally busy centre with some unmissable landscapes plus good and readily accessible short trails and day-hikes if you just want a quick taste of the scenery. Two popular highways within the park offer magnificent vistas - the Bow Valley Parkway from Banff to Lake Louise - a far preferable route to the parallel Hwy 1 (Trans-Canada) road - and the much longer Icefields Parkway from Lake Louise to Jasper. Both are lined with trails long and short, waterfalls, lakes, canyons, viewpoints, pull-offs and a seemingly unending procession of majestic mountain, river, glacier and forest scenery.
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