The Lakes of Banff: Diving the Canadian Rockies

By Linda Lee Walden Photo by Lynn Laymon

Famous worldwide for breathtaking mountain scenery and easily accessible glaciers, Banff and adjoining Jasper are among Canada's most popular national parks. Visitors enjoy hiking mountain trails, fishing glacier-fed streams, exploring the icefields via snowcoach, observing diverse wildlife and touring historic chateaus. In wintertime add skiing and other snow-based activities to the varied attractions. Few would guess that this region of perpetually snow-capped peaks and old-growth forests is also a major scuba destination for Albertans and divers from neighboring provinces and states.

Several lakes in both national parks attract divers. However, those near the town of Banff, less than two hours away by car for Calgary's nearly 1 million people, are the most popular. Lake Minnewanka and Two Jack Lake are just a few miles from Banff's hotels, campgrounds, restaurants and medical facilities.

Two Jack Lake is used primarily for training. It is small – you can walk around it in less than an hour – and shallow, no more than 50 feet (15 m). However, the depth is deceiving. Altitude diving procedures must be followed, as the elevation is 4,950 feet (1,500 m). When planning dives in the Banff area, a depth of 24 feet (7 m) is equivalent to a sea-level depth of 30 feet (9 m). Open Water students are trained to use dive table depth conversions; advanced divers generally rely on computers that adjust to the altitude.

At this altitude and northerly latitude, the dive season is short: mid-June through October. Most divers wear dry suits or semi-dry wet suits. However, Two Jack Lake can be dived comfortably in a wet suit in midsummer when water temperature reaches the low 60 degrees Fahrenheit (high teens Celsius). Visibility averages 30 feet (9 m). Underwater life includes various freshwater algae, lake trout and whitefish.

Dive classes, which share the grassy beach area with picnickers and sunbathers, gear up just a few steps from Two Jack's gently sloping entry area. Restrooms are available across the paved parking lot.

Compared with the wooded intimacy of Two Jack Lake, Minnewanka impresses visitors with the grandeur of its shoreline. By far the largest lake in Banff National Park, it winds 11 miles (18 km) up an alpine valley, plunging as deep as 328 feet (100 m) in places. The original lake, named "Minn-waki" or "Water of the Spirits" by the native Stoney tribe, is much smaller. A series of three dams built between 1895 and 1941 raised its level more than 100 feet (30 m). Even today, its depth fluctuates seasonally by up to 18 feet (5.5 m).

According to Parks Canada, the national park service, Lake Minnewanka hosts as many as 200 scuba divers per day on summer weekends. The area just above the present dam offers the most interesting diving. Sixteen historically significant features remain from structures submerged after the dam's completion in 1941. Most of these are marked for easy location and several have mooring buoys to prevent damage from boat anchors.

Archeologists have determined that the lower Bow (River) Valley has been occupied for 10,000 years, but the first Europeans arrived in the early 1800s. Minnewanka Landing became a popular mountain resort after a hotel was built along the original lakeshore in 1888. Although nothing of this structure remains, 10 sites from the original town have been marked for boat diving.

The closest of these sites, just 650 feet (197 m) offshore, is a concrete house foundation with a partially excavated basement. Features of the site include a large cement fireplace with a brick hearth that has tumbled into the basement. The actual depth at that location is 57 feet (17.5 m). Two hundred meters farther south, near the end of the former town's main road, are two additional house foundations and a root cellar. Divers can spend plenty of bottom time exploring these and the townsite's other attractions, which include several log or concrete wharf structures.

The most dived area of Lake Minnewanka is the site of the second dam, built in 1912 (sites 11-15). Divers park their vehicles along the wide shoulder of the causeway that crosses the present dam and enter the water directly from its gradually sloping upstream side. Now submerged, the 1912 dam is more than 39 feet (12 m) high topped by a 10-foot (3-m) earth-filled crib. The most interesting feature of the site is the adjacent two-story blockhouse. This structure contains two entry holes on the roof and two more near the bottom. Depth at the site varies from 40 feet (12 m) to 90 feet (27.5 m), making it suitable for students and novice divers as well as experienced, properly equipped penetration divers.

When Devil's Creek was flooded following construction of the 1912 dam, the government built a bridge across the resulting channel. This bridge was later submerged when the third dam was constructed. A short swim from the causeway, the pre-1941 shoreline is clearly visible. The surviving bridge abutments and piers are easily accessible at 50-85 feet (15-26 m) (site 16).

Lake Minnewanka offers all-season diving. During the summer, when the air reaches comfortably into the 70s F (mid-20s C), water temperature hovers in the mid-50s F (low teens C), with no distinct thermoclines. Although the water is too cool for algae to grow, freshwater shrimp and species of trout – bull, rainbow, lake and brown – are plentiful. Visibility may exceed 30 feet (9 m), but diminishes rapidly when careless divers disturb the ever-present silt layer. Current is typically negligible.

Winter at Lake Minnewanka means ice diving, often in air temperatures well below freezing and water not much warmer. Dive groups erect shelters over triangular entry holes cut through ice 2-feet (60-cm) thick. While ice diving involves specialty training and careful coordination, divers enjoy the unusual underwater experience heightened by 70-foot (21-m) visibility.

Strict national park rules apply to boaters and divers. Damaging or removal of historic artifacts, above or below water, is punishable by hefty fines. Divers should display a float/flag and stay within 100 feet (30 m) of it. The flag must not be attached to an underwater structure; attachment anchors are provided for this purpose at many sites. At least one person must remain on board a boat at all times.

Emergency response services can be initiated by calling 911 on a cell phone or the pay phone at the Lake Minnewanka marina and concession stand adjacent to the causeway. Banff hospital is 15 minutes away. The recompression chamber at Edmonton Armed Forces Base is a 30-minute flight by air ambulance.

In addition to Open Water and advanced training, dive centers from Calgary and other cities in Alberta conduct events at the Banff lakes, such as underwater treasure hunts and poker tournaments. Groups and individual divers visit regularly from British Columbia and bordering U.S. states. They are attracted by easily accessible diving, diverse accommodations, including campgrounds and RV parks, and the nondiving activities found at major mountain resort destinations. Plus, as one scuba instructor puts it, "You can't beat the view."

Travel Details

Banff National Park can be accessed year-round from the east or west via the Trans Canada highway (Route 1) or from the north or south via Highway 93. Visitors to the park pay a daily admission fee of C$10 or purchase an annual national parks pass for C$70 (30 to 40 percent less in U.S. dollars).

The park lies in the Mountain Time Zone and daylight-saving time is observed.

Dive centers in Calgary, 75 miles (120 km) east of Banff, conduct regular weekend dive trips to lakes in the Banff area.