Yoho National Park

Yoho, named for a Cree word expressing awe, is a park of rock walls, waterfalls and glacial lakes. It's a park with snow-topped mountain peaks, roaring rivers and silent forests. It's a park whose history is bound up with a railroad: spiral tunnels inside mountains and stories of runaway trains.

Established in 1886, the park currently spans 1,310 square kilometres (507 square miles) on the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia, and borders Banff National Park to the east and Kootenay National Park to the south.

Yoho's craggy peaks and steep rock faces posed an enormous challenge for Canada's early explorers. The mountains that were the curse of railway builders are responsible for the park's many waterfalls including Laughing Falls, Twin Falls, Wapta Falls and one of Canada's highest at 254 m (833 ft.), Takakkaw Falls. Silt carried by streams from melting glaciers high on the mountains is responsible for the deep, rich turquoise colour of Emerald Lake and Lake O'Hara.

One of the world's most important fossil finds, the Burgess Shale, is located in Yoho. Designated a World Heritage Site in 1981, the Burgess Shale Formation contains the fossilized remains of more than 120 marine animal species dating back 515 million years. The Burgess Shale World Heritage Site is now incorporated into the larger Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site with Yoho, Kootenay, Banff and Jasper National Parks and Mt. Assiniboine, Mt. Robson and Hamber Provincial Parks.

Highlights include:

• Kicking Horse Pass
• Spiral Railway Tunnels
• Lake O'Hara (only accessible by shuttle bus, reservations required)
• Takakkaw Falls
• Natural Bridge
• Emerald Lake
• Burgess Shale (only accessible on full-day guided hike)
• Wapta Falls.