9-Day and 12-Day Canadian Rockies Hiking and Camping Tours
One week in the Rockies covers the famous names. The longer tours go further west, add parks most visitors never see, and give you more days on the trail. They also mean more nights in a tent and more days without a break. This article looks at the 9-day and 12-day hiking and camping tours run by Fresh Adventures, and explains why the 6-day options you may find online are not really on the table at the moment.
Everything here was checked on the operator's tour pages and booking calendar in October 2026. Prices are in Canadian dollars and have 5% local tax added on top.
The two longer tours side by side
| 9-Day Rockies Hiking Tour | 12-Day Rockies Hiking and Camping | |
|---|---|---|
| Nights | 8 camping | 11 camping |
| Start | 2 pm, Marriott Downtown, Calgary | 2 pm, Marriott Downtown, Calgary |
| End | 5 pm in Banff | 2 pm Calgary airport, 2:30 pm downtown |
| Parks | Banff, Jasper (Icefield), Yoho, Glacier, Kootenay | Banff, Jasper (Icefield), Yoho, Glacier, Mount Revelstoke, Kootenay, plus Kananaskis |
| Price | C$3,595 (2026; 2027 not yet published) | C$4,295 (2026), C$4,795 (2027) |
| Roughly in EUR, with tax | €2,500 | €3,300 (2027) |
| Single tent | C$350 | C$400 |
| Sleeping bag rental | price to be confirmed | C$100 |
Both are rated Level 3, "Active", like the 7-day tour: 10–18 km a day with up to 1,000 m of elevation gain. Both include all meals from pickup to drop-off, park passes, hot springs entry and the campground fees, and neither has a mandatory single supplement.
The 9-day tour
The 9-Day Rockies Hiking Tour is essentially the 7-day route stretched and pushed west to Rogers Pass. The typical hikes the operator lists:
- Transfer from Calgary, set up camp.
- Wilcox Pass above the Columbia Icefield, 10 km, 400 m.
- A hike the operator keeps secret ("off the beaten path"), 14 km, 700 m, with horseback riding as an alternative (C$125).
- Iceline Trail in Yoho or Eiffel Lake, both 12 km, 500–600 m.
- Optional rafting on the Kicking Horse River (C$160), or a guided hike to Paget Lookout.
- Plain of Six Glaciers above Lake Louise, 14 km, 500 m.
- Great Glacier Trail in Glacier National Park, 10 km, 400 m.
- Floe Lake in Kootenay (about 19 km, a long day) or the Iceline Trail, then hot springs in Banff.
- Picklejar Lakes, 11.5 km, 700 m, and drop-off in Banff at 5 pm.
Day 5 is the closest thing to a lighter day on any of these camping tours, which is a real plus over the 7-day trip. Floe Lake is one of the best-known hikes in Kootenay, a lake under a long limestone wall, but it is a big outing.
Two things to plan for. First, the tour ends in Banff, not Calgary, so you need your own transfer to the airport or another night in the mountains. Second, the 2026 dates were fixed and published (six departures, from 21 June to 7 September), but when we checked there were no 2027 dates or price yet. Treat the C$3,595 as a guide, not a quote.
The 12-day tour
The 12-day Rockies Hiking and Camping Adventure is the most complete trip in the range. The typical hikes:
| Day | Area | Typical hike | Driving |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Calgary to Lake Louise | none | 2 h |
| 2 | Icefields Parkway, Columbia Icefield | Wilcox Pass, 10 km, 450 m | 2 h |
| 3 | Moraine Lake | Eiffel Lake, 12.5 km, 600 m | 30 min |
| 4 | Lake Louise | Plain of Six Glaciers, 15 km, 700 m | 15 min |
| 5 | Yoho, Takakkaw Falls | Iceline Trail, 15 km, 700 m | 2.5 h |
| 6 | Mount Revelstoke | Eva and Miller Lakes, 16 km, 530 m | 1 h |
| 7 | Glacier National Park, Rogers Pass | Balu Pass, 13 km, 850 m | 1.5 h |
| 8 | Kootenay | Stanley Glacier, 11.5 km, 600 m | 3.5 h |
| 9 | Bow Valley Wildland, near Canmore | Picklejar Lakes, 11 km, 700 m | 1.5 h |
| 10 | Banff | Bourgeau Lake and Harvey Pass, 15 km, 950 m | 1 h |
| 11 | Kananaskis | Chester Lake, 10 km, 400 m | 1.5 h |
| 12 | Grotto Canyon, back to Calgary | Grotto Canyon, 5 km, 200 m | 1.5 h |
Add up the typical hikes and you get around 134 km and 6,700 m of climbing over eleven days. Balu Pass and Bourgeau Lake to Harvey Pass are the steepest days on any of these tours. There is no rest day as such, although the operator says shorter options exist on most hikes.
What you gain over the shorter trips: Moraine Lake gets its own hiking day rather than a viewpoint stop, and you reach Mount Revelstoke, where the trail to Eva Lake starts high on the mountain among subalpine meadows. You also spend more time in the Columbia Mountains around Rogers Pass, which feel quite different from the limestone Rockies further east.
The 2027 calendar lists six departures, starting on 20 June, 4 July, 18 July, 1 August, 15 August and 29 August, all at C$4,795.
Camping details are the same as on the other tours, with a few differences the operator mentions: you set up and take down your tent three to four times, help with dishes three to four times, and the showers at some campgrounds are coin-operated, about C$4 a day. Gratuities of C$10–20 per guest, per guide, per day are described as typical, which over twelve days adds up.
Which longer tour, and is it worth it?
- Choose the 12-day tour if you are a keen hiker, already know you like camping, and want the widest range of landscapes. Per day it is the best value of all the tours, around C$400 a day in 2027.
- Choose the 9-day tour if twelve days is too long, you want a lighter day in the middle, and 2027 dates become available. Remember the Banff finish.
- Stay with seven days if you have never camped for a week. The 7-day camping tour shows whether you enjoy the format before you commit to twelve.
The honest drawback of both longer trips is fatigue. Consecutive days with 500–950 m of climbing, cold nights and a tent to deal with add up, and weather or wildfire smoke can still reshape the plan. September departures get colder at night; our article on the best time for a Rockies tour goes through the months.
What about the 6-day tours?
You may find two 6-day trips on the operator's site. The 6-day Banff hiking tour (camping, C$2,795 on its page) states that it was not available in 2025 and shows no later dates. The 6-day backpacking trip, with three nights of wilderness camping and a pack of about 25 lb, still refers to summer 2024 and 2025 and lists no departures. Neither appears in the operator's current tour menu, so we do not recommend planning around them. If one returns, we will add it here.
For the full comparison, including the inn-based option, see how to choose a guided Rockies tour.