Emerald Lake located within Yoho National Park, British Columbia, just a short drive from Banff National Park, this glacial lake is renowned for its emerald green waters, surrounded by towering mountains and lush forests.
Planning your visit to Emerald Lake
Getting to Emerald Lake from Banff (approx 1 hour and 5 minutes)
- Take Highway 1 West towards British Columbia.
- Continue past Lake Louise and enter Yoho National Park.
- Look for signs for Field, B.C., and take the Emerald Lake Road turnoff (just past the town of Field).
- Follow Emerald Lake Road for about 8 km (5 miles) to reach the lake and parking area.
- Note: The parking lot can fill up quickly during peak season, so visiting early in the morning or later in the evening is recommended.
Activities at Emerald Lake
As you approach Emerald Lake, you’ll be struck by its deep turquoise color, which seems almost unreal. After doing a little homework, I found out that the lake’s unique hue is the result of the presence of limestone and dolomite, which are dissolved from the surrounding rocks, creating a striking contrast with the snow-capped mountains that line its shores.
Hiking
There is various hikes around this area, but we opted for the trail around the lake.
Emerald Lake Loop
- Distance 3.2 miles (Loop)
- Difficulty: Easy
- Elevation Gain: 400ft
- Estimated Time: 1.25 to 2 hours
It wasn’t long into our hike where the color of the lake really started to pop.
The backdrop around the lake was always beautiful as well
About half way through our hike we started to get nervous with those rain clouds in the background. Since we were on the far side from the parking and amenities, we decided to just keep hiking.
I thought this photo was unique where you can see a path cleared through the trees, I am assuming it was an avalanche line that took them all out.
As you can tell from the photo, we got a light rain on us.
Canoe Rentals
At this point in time we completed our hiking loop. The rain was on and off, but we really wanted to go out for a canoe ride. From the looks of the clouds we thought it was going to clear up, so we went for it and rented a canoe. Renting canoe’s at Emerald Lake was much cheaper then Moraine Lake or Lake Louise, so I highly recommend renting canoes here.
After about 10 minutes out on the water, the wind started to blow and started raining again.
Selfie from the canoe! The weather started to clear up a little.
Near the shoreline is the trail that we hiked on in the morning.
Sun or clouds, the lake continued to be vibrant green!
As you can see the clouds were starting to pass and the sun was coming out again. We spent our entire hour out on the canoe.
Wrapping up at Emerald Lake
Emerald Lake was in my top three locations within Banff Park, with the other two being the more popular Lake Louise and Moraine Lake . While still busy, not as busy as the larger parks. The emerald colored waters was just stunning and pops as you can tell from the photos. I highly recommend taking a hike around the lake to fully immerse yourself within the environment, get different prospective, and enjoy the views.
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