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

Canadian Rockies The Canadian Rockies (french: Rocheuses canadiennes) 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 ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

and

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

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 situated in the East Kootenay region of British Columbia. The village is named for the hot springs located in the nearby Kootenay National Park. From Banff ...

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

Banff National Park Banff National Park is Canada's oldest 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 terrain, wi ...

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

Alberta Highway 93 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 ...

Route description

The Banff-Windermere Highway begins at British Columbia Highway 95 in village of Radium Hot Springs at the north end of the Highway 93/95

concurrency Concurrent means happening at the same time. Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to: Law * Concurrence, in jurisprudence, the need to prove both ''actus reus'' and ''mens rea'' * Concurring opinion (also called a "concurrence"), a ...

, 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 Sinclair may refer to: Places * Lake Sinclair, near Milledgeville, Georgia * Sinclair, Iowa * Sinclair, West Virginia * Sinclair, Wyoming * Sinclair Mills, British Columbia * Sinclair Township, Minnesota * Sinclair, Manitoba People * Sin ...

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 Sinclair Pass (el. ) is a high mountain pass in Kootenay National Park between the Columbia and Kootenay Rivers to the northeast of present-day Radium Hot Springs in the province of British Columbia, Canada. History It was named after James Si ...

, reaching an elevation of . East of the summit, the highway reaches a viewpoint of the Kootenay 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 valley, with a full view of

Castle Mountain Castle Mountain ( bla, Miistukskoowa) 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 ...

, and intersects the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway ( 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 Atlantic Ocean o ...

( Alberta Highway 1) 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 Alberta Provincial Highway No. 1A is the designation of two alternate routes off the Alberta portion of Trans-Canada Highway 1. However, it is not the only name used for spurs off Highway 1 - 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 Sir James Hector (16 March 1834 – 6 November 1907) was a Scottish-New Zealand geologist, naturalist, and surgeon who accompanied the Palliser Expedition as a surgeon and geologist. He went on to have a lengthy career as a government employe ...

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 advocated for improved connections with Banff and

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

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

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

, 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 (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

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 Kootenay National Park. The road opened in 1922 and was first highway to cross the Central Canadian Rockies, with the Kicking Horse Trail across Kicking Horse Pass (the corridor which eventually became part of the Trans-Canada Highway) opening in 1926, connecting Lake Louise and

Golden Golden means made of, or relating to gold. Golden may also refer to: Places United Kingdom *Golden, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall *Golden Cap, Dorset *Golden Square, Soho, London *Golden Valley, a valley on the River Frome in Gloucestershir ...

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 United States highway, numbered highway in the western United States. The southern terminus is at U.S. Route 60 in Arizona, US 60 in Wickenburg, Arizona. The northern terminus is at the ...

, and in 1959 the Banff-Windermere Highway and Icefields Parkway were renumbered to be a part of Highway 93.

Major intersections

References

External links