Hiking the Canadian Rockies

When to hike the Canadian Rockies

From July to September, all 6 destinations clear our recommendation criteria. Not one of them does from October to May.

Averaged across the destinations, July is the warmest month at 16 degrees in the hiking window and December the coldest at -11.

How far apart the destinations are

The selected grid cells run from 1,159 metres at Revelstoke to 2,161 metres at Kananaskis, with a median of 1,724 metres. Revelstoke clears the criteria in 4 months (from June to September), Kananaskis in 3 months (from July to September).

The longest season belongs to Waterton Lakes, Revelstoke and Banff, at 4 months each; the shortest to Yoho, Jasper and Kananaskis, at 3 months each.

What closes the missing months

Where a destination loses months, a critical climate component falls below the threshold at which we stop recommending a month. The main reason is snow cover, for every one of the 6 destinations.

In January, the quietest month, every destination is closed, all of them by snow cover.

Conditions in August

August is when the open destinations score highest on average. Hiking-window temperature then runs from 13 degrees at Kananaskis to 19 at Revelstoke, and rain falls on 31 to 52 percent of days depending on the destination.

What these figures cover

Each destination is described by one selected ERA5-Land grid cell, averaged over 1991 to 2025. The figures above summarise those 6 cells. They are not a map of the whole area or of any route, and they are not a forecast.