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An early visitor to Maligne Canyon (“mah-LEEN”) commented: “Any other canyon is like a crack in a tea cup.” It’s true. This canyon is 55 m (180 ft. deep) at Second Bridge—that’s the height of an 18-storey building. Look for raven nests on the walls, and potholes drilled into the streambed over thousands of years by boulders trapped in eddies.
There are three access points into the canyon. If you have the time, walk its full length from Sixth Bridge to First Bridge. Beginning in a lush forest replete with ferns and horsetails, the trail parallels the Maligne River; a blue-green ribbon of beauty.
Two rivers feed Maligne Canyon. One flows underground from Medicine Lake (17 km up the valley) to the lower canyon. At the height of the melt season, up to eight times as much water discharges into the lower canyon than into the upper canyon, evidence of what may be the longest and largest underground river in the world. The name Maligne (French for “wicked”) was given to this river by a missionary who had trouble fording its turbulent waters.
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People have flocked to Johnston Canyon since the prospector it was named for staked a claim nearby in the 1880s.
Today’s trail includes walkways suspended from the cliffs—appreciate Banff’s most popular canyon from deep within. Crawl through a natural tunnel for a point-blank view of the Lower Falls. Near the base of the 30 m (98 ft.) high Upper Falls, the trail takes you creekside opposite a travertine wall. This mass of limestone was precipitated from the lime-rich water by algae. That’s right; millions of single-celled creatures created a cliff.
Birders enjoy this outing for the opportunity to see dippers in the creek, and warblers and flycatchers in the forest. Johnston Canyon is one of three Alberta nesting sites for black swifts.
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Tokumm Creek, architect of Marble Canyon, is a classic glacial stream, sometimes choked with silt, other times diamond-clear. Walkers marvel at the creek and how it created this profound slot in the bedrock that is often 30 m (98 ft.) deep, yet barely a metre wide.
In 2003, a forest fire swept through this area. Before the fire, the edge of Marble Canyon was a damp, cool place, home to some flowers and lichens normally found north of the Arctic Circle. With the lush forest gone, it is now a drier place. Wildflowers bloom aplenty—fireweed, groundsel, arnica, four-parted gentian and paintbrush. Thousands of lodgepole pine saplings are green against the charred skeleton of the burnt forest.
Seven bridges span the canyon, which is 39 m (128 ft.) deep near its upper end. The namesake rock is not true marble, but dolomite that has been polished by the silt-laden water to produce a smooth and striking finish. Watch for dippers winging through the spray of the waterfall beneath the uppermost bridge.
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- When a big river hits a roadblock it often carves a canyon. At the end of the last ice age, a moraine blocked the Sunwapta River’s northerly course. The water spilled into a rock fault and created Sunwapta Falls (now 18.5 m, or 61 ft., high) and the canyon of today. Walk a pleasant trail 1.4 km (0.9 mi) from the upper falls through a pine forest to views of other cascades.
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- Here a glacially charged river barrels out of its side valley into the North Saskatchewan Valley. The Mistaya River has exploited a crack system in the limestone to carve Mistaya Canyon, with its natural bridge and many potholes. Mistaya (“miss-TIE-yah”) is Stoney for “grizzly bear.” Aboriginal hunting parties reportedly crossed the river here on fallen trees.
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- This is an outing of contrasts. A paved, bike-friendly path along the Bow River provides mountain views and accesses a rough loop through the mouth of the canyon and a shaded forest. ‘Sundance’ commemorates a Stoney ritual dance.
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- This narrow, flash-flood stream course is home to prehistoric rock art similar to that found in southwest US canyons. Slosh through the (usually) shallow river to reach a waterfall at the canyon’s end. Watch for rock climbers on the cliffs.
