Panorama Meadows via Taylor Lake Trail hike on 2-Oct-2025

This trip was planned to visit and appreciate the colourful larches in Panorama Meadows above Taylor Lake in Banff NP. It succeeded, more or less, though some trees had lost their needles and the entire vista would have been more glorious with full on sunshine, which didn't happen.

It being a Thursday, we had no problem parking at the trail head at 9.00am when it was +4c with cloudy sunshine and no wind. At about 11.20am we enjoyed a snack break at Taylor Lake campsite before continuing to Panorama Meadows for lunch about 1.00pm.

Strange tree branch adjacent to trail enroute from Taylor Lake in Banff NP

David points at Panorama Ridge Peak from the meadows above Taylor Lake

Group enjoys lunch in Panorama Meadows

Although the meadows were damp, the bigger of the 3 lakes was dry and we never went to the upper or lower lake. It was quite pleasant in the intermittent sunshine and minor wind. Most of the larches were in "full bloom" but lacked the sparkle provided by the sun. We were back at Taylor Lake about 2.00pm and the cars by 3.45pm. (+12c).

Group walks back through Panorama Meadows towards Taylor Lake

Group at Taylor Lake campsite enroute back from Panorama Meadows

En route, we talked to a young park ranger who was maintaining one of the trail cameras. She was changing the batteries and recording disk, which apparently function well even in winter. The camera is motion activated and there's even an app to filter out the humans. Quite interesting.

Thanks to participants: Marianne, Christine, Mark, Leslie (photo) for joining me David (C,S and P) on one of my favourite larch hikes. The database gives trip stats at 17km, with 840m elevation gain and loss which we hiked in 6:45hrs inc beaks, car to car.

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