The Icefields Parkway: no ordinary highway
To drive it you need a park pass, a full tank and offline maps.
The Icefields Parkway (93N) links the village of Lake Louise in Banff National Park with Jasper: 232 kilometres (144 mi) through some of the most striking landscapes of the Canadian Rockies. Parks Canada stresses that the drive is unlike a normal highway: remote, with few facilities and no mobile signal.
A valid park pass is mandatory for the drive; the revenue pays for snow clearing, sanding and avalanche control. Services are available from early May to mid-October. In winter the whole road has no petrol station, hotel or restaurant.
Winter here lasts from early November to mid-June, and snow can fall in any month. The lakes usually thaw at the end of June, and high mountain trails are snow-free from mid-July.
Parks Canada: travelling the Icefields Parkway (read via the archive copy of 1 Sep 2026) ↗
In numbers
- Length
- 232 km (144 mi)
- Sunwapta Pass, park boundary
- 2,035 m (6,677 ft)
- Avalanche paths with no stopping
- 38
- Parks Canada campgrounds
- 13
- Wilderness hostels
- 6
- Skywalk above the valley
- 280 m (919 ft)
- Winter tyres mandatory
- 1 Nov–31 Mar
