Moraine Lake, Canada

Perhaps the most iconic alpine lake in the world, Moraine Lake has been featured in numerous of films, commercials and TV series over the years, not to mention the thousands of wanderlusty pictures surfing across our Instagram, Facebook newsfeeds. And it’s really not difficult to understand why…

The lake lies in Banff National Park at 6,183 feet (1,885m) in the Valley of the Ten Peaks, with the towering giant’s mountainous reflection illuminating the lake’s sparkling turquoise waters. The unique color is due to the refraction of light from dust particles deposited in the lake from the surrounding mountains and the variations in tone from dawn to dusk add another level of fascination to the lake’s already existing and popularized allure.

A number of hikes surround the lake, with the most accessible being the Rockpile Trail leading to the “Twenty Dollar View”, the exact spot as represented on a former Canadian twenty-dollar bill.