The Badger Pass Loop in Banff National Park is a beautiful trail through forests and alpine meadows. At times it follows rushing creeks through deep forested valleys. Other times, it traverses mountainsides passing little streams and waterfalls that rush down across the trail. It climbs up and down Forty Mile Summit, Mystic Pass and, of course, Badger Pass, travelling through wildflower studded alpine forests and high alpine meadows. During our five days on this trail, we saw whistling marmots, pikas and bighorn sheep.
The Loop is about 100 km** with a total elevation gain of about 3,000 meters. It starts and ends at the Mount Norquay Ski Resort near the town of Banff. The trail is well maintained and easy to follow, with the exception of Mystic Pass in July 2026 – see Day 4 (link below) for details. There are pleasant campgrounds to pitch your tent at the end of each day.
Below is a portion of the Banff National Park backcountry trails map published on the Parks Canada website. I marked the Badger Pass Loop in yellow.
You can get the full map here. The link takes you to the Backcountry Camping page for Banff National Park. If you scroll down to “Where to Go”, you can click a link to the “Backcountry Trails in Banff National Park” brochure which includes the map on the second page.
**If you like numbers, like I do, you will probably start adding up the km marked on the map to see the total length of the Loop. You will come to about 90 km total. My estimate of 100 km for the Loop is based on the GaiaGPS app on my phone, which tracked my steps for the entire route, and Dan’s Garmin watch. Each reported slightly different numbers.
Timing
We did this trip in mid-July 2026. It was a good time of year to go. There was very little snow up high and warmer nights for sleeping. Most of the snow had melted from the trail and even when we did have to hike through snow, it was short distances and easy walking.
In the Canadian Rockies, at higher elevations, you can expect to wake up with frost on your tent in any month of the year. But from mid-July to early September, you have the best chance of avoiding the frost and sleeping warm.
We took five days to hike the loop but it could be done in more or fewer days. There were not a lot of people on this trail when we were there. We did not see another hiker the entire day we crossed Badger Pass. Of our four nights, we spent one completely alone. Only one campground was full when we were there.
Below are the details of each day we hiked with photos, maps and detailed descriptions of the trail, the scenery and the campgrounds. Click the photos to read the detailed posts. Below that are links to Banff National Park and other resources to help you plan if you decide to do this trail.
Our Five Days
Planning
The first step, after you decide when you want to go, is to book campgrounds. The Banff National Park Backcountry Trails brochure, referred to above the map of the Loop near the top of this page, shows distances bewteen campgrounds.
In my experience, the distances published by Parks and especially the distances on their trail signs often are different from the distances my GaiaGPS app gives. So I would take these as approximates. But it should be close enough for you to determine which campgrounds you would like to book, based on how far you want to travel each day. Don’t forget to consider elevation gain when you’re figuring out how far you can go in a day.
Backcountry campgrounds can be booked here :
On that page, select “Backcountry” and then “Backcountry Zone”. Choose “Banff, Kootenay and Yoho”. The Access Point is “Cascade Amphitheatre Trailhead”. From there you can select your dates and campgrounds.
Once you’ve got the campgrounds booked, it’s time to make a packing list and plan your menu. Scroll down and click the links to see one of mine.
What’s in the pack?
Click here for a complete list of the backcountry camping and scrambling gear we packed for our Hidden Lake Expedition.
What do you eat out there?
Click here for backcountry camping food ideas as well as a specific menu for a 4-day scrambling adventure.