05/18/2025
A different, unique - but IMO proper way to think about your time in Banff.
With the circus Banff Park has become since covid, a lot of international travelers miss what a Canadian National Park is and means. Visitors come here expecting the term "park" implies some sort of focus on visitor experience and tourism.
This is not what our National Parks are for. From Parks Canada's website: "Ensuring commemorative integrity and protecting ecological integrity are always Parks Canada's paramount values" In other words - Banff National Park doesn't care at all you can't find parking at Lake Louise, even if you paid your park entry. It's not why they are there. They try, but its not the focus.
Parks Canada guiding principals lead to the congestion and limitations you find when you travel here. Directly - by not placing customer service as their paramount value (as other businesses would) and not making significant improvements to to guest experience. Indirectly in a unique way - the experiences people know and love in Banff Park, are relics of a time when private enterprise and tourism were encouraged in the park. In the present, nothing new gets built. New roads will never be built. Zip lines and waterparks will never happen here. What is here, is all that will every be allowed to be here. As Canada's population grows further, and more international guests want to see the limited number of attractions - expect further curtailment regarding travel to popular areas to meet Parks Canada's focus on ecological integrity.
Anyway, I hope that helps you understand a bit more about what you are getting into when you come here. Banff National Park is for the Bears, not for you. It doesn't mean you can't come here, it just means don't expect the red carpet.
Connect with Out West Travel Adventures while you are planning your trip. Nobody knows this part of Canada better than we do and we can show you how to avoid the crowds.
Here is a photo of the Prince of Wales Hotel in winter, built in a different time when Canadians had different priorities for our parks.
