Jasper, Yoho or Banff?
 

Have one day next week to visit a National Park. Like to hike and see wildlife. Anyone care to venture a recommendation of the three? TIA!

Banff is the nicest of the three, IMO, but your question is a little confusing.

You have one day - Where are flying into?

Spending one day driving from Kalispell to Jasper up the Icefields Pkwy. I'll have a full day driving back from Jasper to Calgary for the next day flight. So for a good part of that one day I'll have a decent amount of time to spend in any of those three parks and am looking for recommendations since I don't think I can fit more than one park into that day.

They are all wonderful places, and you can hike in all three (and I have) @:-)

I personally would probably choose whichever one is closest, so that I can spend more time there.

EmailKid

Hiking will be *VERY* limited as there is snow at higher elevations until the end of June. Indeed, the forecast for THU-SAT this week is calling for a total of a foot of snow IN LAKE LOUISE! Icefields Pkwy will likely be closed or at least in bad driving condition.

not to thread hijack, but I'll be in this area at the end of June doing a Moose Network tour. Will the weather be decent?

So everything forecast-wise that I'm seeing is temps in 60's and partly cloudy for mon and tues from Banff to Jasper. Where are you getting your forecast?

No idea what a "Moose Network" is, but the weather in June will be :-: fantastic :-:

EmailKid

Here you go but the snow is for this THU-SAT:

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/wea...ta/lake-louise

Could still change and is very elevation specific for snow. You will also likely have more chance of snow at Bow Summit and the Columbia Icefields as the temps will be lower there.

Moose tour is an awesome way to see the Parks as long as you are part of or do not mind a younger demographic. Weather is variable in the mountains at the best of times but end of June you should have good hiking options, although with Moose you won't be doing any classic full day stuff unless you decide to hop off and stay a day somewhere. The Wilderness hostels are a unique experience.

http://www.moosenetwork.com/content.php?id=6 is the tour I'm doing. Just turned 30, but I'm fine with a younger crowd. And the shorter hikes are definitely more my style, so that should be good. Don't have the time to hop off unfortunately, but the trip spends 4-5 days in the park area so I should get my fill. Thanks! Now back to our original programming...

double post

Try Kananaskis Country. http://www.albertaparks.ca/kananaskis-country.aspx
Personally I feel it's the best, especially earlier in the summer. Plus you'll only be about 90 minutes from YYC when you finish your hike.

Got back this morning. Thanks everyone for the suggestions. Great weather and lots of hiking and wildlife sightings. Stayed mostly in Banff and Jasper NP. 8 Black bear including 2 cubs and a 20 minute encounter at a short distance with a male who seemed completely disinterested in me. Grizzly and her cub at 20 yards in Glacier Nat Park in Montana. Never, ever seen anything like that before; prob 60 seconds at that distance. Not aggressive but both stood as we backed up slowly. I'll never forget that as long as I live. It was in the Many Glacier area of Glacier NP.

Glad you enjoyed it. Bears are in the valleys due to snow above. Was in Lake Louise and we saw 2 black bears.