“Summit a mountain before breakfast” Whether you’d like to stroll up Tunnel Mountain in the townsite of Banff, hike down to Vista and Arnica Lakes (“two lakes for the price of one”), or witness slot canyons carved the Mistaya River along the Icefields Parkway (“the amazing power of water”), 50 Walks and Hikes in Banff National Park, by Brian Patton and Bart Robinson, is the perfect pocket-sized trail guide.

When the authors first set out to write a hiking guide in 1970, they planned to focus on Banff National Park, but the project morphed in a trail guide for the entire Canadian Rockies (from Waterton Lakes to Jasper National Park). Close to 40 years later, the pair have whittled their work down and produced a Banff-centric version of their classic guidebook.

This mini-guide, written for the majority of visitors who base their hiking adventures out of the town of Banff (90 minutes west of Calgary, Alberta), starts with pre-requisite words on weather, dangers and annoyances, and trip planning tips.

Each hike description begins with a colour-coded title (e.g. Bow Falls is given a green box denoting a hike in the Town of Banff, pink is for hikes from Banff to Lake Louise, blue is for Lake Louise to Moraine Lake and orange is for hikes along the Icefields Parkway). A one-line descriptive sentence sets up the nature of the hike (“Summit a mountain before breakfast”) before a list of length, elevation gain, walking time, starting point, and origin of the name. Symbols show services and facilities associated with the trail (e.g. picnic tables, washrooms...). The remainder of the text describes the hike, punctuated with colour photos and maps.

I’m impressed by the amount of detail the authors were able to include in such a small guide (6” X 4 ½”, 144 pg.) and especially liked the fact that they didn’t limit their hike choices to only the most popular trails in the park, giving visitors a taste of what locals have come to expect (e.g. Peyto Lake East – “The classic, postcard view of Peyto Lake is enjoyed from the usually crowded viewpoint at Bow Summit, but on the lonely east shore of the lake you’ll be all alone save for the cantankerous ghost of “Wild Bill” Peyto.”). The origin of trail names is an added bonus.

If you’re spending a month hiking and backpacking in the Canadian Rockies, get the big guide; but if you have only a week or so to experience the rocky charms of Banff, I highly recommend 50 Hikes and Walks in Banff National Park.