While the scenery was otherworldly, we didn’t have great luck in terms of wildlife during our visit to Banff. Despite multiple drives through several of the park’s wildlife viewing hotspots at dawn/dusk we saw precisely zero bears (black or grizzly), zero wolves, zero bighorn sheep, zero mountain goats, one deer, and a family of three moose. What we did see were elk…lots and lots of elk.
Banff Springs Golf Course
Elk are as close as it gets to a guaranteed sighting in Banff. There are about 350 elk in the park, about 200 of which live in the lower Bow Valley, meaning you don’t have to venture far from town to see them. But even spotting our first elk took much longer than it should have. It wasn’t until our second night in the park when we took a drive through the Banff Springs Golf Course that we finally saw an elk lounging on one of the greens. As it turns out, the golf course is one of the best places to spot elk in Banff and their presence as an obstacle on the course is a common occurrence. We ended up seeing a few more female elk on the course that evening.
Elk are a common sighting on the golf course
Bow Valley Parkway
After finally checking the box on our first real wildlife sighting, we decided to try our luck again on the Bow Valley Parkway later that evening. The Bow Valley Parkway is the smaller road that connects Banff to Lake Louise and is generally considered the best place to see wildlife from the road in the park. The goal was to see a bear, but our best efforts came up short yet again. We did, however, see the first bull elk of the trip grazing along a hillside just off the road.
Bull elk on the bow valley parkway
Banff Rocky Mountain Resort
The following morning, we left our hotel and walked out to our car around 5:30 AM to head north to Jasper. Upon stepping outside of our hotel room, we were immediately startled by a loud squealing/grunting noise. It was still almost pitch dark at this hour so visibility was limited, but we were able to see a herd of elk slowly making its way through the hotel parking lot. There were at least 20 females and one very large bull. They casually strolled through the parking lot, eating the grass alongside the buildings and the flowers decorating the hotel entrance. Some wandered across Tunnel Mountain Road and into the middle of Banff Ave. At this point, there was enough light to make them clearly visible to oncoming drivers, but in the absence of daylight, an elk in the roadway is a serious hazard. There are fences along the sides of the Trans Canada Highway, but the possibility of elk crossing the roadways in and around town and the smaller roads in the park is something to constantly be aware of. Elk are much larger than deer, and colliding with one at high speed is extremely dangerous.
Crossing Tunnel Mountain Road at dawn
Elk crossing
By the time our trip had come to an end, we had seen a lifetime’s worth of elk. It got to the point where they became part of the scenery that we no longer stopped to acknowledge. The law of diminishing marginal returns definitely applies to elk sightings; the first elk elicits excitement, but the novelty is long gone by elk number 500. Regardless, they are beautiful creatures and their constant presence is undoubtedly part of the Banff experience.
