Banff National Park
Interesting facts
- About 82 km of fencing along the Trans-Canada Highway, combined with wildlife overpasses and underpasses, has cut collisions between animals and vehicles by more than 80 per cent.
- During the First World War the park held an internment camp at Castle Mountain, moved to Cave and Basin in winter; a pavilion about it opened in 2013.
- The highest peak lying entirely inside the park is Mount Forbes, at 3,612 metres; Mount Assiniboine on its border is slightly taller.
- The park began life in 1885 under the name Rocky Mountains Park.
- The elk now common around the town descend in part from 57 animals brought in from Yellowstone National Park in 1917.
- In 2017, 16 bison were moved to the park from Elk Island National Park; by 2024 the reintroduced herd had grown to more than 130.
- Wolves vanished from the park for about 30 years before recolonising the Bow Valley in 1985; the park now holds an estimated 60 to 70.
- Of 365 glaciers counted in the park in 1985, 29 had disappeared completely by 2005.
- A scene of Lake Louise appeared on the back of the Canadian 20-dollar banknote in the 1969 to 1979 series.
Why it is worth it
Banff was Canada's first national park, created in 1885 when the government set aside a small reserve around hot springs that railway workers had stumbled on at Cave and Basin; it has since grown to about 6,641 square kilometres of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta. The peaks are slabs of sedimentary rock pushed eastward 80 to 55 million years ago and then sculpted by glaciers into horns, cirques and U-shaped valleys. Glaciers still hang on the high slopes, and the Columbia Icefield on the park's northern edge is the largest unbroken mass of ice in the Rockies. The park is part of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site.
The lakes are what people come for. Lake Louise, with the Chateau Lake Louise hotel at one end and a glacier at the other, and Moraine Lake, about 15 km away beneath the Valley of the Ten Peaks, are among the most photographed views in Canada. North of Lake Louise the 230-km Icefields Parkway runs up the Bow Valley past Hector, Bow and Peyto lakes, with around a hundred glaciers visible from the road, before crossing into Jasper National Park at Sunwapta Pass.
Long before the railway, the Bow Valley mattered to the Stoney Nakoda and other Indigenous peoples, and archaeological finds at Vermilion Lakes go back more than 10,000 years. The Canadian Pacific Railway shaped the park's early image, building the castle-like Banff Springs Hotel and the Chateau at Lake Louise to lure travellers. The town of Banff, the park's centre, holds the Whyte Museum, the Banff Centre and the Cave and Basin National Historic Site. Grizzly bears, elk, bighorn sheep, wolverines and moose live across the park, and the Banff Springs snail survives only in its hot springs.
Getting there
The town of Banff is 128 km west of Calgary by road; Calgary International Airport (YYC) is about 108 km from the park's centre, and Cochrane, the nearest larger town by straight line, about 76 km. The Trans-Canada Highway runs through the park via Banff and Lake Louise. A park pass is required to stop anywhere in the park.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Banff National Park is Canada's first national park, established in 1885 as Rocky Mountains Park. Located in Alberta's Rocky Mountains, 110–180 kilometres (68–112 mi) west of Calgary, Banff encompasses 6,641 square kilometres (2,564 sq mi) of mountainous terrain, with many glaciers and ice fields, dense coniferous forest, and alpine landscapes. Provincial forests and Yoho National Park are neighbours to the west, while Kootenay National Park is located to the south and Kananaskis Country to the southeast. The main commercial centre of the park is the town of Banff, in the Bow River valley.
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