Sight · Icefields Parkway (Highway 93)
Blue water under a glacier and cirque walls, worth the hike.
Overview
Map
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Icefields Parkway Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Icefields Parkway (Highway 93). As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Icefields Parkway audio tourRecorded for this place
Upper Waterfowl Lake: The Short Shore Walk“You're approaching the Waterfowl Lakes campground access, where a short walk leads to Upper Waterfowl Lake's turquoise shore.”
Plays as you drive up to Cirque Lake in the Parkwolf Icefields Parkway Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
Cirque Lake is a backcountry lake reached on foot from Waterfowl Lakes Campground, tucked beneath steep mountain walls and a glacier. Go if you have time for a proper walk to a lake rather than a roadside stop: it is 4.6 km each way, with 210 m of climbing and 100 m of descent. The listed round-trip estimate is about three hours; leave extra time to enjoy the shore.
Start at the hiker parking lot beside Waterfowl Campground, about 57.5 km north of the Lake Louise junction. The path shares its opening with the Chephren Lake route, crosses a footbridge and then forks; follow the signed Cirque Lake branch. The forested trail is often muddy, with rooty, uneven stretches.
The trees open onto a rough boulder shoreline, not a flat beach or a built viewing platform. Pick your way across the rocks for the view of blue water below the mountain walls and glacier. Partly submerged logs make a good foreground if you want a photo that shows the lake as well as the peaks.
Glacier-fed runoff is credited with the lake’s bright blue color. The glacier sits above the water, so you can see the ice, steep slopes and lake together from the shore.
Wildlife
12 sightingsGrizzly BearMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
127 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
16 sightingsMooseMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
100 sightingsElkMost seen around 8 PMSighting map
34 sightingsMountain GoatMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
53 sightingsBighorn SheepMost seen around 6 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Icefields Parkway. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
EasyUpper Waterfowl Lake Trail1.7 km · 45 min · 3.8 km awayA quick bridge crossing opens onto turquoise Upper Waterfowl Lake.
ModerateCirque Lake Trail9.2 km · 3 hr · 4.2 km awayBeyond the forest, a boulder shore opens to glacier views.
ModerateChephren Lake Trail8.2 km · 2.8 hr · 4.2 km awayA rooty forest out-and-back to a turquoise lake beneath towering peaks.
Sight · 3.1 km awayUpper Waterfowl LakeTurquoise water and mountain reflections reward a short shore walk.
Campground · 3.6 km awaySilverhorn Creek CampgroundA simple night between big stops, with mountain views and creekside sites.
Campground · 4.1 km awayWaterfowl Lakes CampgroundCamp between glacier-fed lakes, and plan to go offline.Sight · 4.4 km awayChephren LakeA rooty forest hike ends at a glacial lake beneath big peaks.
Scenic pullout · 4.7 km awayLower Waterfowl Lake ViewpointA quick pull-off for turquoise water and Mount Chephren.Parkwolf’s Icefields Parkway ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
