Peyto Lake
Interesting facts
- The Peyto Glacier that feeds the lake has reportedly lost about 70 per cent of its mass since scientists began studying it.
- The glacier's first known record is an 1896 photograph by the explorer Walter Wilcox, and systematic research on it began in 1965.
- Between 1896 and 1966 the Peyto Glacier shrank by more than a billion cubic metres of ice.
- Since 1987 an automatic weather station beside the glacier has logged temperature, radiation and precipitation for climate research.
- Bill Peyto, the lake's namesake, was born in Kent, England, in 1869 and arrived in Calgary in 1887, first working as a railway labourer.
- As a guide, Peyto led the Matterhorn pioneer Edward Whymper to Vermilion Pass and joined early attempts on Mount Assiniboine.
- Peyto fought in the Boer War and in the First World War, where he was wounded in the leg at Ypres.
- Peyto served as a park warden in Banff National Park from 1913 to 1937, and a large photograph of him greets visitors entering the town of Banff.
Why it is worth it
Peyto Lake is the classic view of the Icefields Parkway: from a lookout high above, a long glacial lake of startling turquoise lies in a forested valley, with ranks of peaks marching away to the north. The lake itself is modest — about 2.8 km long and under a kilometre wide, at around 1,860 metres — but it is seen from above, and from that angle it takes on an unmistakable silhouette, often likened to the head of a wolf, its snout formed by the delta where a stream enters at the far end.
The colour comes from the Peyto Glacier, an outlet of the Wapta Icefield, which sends meltwater down Peyto Creek and into the lake each summer. The water carries fine rock flour ground by the ice, and the suspended particles scatter sunlight into the vivid, opaque blue-green that has made the lake a fixture of calendars and books about the Rockies. The intensity varies with the season and the glacier's melt, at its strongest in the height of summer. Around the valley stand Caldron Peak, Peyto Peak and Mount Jimmy Simpson, and from the lake's northern end the Mistaya River begins its run down the valley.
The lake is named after Bill Peyto, an early trail guide and trapper in the Banff area. His name now belongs to the glacier, the creek and a peak as well.
The viewpoint lies close to Bow Summit, at 2,088 metres the highest point on the Icefields Parkway. A short paved path leads from the parking area to viewing platforms, rebuilt by Parks Canada in 2021, and paths continue higher for quieter angles over the valley.
Getting there
Peyto Lake lies in Banff National Park, Alberta, about 40 km north of Lake Louise and some 10 km beyond Bow Lake on the Icefields Parkway (Highway 93 North). From the Bow Summit parking area, the walk to the main viewpoint is about 700 metres return. Calgary International Airport (YYC) is the usual gateway by road; Cranbrook/Canadian Rockies International Airport (YXC) is about 240 km away in a straight line.
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From the encyclopaedia
Peyto Lake is a glacier-fed lake in Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies. The lake is near the Icefields Parkway in Alberta, Canada. It was named for Bill Peyto, an early trail guide and trapper in the Banff area.
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