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National Park Trip-Planning Weekend! Free National Park Cheat Sheet Pack with any guide. Orders $150+ get our printed 13 Epic Western Road Trips book (70 copies only)
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ONLY $114 – $232 VALUE
Experience the Canadian Rockies like never before with our bundle! Get itineraries and audio tours for Glacier and Waterton, and itineraries for Banff and Jasper National Parks —plus a comprehensive Canadian Rockies Overview Guide with 2 road trip plans starting from both the US and Canada! Experience the most beautiful mountains, lakes, and waterfalls on the planet!
4 Day Itinerary including Lake Louise & Moraine Lake (including shuttles), the Bow River, Johnston Canyon, Banff Townsite, Icefields Parkway Calgary, Kootenay, Yoho and many more.
2-3 Day Itinerary including Maligne Lake, Maligne Canyon, Valley of 5 Lakes, Athabasca Falls, Athabasca Glacier, Columbia Icefield Adventure Center, just to name a few!
4 Day Itinerary including Many Glacier, Lake McDonald, the Going-to-the-Sun Road, Two Medicine, and Waterton, just to name a few!
With the Ultimate Western Bundle, get every guide we have now, plus every new guide we create, in one massively discounted bundle. Perfect if you plan to visit several parks in the West!
What You Get
Plus everything we create next:
Try the guides. If they don’t make your trip easier, more fun, and less stressful, email us after your trip for a refund
Real human customer service. We’ll respond to emails within one business day- no AI or auto-generated responses.
If you travel using our guides and don’t love them so much that you would tell your best friend about us, we’ll give you your money back. Read more.
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Hey, we’re Matt and Cheryl, and we are on a mission to help people have amazing vacations. Not only do we write easy-to-follow itineraries, but we also love to share interesting stories in our audio guides about all of our favorite places!
We live in Utah, just four hours away from awesome national parks like Zion and Yellowstone, and have spent our lives exploring the West and the Rocky Mountains. We often travel with both sets of our retired parents (they like each other!) and our four teenagers (who like to travel…sometimes).
We met in a history of Utah class at Weber State University and tied the knot in 2002. Matt worked for Social Security and taught adjunct history classes at our alma mater. Cheryl taught special education for 28 years and continues to volunteer by teaching a weekly dance fitness class.
We took a shot at our dream in 2020 and started making YouTube videos about the national parks we know so well. We now have over 20 million views and have sold over 24,000 guides. We are delighted to help travelers fulfill dreams of their own!
We love trying out all the activities and working with local experts to give the best, most up-to-date travel advice out there.
At We're in the Rockies, we believe in education and donate 5% of the proceeds of your purchase to the Gene Sessions History Scholarship to make education affordable to future park rangers and history teachers.
Watch Cheryl show you how to plan out your travel day in minutes.
We believe you need at least 7 days to do this trip or your driving to activity ratio will be out of balance.
If you have extra time, explore Calgary, Kootenay, Yoho, and even Edmonton- all of these are covered in our guides.
We give two ideas if you are starting in the US, or one idea if you are starting in Canada.
The most popular airports to fly into for this trip are Kalispell, MT or Calgary, AB.
We offer guidelines on how often to switch lodging locations and the best cities/areas to stay
Locals agree September is the magical month to visit, but it’s wonderful anytime from June through September.
Keep in mind that Banff and Glacier will be crowded throughout the summer months. These are international destinations and you’ll share the popular sites with others.
Jasper, on the other hand, is remote and a welcome relief from the crowds.
Glacier’s Going-to-the-Sun Road usually opens in late June and stays open through September.
We are Americans, and most of our guide-writing experience is from writing about the national parks in the West.
To create this guide, we worked with Mountain Town Ramblers, Kyle Harvey, and Theresa Hurst. They live in Canada and visit the mountain towns and national parks regularly. We used their expertise on Banff and Jasper and our guide-writing skills to bring you this guide.
For our Glacier guide, we consulted with Linnea Benson, who spent her summers here as a boat captain and park ranger.
We recommend what we believe are the absolute best spots in the parks and give backup options for longer hikes or things that cost.
We give star ratings and approximate prices to help you decide which activities are the best value for you!
We are of the mindset that you have a plan, so you can be flexible.
We lay out what we believe are the best activities for your time and money, but we all have different preferences.
Because each activity listed has a star rating, approximate time frame, and cost, you’ll easily be able to adjust to best suit your group’s interests.
We surveyed our customers and they reported that our guides saved them 10-20 hours of trip planning research, per guide (this bundle could save you 30-60 hours of research)
Although much of the information included in these guides can be found with significant research, these guides combine what you need to know into one place and they are from a source committed to giving you the best information.
These guides cost us over $25,000 to create when you combine travel expenses, consulting, map creation, and formatting. In addition, we have spent hundreds of hours visiting these parks and doing additional research.
Instead of you sorting through an outdated, 500+ page travel book filled with flowery language from a travel writer, we get right to the point by grouping the best sites into days to minimize drive time and help you know what you can reasonably accomplish. Also included are driving routes from various starting locations. We pay for all of our travel and our loyalty is to you. If something is a waste of time or money – we tell you.
Many of our travelers enjoy the confirmation that they have already created a good plan and may even find a thing or two to add to it.
Other travelers may find that our plan is similar to what they had already pieced together on their own.
If you’ve already spent hours planning, you may not find maximum value in these guides.
Yes! We travel with our 4 children and both sets of our parents. Although not every activity is for everyone, there are always backup suggestions.
We write these guides so all the work you should need to do is obtain your lodging and reservations. We include maps, the time needed to complete drives and activities, and lodging recommendations. We put boxes throughout the guides indicating it’s an item that you will need to take care of before you leave. We also give links to websites we think you should check before you leave.
Banff has a very robust mass transit system. The ROAM buses can get you pretty much everywhere you wish to go. In addition, Parks Canada offers a Park and Ride Shuttle to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake.
You will need a car to visit Jasper.
Glacier has a weak shuttle system that accesses some areas of the park. We recommend your own vehicle when you visit here.
The roads are paved in all parks.
Yes. We give approximate time frames that are needed to complete an activity. The schedule is generally not so packed that you have to be a quick traveler. But if you know you generally need more time, you can make adjustments. If you are quick, there are suggestions for additional activities
These are digital downloads that will be EMAILED to you. That way, you can have access immediately and have the option to download it to any device you want.
Many travelers, including us, prefer to print the itinerary and take it with us as we travel.
The itineraries are available immediately upon purchase, right on this webpage. You will also receive an email within 30 minutes with download links in case you need to revisit the links and download the items later. If you don’t receive your email, check your junk mail folder. If it’s not there, contact mattandcheryl@wereintherockies.com, and we’ll be in touch with you within 1 business day. Also, the guides will be available in your account if you choose to establish one (we highly encourage it).
National parks constantly change, including timed-entry requirements, construction, fires, and closures. To keep you updated on the most current things going on, we have a Parks Updates page that we update every week with important information. We recommend you look at this as soon as you begin planning your trip, as well as a few days before you leave.
Guides are automatically updated to the latest version when you create an account.
In addition to that, we also send an email notification out when a guide is updated. Just make sure to stay subscribed to our email list so we can reach you.
Because the download is a PDF file, you can do it on any device: computer, iPhone, Android, tablet, etc.
Stuff like this happens. We get it.
If you created an account, just log in again and download your guides.
If you didn’t create an account or forgot your password, just email us, and we can resend your links.
For step-by-step instructions (including pictures) check out our Help With Downloads page.
If you still need help, reach out to us at mattandcheryl@wereintherockies.com. We’ll get back to you as soon as possible to help. We’re even happy to jump on a phone call with you if needed.
This guide is meant to be used from June through September.
Visiting in the winter is a completely different experience and is not covered in these guides.
Yes!! We update our guides at least yearly and we include lifetime updates. We encourage you to purchase the guide as soon as you know you will be traveling. It will help you determine which areas to stay and how many days to obtain lodging. Upon purchase, you’ll be guided to create an account on our website. If we update the guide, it will automatically show in your account.
It is not required, but is HIGHLY recommended. We encourage you to create an account when purchasing the guides because you’ll have access to the links at any time.
You will have access to the updated guide through your account (another reason to create an account) for life. We generally send an email announcement when we do an update as well.
We put approximate price ranges on all our activities so you know what to expect. Although we believe that the lodging in Banff, Jasper, and Glacier is expensive, there are plenty of free or inexpensive things to do within the parks.
Although we do suggest some hikes, we offer plenty of alternatives if hiking is not desirable, including viewpoints and drives.
We visited Jasper in September of 2025 and are happy to report that the park is still an amazing place to visit, with most of the best things to see still accessible. As the park recovers, more and more areas will open up. The community of Jasper is ready and excited to welcome visitors back.
The park has announced that Maligne Canyon and Cavell Road will remain closed for the entire 2026 season.
$70.00
Plan an unforgettable trip through Banff and Jasper National Parks with our comprehensive Banff & Jasper Travel Guide Bundle. It includes practical planning tips, detailed itineraries, must-see sights, scenic drives, hikes, waterfalls, wildlife viewing, lodging, dining, and everything you need to make the most of your time in both parks.
I am 64 years old, traveling with my wife and will be in the Alberta region for 13 full days. I would like an organized itinerary for the Alberta region: Banff, emerald lake, Jasper, Edmonton and ending in Calgary. One note: I don’t practice hicking. Would it be possible to prepare an itinerary for us??.
Our travel will be in September
Thanks for reaching out. At this time, we don’t do personal itineraries but our Banff and Jasper guides offer some great things to do in those parks. Our Banff guide also offers some suggestions on things to do in Kananaskis, Kootenay, Yoho, Canmore, and Calgary as well.
We love watching “We’re in the Rockies ” on YouTube. They give good advice and are practical. We went to Banff and Jasper in September. We ordered the guides from them and they were so helpful. They had information on booking tours, what was best for money and time, and when to visit different areas. Getting around in a new place and figuring out what and when to do things can be overwhelming, so they were a great help. Lots of good information.
I’ve bought these guides before and this is the second one I bought. I went to Banff in June 2023 and this was a great and up to date guide. Every single thing that is important to see is listed. And then if you’re on a time crunch, there’s alternatives offered as well! Wherever my next national park trip is, I will for sure be using a We’re in The Rockies guide!
Glacier National Park was best for our trip especially Many Glacier
I’ve purchased a few of your guides and just love them! I’m trying to plan a trip to Vancouver, Vancouver Island, Victoria & Whistler for August. I wondered if they had any plans to do any videos and guides for this area; since it’s SOOOOO MUCH easier with their help! I’d actually consider postponing our trip just so we can have an audio guide from Matt. He is amazing at enriching our trip!
This is a wonderful guide full of tips. It has made our trip easier to plan and helped us to determine what we Must see! Thank you
Your guides are amazing! I brought it with me on my trip and my family kept asking if they could barrow it to read up on the items I had on my itinerary. I went to Banff two years ago and I loved it so much that I am going back again and I am adding Jasper to our trip. So thank you for the updated guide! Can’t wait to put it to good use again. I am the “travel guide” to my senior citizen family members and I appreciate how descriptive you are about the hikes and activities, to have an understanding of what is doable for some and maybe not doable for others.
Four years ago my daughter and I planned a trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. We like to hike, but besides Old Faithful we knew nothing of the area or even the state we were to travel. Since I was the trip planner I spent hours upon hours hunting through various internet sites for places to visit, best hikes to try, and economical places to stay. We had a memorable and wonderful trip, but working full-time puts time restraints on the amount of research one can fit in.
Fast forward another year and I discovered this blog called We’re In the Rockies. My daughter and I were planning another trip, but this time to the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, and then to the Rocky Mountains. I was more than overwhelmed by the amount of hikes and national treasures available and didn’t know where to start. I purchased We’re in the Rockies itineraries for those areas. What a helpful resource!! Although we didn’t use all the suggestions or places of interest mentioned, we narrowed our destinations and concentrated on the areas outlined in the itinerary. We now had best places to stay, exciting hikes to attempt, and very necessary helps to arrange before attempting the national parks (ie making sure you reserved a timed pass when entering the Rocky Mountain National Park). We didn’t feel pressured by their itinerary to accomplish all that was mentioned, but used the guide as a frame work. Of course, if you wanted to do it all, the plan gave you specific places to visit each day and flexibility if your time was shorter.
Last week, we just returned from Banff National Park in Canada. This was a place I had never heard of before, but after reading the We’re in the Rockies email, sent out last year, I knew this would be a bucket place destination. Of all the places, so far visited, my daughter and I were stunned by the majestic beauty. Each hike was met by sapphire colored lakes, waterfalls, or mountain ranges that even our pictures were able to capture. Again, I read over the pre-trip necessities including timed reserved shuttle tickets needed to enter Lake Louise. One day we saw a sign that mentioned the tickets were sold out for the shuttles, but we had ours thankfully reserved. We initially flew into and toured Calgary, stayed partially in Canmore, and made sure we visited and hiked on various trails on our way to visit the Colombian Ice Field Adventure. All were stated in the itinerary we had purchased and were added suggestions that made our trip less expensive and more complete.
I will continue to use We’re in the Rockies itineraries. They have proven their worth in the planning time they have spared me, money they have saved me, but best of all seeing places that I would have been intimidated taking on or even knowing their existence. Thank you so much for the hard work in compiling these worthwhile itineraries.