Canyoning and the frozen canyon
Pulse 3/5
Banff's beginner canyoning day – rappels and jumps in a limestone slot near Canmore – publishes no drop heights, so it stays out of the fall. In winter Johnston Canyon freezes and you walk it in crampons.
51° 10′ N · 115° 34′ W · Sulphur Mountain to the Kicking Horse River · Ground 17
Banff & the Rockies
The Rockies do not hand you a rope.
They hand you a glass floor, an iron rung and a river that does.
Banff is the most-visited national park in Canada and most of its adventure is looking: at turquoise lakes, from gondolas, off glass platforms bolted to cliffs. Then there is the other half – an iron-runged climb on Norquay, and rivers where class 4 is as far as Canada lets a commercial raft go. Scrolling means falling. We show every stop from the summit boardwalk down to the Kicking Horse, with real prices, and we say where the platforms have nothing.
1 · the view3 · sweaty palms5 · heart in your throat
Stop 1 · Gondola & summit boardwalk · Sulphur Mountain, Banff
7,402FT ABOVE THE SEA
Eight minutes up, six mountain ranges
The cabin leaves the trees behind in about a minute and after that it is all rock and air. At the top a boardwalk runs along the ridge to a stone weather station where a man climbed up every week for thirty years.
Pulse 1/5 our editors' rating
- Sanson's Peak
- 7,402 ft (2,256 m)
- Ride
- about 8 minutes, 1 mile of track
- Boardwalk
- 2 km along the ridge to the Cosmic Ray Station
- Also
- Sunshine gondola and chairlift to 7,825 ft
- Banff: Banff Gondola admission ticket$66.59per person
- Banff: Sunshine sightseeing gondola and Standish chairlift$59.85per person
- Banff: gondola, hot springs and three lakes tour$50.73per person
The most-booked thing in the Rockies – 4,799 reviews on the ticket alone – and the one with no pulse at all: an enclosed cabin and a boardwalk. It is here because the fall has to start somewhere, and nothing else in these grounds starts higher. Book a time slot; it sells out in summer.
↓ Above your pulse limit – keep falling
The chairlift drops you above the cloud on a bad day, and then the cable starts. Rungs in limestone, a wire bridge with Banff a long way under it, and the ridge going on longer than you thought.
Pulse 4/5 our editors' rating
- Summiteer
- 3.2 km, 360 m (1,181 ft) of climb, 5.5–6 h, to the East Summit
- Skyline
- 2.5 km, 310 m gain, 55-m suspension bridge
- Explorer
- 1 km, 125 m gain, 2–2.5 h
- Age
- 12+ (Explorer, Ridgewalker), 14+ (the rest)
The best-reviewed adventure in the Rockies: 371 reviews, all five stars. Norquay publishes climb, not height – no absolute figure above the town – so the number here is the vertical gain of the longest route. GetYourGuide sells the two shorter routes; the Skyline and Summiteer are booked with Norquay directly. Via ferrata is the single most-searched activity in Banff, about 1,300 searches a month.
↓ Above your pulse limit – keep falling
Stop 2 · Via ferrata · Mt Norquay, Banff
1,181FT OF CLIMB, SUMMITEER
Iron rungs above the town
All bridges and skywalks compared →
Stop 3 · Glass-floored platform · Columbia Icefield, Jasper
918FT ABOVE THE VALLEY
A glass floor over the Sunwapta
All bridges and skywalks compared →A kilometre of walkway along the cliff, then the horseshoe that sticks out over nothing. The glass is scratched by a million shoes and still clear enough to see the river, nine hundred feet down, doing nothing in particular.
Pulse 2/5 our editors' rating
- Above the valley
- 918 ft (280 m)
- Walkway
- 1 km along the cliff
- Season
- May to mid-October
- Next door
- the Athabasca Glacier and the Ice Explorer
- Jasper: Columbia Icefield Skywalk and Ice Explorer ticket$94.27per person
- Jasper: Columbia Icefield Skywalk$36.66per person
- Columbia Icefield, Skywalk, Peyto Lake and glaciers day tour$60.56per person
Buy it with the glacier. The Skywalk alone has a 4.3 rating; the combined ticket with the Ice Explorer bus onto the Athabasca Glacier has 3,249 reviews at 4.6, and the 12-hour day tour from Banff does both plus Peyto Lake for about $61 – the best value on this page if you have no car.
↓ Above your pulse limit – keep falling
Two bridges over a canyon that opens suddenly out of flat forest. The swing is the thing: strapped in, hauled back over the edge and let go, the creek four hundred feet below and the Columbia Valley coming round in a slow arc.
Pulse 3/5 our editors' rating
- Above the canyon
- 426 ft – Canada's highest suspension bridges
- On site
- Giant Canyon Swing, zipline, mountain coaster
- Where
- Golden, 1.5 h west of Banff
- Included
- Eagle Net Park with the bridge pass
The swing has no published height, so the bridge carries the stop. Golden Skybridge does not say how far the Giant Canyon Swing drops, only that it sweeps over the canyon; the bridge pass is what GetYourGuide sells, the swing and the zipline are add-ons at the gate. Golden is also where the class 4 rafting is – do both in a day.
↓ Above your pulse limit – keep falling
Stop 4 · Suspension bridges & canyon swing · Golden, BC
426FT ABOVE THE CANYON
Canada's highest bridge, and a swing off the side
All bridges and skywalks compared →
Stop 5 · Whitewater · Kicking Horse River, Golden
0FT · ON THE RIVER
Class 4, which is as far as Canada goes
All rafting rivers compared →Twelve kilometres of glacier water in a canyon of grey rock, and a one-kilometre stretch where the guide stops talking. Roller Coaster, Man Eater, Shotgun: the rapids are named the way they are for a reason.
Pulse 3/5 our editors' rating
- Rapids
- class 2–3, with 1 km of class 4
- Length
- 12 km of whitewater
- Named rapids
- Roller Coaster, Man Eater, Shotgun
- Limit
- class 4 is the highest rafted commercially in Canada
- Banff: afternoon Kananaskis River whitewater rafting$107.70per person
- Golden, BC: Kicking Horse River whitewater rafting$133.46per person
- Banff: morning whitewater rafting in Horseshoe Canyon$106.24per person
Three rivers, three levels. The Kicking Horse at Golden is the real one, class 4 with 34 reviews at 4.9. The Kananaskis (315 reviews) and the Bow through Horseshoe Canyon (101) are the Banff-side afternoons – gentler, closer, and what most people book. Jasper's Athabasca is class 2 and takes families.
↓ Above your pulse limit – keep falling
Touchdown. Now build your day on these grounds.
Also on these grounds
Horses, canoes and the Athabasca
Pulse 1/5
The Bow River rides out of Banff, a big voyageur canoe on the same river, and Jasper's class 2 rafting on the Athabasca – the Rockies at walking pace.
From the air
Pulse 2/5
Helicopters fly out of Canmore rather than the park itself; the Jasper SkyTram is the other way up a mountain here, seven minutes to the alpine on The Whistlers.
The grounds in numbers
Before you jump
How hard is the Mt Norquay via ferrata?
There are five routes. The Explorer is 1 km with 125 m of climbing in about two hours; the Summiteer is 3.2 km, 360 m of gain and five and a half to six hours to the East Summit, with three extra wire bridges. Minimum age is 12 on the two shortest routes and 14 above that, weight 40–120 kg. On GetYourGuide the 2.5- and 4-hour routes cost about $149 and hold 371 five-star reviews.
How high is the Columbia Icefield Skywalk?
Pursuit, which runs it, states the glass floor is “suspended 918 feet (280 m) above the Sunwapta Valley”, reached by a one-kilometre walkway along the cliff. It opens from May to mid-October. The ticket with the Ice Explorer onto the Athabasca Glacier is about $94; the 12-hour tour from Banff with Peyto Lake is about $61.
Is there dog sledding near Banff?
Yes, in winter, out of Canmore and Lake Louise – about 1,000 searches a month, the second-biggest adventure term in the Rockies after the via ferrata. GetYourGuide lists none of it in September 2026; the outfitters sell direct and the season runs December to April. The horse-drawn sleigh ride in Banff is what the platform has instead.
Which rafting trip is the wildest?
The Kicking Horse at Golden: class 2–3 with “an impressive 1 km stretch of class 4”, which the operator notes is “the highest any company can commercially raft in Canada”. About $133 for five hours. From Banff itself the Kananaskis and the Bow through Horseshoe Canyon are class 2–3 afternoons for about $107.
Can I do Golden Skybridge and the rafting in one day?
Yes – both are in Golden, about 1.5 hours west of Banff over the Kicking Horse Pass. The bridge pass is about $36 and includes Eagle Net Park; the Giant Canyon Swing, zipline and mountain coaster are add-ons at the gate. The swing's drop height is not published, so the bridge's 426 feet is the number we print.
Is the Banff Gondola worth it?
It is the most-booked ticket in the Rockies, 4,799 reviews at 4.7, about $67. Eight minutes up, then a 2 km boardwalk along the ridge to Sanson's Peak at 7,402 ft. Nothing about it will raise your pulse; it is on this page because it is the highest place in these grounds you can stand without climbing.
What does a day of adventure cost in Banff?
On GetYourGuide (Sept 22, 2026): Golden Skybridge from about $36, the Icefield Skywalk $37 alone or $94 with the glacier, the Banff Gondola $67, a Bow River ride $75, Kananaskis rafting $108, the Kicking Horse $133, canyoning $139, the Norquay via ferrata $149, a helicopter flight with a hike $269.