The Banff–Windermere Highway, also known as the Banff-Windermere Parkway, is a highway which runs through the

Canadian Rockies The Canadian Rockies () or Canadian Rocky Mountains, comprising both the Alberta Rockies and the British Columbian Rockies, is the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains. It is the easternmost part of the Canadian Cordillera, w ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

and

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

in Canada. It runs from

Radium Hot Springs, British Columbia Radium Hot Springs, informally and commonly called Radium is a village of 1,339 residents in the East Kootenay region of British Columbia. The village is named for the hot springs in the nearby Kootenay National Park. From Banff, Alberta, it is ...

to Castle Junction, Alberta (midway between Banff and Lake Louise), passing through

Kootenay National Park Kootenay National Park is a national park of Canada in southeastern British Columbia. The park consists of of the Canadian Rockies, including parts of the Kootenay and Park mountain ranges, the Kootenay River and the entirety of the Vermili ...

and

Banff National Park Banff National Park is Canada, Canada's first National Parks of Canada, national park, established in 1885 as Rocky Mountains Park. Located in Alberta's Rockies, Alberta's Rocky Mountains, west of Calgary, Banff encompasses of mountainous ter ...

. It is designated as part of British Columbia Highway 93 and Alberta Highway 93.

Route description

The Banff–Windermere Highway begins at

British Columbia Highway 95 Highway 95 is a north-south highway in the southeastern corner of British Columbia, opened in 1957. The highway connects with U.S. Route 95, from which the highway takes its number, at the Canada–U.S. border at Kingsgate, just north of East ...

in village of Radium Hot Springs at the north end of the Highway 93/95 concurrency, approximately north of Windermere Lake where the highway gains its name. The highway passes through the village, passing numerous tourist services, overlooking Sinclair Creek. Approximately northeast of Highway 95, it enters Kootenay National Park, passing through the park gates. It continues through Sinclair Canyon and the Radium Hot Springs pools before passing through a short tunnel. East of the tunnel, the speed limit increases to and begins its climb to Sinclair Pass, reaching an elevation of . East of the summit, the highway reaches a viewpoint of the

Kootenay River The Kootenay River or Kootenai River is a major river of the Northwest Plateau in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, and northern Montana and Idaho in the United States. It is one of the uppermost major tributaries of the Columbia River, ...

valley, where it turns north and descends into the valley. The highway follows the Kootenay River to and area known as ''Kootenay Crossing'', where the highway crosses the river and follows the Vermilion River. The highway follows the valley northeast and climbs up to Vermilion Pass at the

Continental Divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not ...

, reaching an elevation of . At the summit, the highway leaves both British Columbia and Kootenay National Park, entering Alberta and Banff National Park. The highway descends into the

Bow River The headwaters of the Bow River in Alberta, Canada, start at the Bow Glacier and Bow Lake (Alberta), Bow Lake in Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies, Canadian Rocky Mountains. The glacial stream that feeds Bow Lake (Alberta), Bow Lake ...

valley, with a full view of

Castle Mountain Castle Mountain () is a mountain located within Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies, approximately halfway between Banff and Lake Louise. It is the easternmost mountain of the Main Ranges in the Bow Valley and sits astride the Castl ...

, and intersects the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway (Canadian French, French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the A ...

(

Alberta Highway 1 Highway 1 is a major east–west highway in southern Alberta that forms the southern mainline of the Trans-Canada Highway. It runs from the British Columbia border near Lake Louise, Alberta, Lake Louise through Calgary to the Saskatchewan borde ...

) at Castle Junction, approximately west of Banff. From there, Highway 93 follows Highway 1 to Lake Louise, while the roadway (still referred to as part of the ''Banff-Windermere Highway'') continues another to the

Bow Valley Parkway Highway 1A is the designation of two alternate routes off the Alberta Highway 1, Alberta portion of Trans-Canada Highway 1. However, it is not the only name used for spurs off Highway 1 - Alberta Highway 1X, Highway 1X is another such designation. ...

(Alberta Highway 1A) on the north side of the Bow River.

History

The corridor along the Kootenay and Vermilion Rivers had been used as a first nations travel route for thousands of years. In 1858, Sir James Hector travelled through Vermilion Pass and recommended that it would be the best route for a wagon road. In the early 1900s settlers in the

Columbia Valley The Columbia Valley is the name used for a region in the Rocky Mountain Trench near the headwaters of the Columbia River between the town of Golden and Canal Flats. The main hub of the valley is the town of Invermere. Other towns include Rad ...

advocated for improved connections with Banff and

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

and lobbied the BC provincial government to construct a road. With the overall goal of constructing an all-Canadian road between the

Canadian Prairies The Canadian Prairies (usually referred to as simply the Prairies in Canada) is a region in Western Canada. It includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie provinces, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. These provin ...

and

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

, the Alberta provincial and federal governments were consulted. Construction began in 1911, and by 1914 the road was opened between Calgary and Vermilion Pass as well as a western section. The outbreak of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

resulted in a suspension of construction, and following the conclusion of the war the British Columbia provincial government did not have enough funds to complete the project. The ''Banff-Windermere Road Agreement'' was reached whereby the federal government would complete the remaining of road, and in exchange they would receive a buffer of land on each side of the highway for conservation purposes; approximately in total. This resulted in the creation of

. The road opened in 1922 and was first highway to cross the Central Canadian Rockies, with the Kicking Horse Trail across

Kicking Horse Pass Kicking Horse Pass (el. ) is a high mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Americas of the Canadian Rockies on the Alberta–British Columbia border, and lying within Yoho and Banff national parks. Divide Creek forks onto both ...

(the corridor which eventually became part of the Trans-Canada Highway) opening in 1926, connecting Lake Louise and Golden.

Former designations

The Banff–Windermere Highway took on the designation of ''Route 'U in the 1930s until 1941 when British Columbia adopted a numbered highway system, and was designated as Highway 1B. In 1953, the highway between Roosville and Elko opened and was designated as ''Highway 93'' as it was a northern extension of

U.S. Route 93 U.S. Route 93 (US 93) is a major north–south U.S. Numbered Highway in the western United States, that connects U.S. Route 60 (US 60) in Wickenburg, Arizona, with British Columbia Highway 93 at the Canadian border (north of ...

, and in 1959 the Banff–Windermere Highway and

Icefields Parkway Highway 93 is a north–south highway in Alberta, Canada. It is also known as the Banff-Windermere Parkway south of the Trans-Canada Highway ( Highway 1) and the Icefields Parkway north of the Trans-Canada Highway. It travels through Banff Nat ...

were renumbered to be a part of Highway 93.

Major intersections

References

External links