Here's how Waterton, Banff are handling heavy summer traffic at national parks
Parks Canada had to shut down Waterton vehicle access during August long weekend
Alberta's national parks have been major tourist attractions for a long time, but recent increases in vehicle traffic mean officials are implementing different strategies to help manage congestion.
Significant traffic over the August long weekend led to Parks Canada diverting vehicle access to Waterton Lakes National Park on Sunday, Aug. 3 for approximately 2½ hours.
Parks Canada said "unmanageable congestion" was the cause of the temporary traffic diversion, adding that "Waterton has reached maximum vehicle capacity" in a social media post that day.
It was the second time Waterton has had to keep visitors out because of congestion concerns, with a similar shut-down happening in 2017, also on the Sunday of that year's August long weekend.
Christy Gustavison, visitor experience manager for Waterton Lakes National Park, said the park has been actively managing traffic at peak periods since 2017 because of increasing visitation.
"We knew that this summer was going to be no exception, so we've planned and prepared for high levels of visitation," she said.
Traffic model helps manage congestion in Waterton
Gustavison said that a model involving hourly vehicle estimates and projected increases in visitation led to Sunday's "very difficult decision to divert traffic until it was deemed that there was enough capacity."
There's no set capacity threshold for visitors and vehicles in Waterton Lakes National Park.
"We have a traffic model that incorporates overnight parking, available parking in the park, and we add in our hourly vehicle entry," said Gustavison.
"The primary piece that we use is on-the ground-observation, and factoring in any other possible public safety incidents that might restrict vehicle circulation in any way."
Waterton has a different layout than other popular national parks like Banff or Jasper — it's what Gustavison called a "destination park," meaning the townsite and the park's two most popular attractions, Cameron Lake and Red Rock Canyon, are all located at the end of scenic roads, with there being no through road.
"Because of the nature of our park being-in-and-out … we definitely are looking at options that fit our unique location and geography," she said.
With that in mind, careful monitoring of vehicles is required to keep traffic flowing through the park's relatively limited space.
Otherwise, "visitors aren't having a great experience, emergency vehicles don't have any space to move if they need to, and of course, our wildlife also needs space to move as well," Gustavison said.
Visitation numbers aren't available for 2025 yet, but last year saw 547,585 visitors enter the park, according to Parks Canada data — that's an impressive figure, but it falls short of visitation at Canada's first national park.
Banff's been busy
According to Parks Canada data, the 2023/2024 season brought 4,288,003 people to Banff National Park, making it Canada's busiest national park by far.
Corrie DiManno, mayor of the Town of Banff, says the townsite saw record vehicle volumes last year, and that this year is shaping up to be even busier.
"We are currently, as of July 31, sitting six per cent more than last year at this same time," she said.
DiManno pointed to multiple factors behind increasing traffic in Banff, such as Alberta's growing population and the federal government's Canada Strong Pass, which offers free admission to national parks and historic sites until Sept. 2.
The last time Parks Canada offered free admission to national parks was in 2017. During the 2017-2018 season, 4,181,854 people visited Banff National Park, up three per cent from the year prior.
"We are four per cent above what we saw in 2017," DiManno said on visitation this year.
Unlike Waterton Lakes National Park, the Banff townsite does have a specific figure for its vehicle congestion threshold.
"Vehicle congestion in the townsite happens whenever we have 24,000 vehicles," DiManno said.
"We have had over 24,000 vehicles in the townsite every day in July and every day so far in August," she said of this year's traffic volume. That was also the case in 2024, according to the town.
This August long weekend saw six per cent higher visitation than last year's, DiManno said.
"August long weekend is typically our busiest vehicle volume weekend of the year, more than Christmas, more than Family Day, Easter, May long, July long," she said. "It's August long, and so it lived up to that hype this past weekend."
Traffic diversions have been implemented throughout Banff National Park at tourist hotspots like Lake Minnewanka and Lake Louise in the past, and while that hasn't happened at the Banff townsite, DiManno said "there are plans in place if we were to reach those kind of volumes."
Ultimately though, a decision like that is outside the municipality's jurisdiction.
"The Town of Banff doesn't have that authority," she said on closing the town's entrances or diverting traffic. "Those are decisions being made by Parks Canada, but that has not happened this summer, or in recent memory."
Instead, the town tries to address congestion with other strategies.
"The main one would be operating Roam public transit," DiManno said. "Encouraging folks to leave their cars at their hotels or their campgrounds, or in any of the public parking stalls that are available in the townsite, and then taking Roam to where they'd like to go."
'Trying to reduce reliance on vehicles'
DiManno suggested that visitors should consider taking transit to Banff, rather than driving their own vehicle.
"It's going to guarantee that you are getting into town, and not having to find a parking spot, and it's just going to be so much more enjoyable for you," she said.
She said last year saw 2.7 million people use Roam transit, adding that usage this year is set to surpass that figure.
"I do believe that the future of moving throughout the town and the park is going to be transit, is going to be on bike, is going to be on foot," DiManno said.
"Big picture, the Town of Banff needs to continue to advocate to the provincial government and the federal government for help with mass transit from the city to the mountains," she said. "When we talk about that, that could be bus, that could be rail — one now, one later."
"We just know that we need more help when it comes to how folks get here," DiManno said.
She pointed to the town's small size — just under four square kilometres — and the fact it has a fixed land boundary, meaning it can't accommodate significant growth the way the Calgary region can.
"Those folks are a short drive from the mountains, and we're so glad that they want to experience part of their backyard and their Canadian identity, and we're so glad to have them here, but we just don't have room for all of those people's vehicles," DiManno said. "So we continue to advocate for mass transit solutions."
Provincial parks also experienced significant visitation recently, with there having been "several encounters with bears over the long weekend across Kananaskis" according to Alberta Parks.
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With files from Helen Pike