Where to Raft near Lake Louise

Bow River - This is an intermediate river trip with continuous beautiful world-class mountain scenery. There are several class 1 to 2 rapids in the first 5 km and only sharp bends & occasional sweepers after that. The rapids can be avoided by novice canoeists by putting in downstream of the highway bridge at the secondary put-in described below. There are 2 sets of rapids: 2 km of class 1 right after starting and the 500-m long class 2 Louise Rapid which starts under the highway bridge.

Bow River - This is a wonderful grade 2 trip with a short walk in which will be enough to discourage all of the hardboaters. You could even walk in the evening before, camp at the Hector Lake backcountry campground, and start your paddle the next day. Park at the Hector Lake access point and walk down the rooty trail a little over 1km to where the Bow meets Hector Lake. Note the Bow watershed is closed above Hector Lake unfortunately. Paddle the short distance between the Bow River inflow to Hector Lake and the Bow River outflow and then your journey starts. It was all around the grade 2 point of difficulty. When I did it there was one river wide log which required a portage so keep your wits about you as you go downriver. Take out at the classic Upper Bow put-in or combine the two into one really nice day! Distances are close enough that it makes a good bike shuttle and becomes more social with one car. Note you need a boat form filled out from Parks Canada. There should be forms at the put-in.

Howse River - An amazing overnight packrafting trip in the Canadian Rockies. A short Class II section leads to a stunning wilderness float through a seldom visited area of Banff National Park.