Yoho is a Cree word expressing awe, and it was well chosen. The park occupies a deep, glaciated valley on the western side of the Continental Divide in British Columbia, and it packs in more big-mountain drama per kilometre than most places in the Rockies. Waterfalls fall from hanging valleys, glaciers glitter high above the trees, and the Kicking Horse River runs milky green with rock flour through a canyon of pale limestone.
The Trans-Canada Highway follows the river from Kicking Horse Pass, which at about 1,625 metres marks the boundary between Alberta and British Columbia, down toward Golden. The road drops steeply, and the railway beside it has an even more dramatic story. When the Canadian Pacific Railway was built in the 1880s, the grade was so steep that runaway trains were common, and in 1909 engineers built the Spiral Tunnels, two loops drilled into the mountainsides, in which a long train can be seen emerging from a tunnel above its own tail. A viewpoint on the highway lets you watch it happen, and a freight train takes several minutes to complete the figure of eight.
Takakkaw Falls, a short, spectacular detour from the highway, is one of the highest waterfalls in Canada, plunging about 370 metres from a glacier-fed stream. Its name means magnificent in Cree, and it earns it. The road to the falls climbs a series of tight switchbacks, so tight that long vehicles must use a special turnaround, and it is open only from about late June to October, depending on snow. The tarmac is narrow, steep and a good test of low-speed control. Emerald Lake, further along the valley, is the other great sight, with a green mirror surface and a lodge on its shore.
Geologists also come to Yoho for the Burgess Shale, a fossil bed high in the mountains that preserves the soft bodies of animals from over five hundred million years ago, a snapshot of life shortly after the explosion of complex animals. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and access is by guided hike only, but the story of the strange creatures found there is told in exhibits in the village of Field.
Services are limited. Field has a few restaurants and lodgings but fuel is not reliable, so it is best to fill up in Golden, about thirty-nine kilometres to the west, or at Lake Louise to the east. A park pass is needed to stop. Bears, elk and mountain goats are common, and the weather is wetter than in Banff, so bring a waterproof layer.