Banff & Lake Louise Webcam Live
The Fairmont Banff Springs, the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise overlooking Victoria Glacier, Banff Centre's Spray Valley, and Whitehorn Summit above the ski resort. Live 24/7.
Four cameras across Canada's first national park
Roundshot broadcasts 360° views from both the Fairmont Banff Springs and the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise; Banff Centre streams a live view of the Spray Valley on YouTube; Ski Louise runs its own mountain cameras from Whitehorn Summit above the resort.
Banff & Lake Louise — a railway's marketing plan that became a national park
In 1883, three Canadian Pacific Railway workers stumbled upon hot springs on the slopes of Sulphur Mountain — a discovery whose ownership dispute prompted the Canadian government to set aside a small 26-square-kilometre reserve in 1885, creating Canada's first national park. The CPR, quick to grasp the tourism potential, opened the log-framed Banff Springs Hotel in 1888, nicknamed "Canada's Castle in the Rockies," followed by Chateau Lake Louise in 1890. General manager William Van Horne's own explanation was blunt: "If we cannot export the scenery, we shall import the tourists." By 1887 the reserve had grown to 674 square kilometres; today Banff National Park covers 6,641 square kilometres and, since 1984, forms part of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Lake Louise itself owes its modern name to a chance encounter: in August 1882, wrangler Tom Wilson heard rumbling in the mountains while camped with Stoney guides near the present-day village, and was led to the lake the following day, becoming the first non-Indigenous person to see it. He named it Emerald Lake for its colour; two years later the Geographic Board of Canada renamed it after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, Queen Victoria's fourth daughter, who lived in Canada during her husband's term as Governor General — though she never once visited the lake bearing her name.
What the four cameras show
Banff Springs
Roundshot · Fairmont Banff Springs360° live view from Canada's "Castle in the Rockies," overlooking its golf course and scenic patios.
Watch live →Lake Louise
Roundshot · Fairmont Chateau Lake LouiseLive rooftop view of the turquoise lake and Victoria Glacier from the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise.
Watch live →Spray Valley
Banff Centre · YouTube LiveLive view of the Spray Valley from Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, overlooking the Bow Valley.
Watch live →Whitehorn Summit
Ski Louise · 2,042mMountain-top view facing Victoria Glacier and overlooking both the village and the lake of Lake Louise.
Watch live →Long before Tom Wilson or Princess Louise, the Stoney Nakoda people knew the lake as Ho-run-num-nay, "Lake of the Little Fishes." The colonial renaming replaced an Indigenous name with a royal one taken from a princess who, despite lending her name to both the lake and the province of Alberta itself, never set foot at either.
Banff & Lake Louise beyond the webcams
Cave and Basin: the hot springs site whose 1883 discovery triggered the creation of Canada's first national park.
Victoria Glacier: the ice field feeding Lake Louise, visible from the Chateau's rooftop and from Whitehorn Summit above the ski resort.
Moraine Lake: a short drive from Lake Louise, its glacial turquoise waters framed by the Valley of the Ten Peaks.
A railway company built two castle-hotels to sell train tickets, and in doing so created one of the most protected landscapes on Earth: Banff National Park exists today less because anyone set out to preserve wilderness than because a 19th-century marketing strategy needed somewhere spectacular to sell.
When to watch
Lake Louise, early morning: for the stillest turquoise water and the clearest reflection of Victoria Glacier before the wind picks up.
Getting there: Lake Louise sits 57km west of the town of Banff via the Trans-Canada Highway, within Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada.
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