The Lodge at Bow Lake

The Lodge at Bow Lake is a small historic lodge on the lake’s north shore, just off the Icefields Parkway. Its red roof is a landmark in this stretch of the drive. Keep it in mind if you want more than a quick lake photo: day visitors can stop at the separate Provision Co. shop, and the lodge also offers an overnight stay with dining.

Provision Co. serves drinks, treats and light meals, along with local goods. To reach it, park in the Bow Lake day-use lot and walk toward the north shore. The lodge is about a 25-minute drive from Lake Louise, so it can work as a planned food stop on the parkway as well as a place to stay.

The lodge dining room serves overnight guests, and day visitors can book dinner there too. Treat that as a planned stop and check the current arrangements before you build the drive around a meal. The lodge operates seasonally, with summer and winter openings rather than year-round service.

Jimmy Simpson first passed this shore in 1898, aged 21, and imagined building here. Roughly a quarter-century later he put up a small shack; about a decade after that it had grown into a 24-room lodge with a dining room and horse stables for travelers on the new Banff–Jasper highway. The lodge dates its history to 1922, and it still feels like a proper mountain stop rather than just another pullout.

The property was long known as Num-Ti-Jah Lodge and now uses the location-based name The Lodge at Bow Lake. Its current owners say they retired the old name after consulting Stoney Nakoda Elders, who explained that it had not been formally given to Simpson and was misspelled.

The building is the subject here: look for the red roof over the log-and-stone front, with the mountain wall behind it. Including some of the lakeshore in the frame makes it clear why the lodge sits here.