History
Banff National Park finds its origins in fall 1883 when three Canadian Pacific Railway workers discovered the cave and basin thermal springs on the Alberta Rocky Mountains' eastern slopes. A guided tour and interpretive boardwalk allow you to explore this historical natural splendor.
Activities
Summer activities include fishing, backpacking, boating, camping, hiking, horseback riding, swimming, scuba diving, mountaineering, biking, bird watching, canoeing and relaxing in the Banff Upper Hot Springs, while the winter season offers camping, skiing, ice diving, ice skating, snowshoeing, wildlife viewing and waterfall ice climbing.
Statistics
The park contains 1,000 miles of hiking trails, the longest cave system in Canada, more than 2,400 campsites, 1,000 glaciers, more than 4 million visitors yearly, and is home to the endangered woodland caribou and mountains 45 million to 120 million years of age.
Fun Fact
Roving Interpreters, donning green and red parks Canada uniform, roam the park year round answering any question you have about the park and its wildlife.
Politics
The Mountain World Heritage Interpretive Theater (WHIT) puts on interpretive theater in the park and surrounding communities to help tell the story of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks UNESCO world heritage site, a United Nations designation that safeguards more than 7,700 square miles of the Canadian Rockies.
Considerations
All visitors must obtain a permit and are prohibited from the following activities while inside the park: Collecting cultural or natural objects, hunting, motorized off-road traveling, ice fishing, snowmobiling, paragliding, parachuting, hang gliding and the use of personal watercraft.
