Parking
Use the Lake O’Hara parking lot at the access-road entrance. Private vehicles do not reach the lakeshore; continue by reserved seasonal shuttle or walk 11 km one way on the access road.
Overview
About Crystal Caves Trail
Why go
- A cave mouth frames Lake O’Hara and its wooded shore.
Heads up
- The cave turn is faint and slightly overgrown.
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Yoho map
Full mapElevation2,017–2,140 m
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
5 active Yoho alerts
- ClosureYoho Valley Road closed for avalanche seasonYoho Valley Road is closed to vehicles from mid-October to mid-June because of avalanche risk. - Parks Canada’s current trail report lists no vehicle access to trails in the Yoho Valley.Official details
- CautionWatercraft and angling prohibited in YohoWatercraft use and angling are prohibited on all waterbodies in Yoho National Park until March 31, 2027, to reduce the spread of aquatic invasive species, including whirling disease.Official details
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Yoho Tour Guide
Your drive to Crystal Caves Trail, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Yoho National Park. 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 Yoho audio tourMore stories near here in the app
- A Predator With a Softer Menu
- Sherbrooke Lake and Paget Lookout: Choose Your Climb
- Lower Spiral Tunnel: Climbing Inside the Mountain
- The Bird That Plants Pines
- 35 audio storiesacross Yoho’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Grizzly Bear, Mountain Goat, Black Bear, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 54 trails, 58 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“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!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Crystal Caves Trail
A short cave detourCrystal Caves Trail is a 2.1-mile (3.
Crystal Caves Trail is a 2.1-mile (3.4 km) out-and-back from Lake O’Hara’s shore to a small cave with a view over the water. The shoreline approach heads southeast, then a faint, slightly overgrown path branches right and climbs gently to the cave. A short continuation leads back toward the lake before you turn around. Allow about one to one and a half hours.
Distance is unsettled: the 2.1-mile GPS estimate is longer than the connected tread shown on the map. Plan for the longer figure until the whole route is mapped more closely.
Getting to the lakeLake O’Hara is not a drive-up trailhead.
Lake O’Hara is not a drive-up trailhead. Reserve Parks Canada’s seasonal shuttle to Le Relais, or walk 11 km (6.8 mi) one way on the access road from the Lake O’Hara parking lot. That road walk is separate from the cave trail’s distance. Shuttle dates change each year. Le Relais day-use shelter has trail information and simple drinks and snacks during the hiking season; it’s a separate stop from this short walk.
The name goes back a centuryA 1907 Alpine Club of Canada party recorded a stop called Crystal Cave while travelling toward…
A 1907 Alpine Club of Canada party recorded a stop called Crystal Cave while travelling toward Opabin Pass. They collected specimens and looked back across Lake O’Hara. That old account explains the name, though it doesn’t establish that the modern footpath follows the same line. The cave spur isn’t listed in the park’s public trail information, and permission to enter the cave isn’t established; treat it as an exterior viewpoint.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Yoho
21 sightingsGrizzly BearMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
55 sightingsMountain GoatMost seen around 8 AMSighting map
61 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 8 PMSighting map
66 sightingsElkMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
26 sightingsMooseMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
10 sightingsBald EagleMost seen around 7 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Yoho. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
