- Where
- Banff and Jasper national parks
Alberta, Canada - Start / end
- Lake Louise to Jasper (Highway 93 North)
- Length
- 232 km (Parks Canada)
227 km (Wikipedia) - Season
- Open all year; winter conditions early Nov–mid-June (Parks Canada)
- Winter rule
- Snow tyres or chains, 1 Nov–31 Mar
- Fees
- Park pass C$12.25 adult a day; C$24.50 family/group (Parks Canada, 2026)
- Services
- Early May–mid-October; none in winter
- Status
- Open; single-lane repairs near the 93A junction by Jasper to 16 Oct (511 Alberta, read 13 Oct 2026)
- Advisory
- Canada Level 1
Drove all day between grey walls of rock with ice hanging off the tops, past lakes the colour of a swimming pool with milk stirred in. Halfway, a glacier came down nearly to the road, a cold wind came off it, and a bus with enormous tyres crawled up onto the ice. A white goat sat on the verge, unimpressed by all of us.
Route facts
- Route
- Lake Louise (Trans-Canada Highway junction) to Jasper (Yellowhead Highway junction)
- Length
- 232 km (144 miles)Checked · Parks Canada: Icefields Parkway
- Season window
- Open all year; services early May to mid-October; winter conditions from early November to mid-JuneChecked · Parks Canada: Icefields Parkway
- Closures
- Open as read Open on 13 October 2026, with single-lane alternating traffic possible for guardrail repairs between Tangle Hill and Big Bend until 5 pm that day and for fire-damage repairs near the Highway 93A junction until 16 October.Live alert: 511 Alberta
- Fees
- National park pass: C$12.25 per adult a day, C$24.50 per family or group; youth free (2026)Checked · Parks Canada: Banff fees
- Cost to enter
- Under $35
- Anchor point
- Columbia Icefield
52.22° N, 117.22° W
The short answer
The Icefields Parkway is Highway 93 North, the scenic road between Lake Louise in Banff National Park and the town of Jasper in Jasper National Park. Parks Canada gives its length as 232 kilometres and operates and maintains it as a scenic parkway rather than a through highway; commercial vehicles over 4,550 kilograms are not allowed. A valid national park pass is required to drive it: on 13 October 2026, Jasper National Park listed a day pass at C$12.25 for an adult and C$24.50 for a family or group in one vehicle, valid until 4 p.m. the day after purchase. There is no year-round cell coverage. Services run from early May to mid-October; in winter there are none between Lake Louise and Jasper, and snow tyres or chains are compulsory from 1 November to 31 March. On 13 October 2026 the road was open, 511 Alberta reported, with single-lane alternating traffic possible for guardrail repairs between Tangle Hill and the Big Bend until 5 p.m. that day, and for repairs to fire-damaged roadway near the Highway 93A junction, by Jasper, until 16 October.
Why it's worth knowing
Ice you can see from the car. The parkway is named for features such as the Columbia Icefield, which it passes near its middle. The Athabasca Glacier, one of the icefield’s tongues, ends across the road from the Columbia Icefield Discovery and Information Centre. Parks Canada’s Forefield trail crosses “the barren area exposed by glacial melt since the mid-1840s”, and its trail to the toe of the glacier crosses smoothed limestone that was under the ice in the 1950s. Further south, Parks Canada says, the Crowfoot Glacier looked a century ago like a three-toed crow’s foot; today one toe is gone.
A road built by hand. In 1931, Wikipedia records, the federal government commissioned a single-track road between Lake Louise and Jasper as a Depression relief project, and to employ as many people as possible it was built by hand by 600 men. It was completed in 1940, and a rebuilt, paved highway opened in 1961. It was predated by the Wonder Trail, opened in 1885 after the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed, and Parks Canada’s trail notes record older travellers still: the Wilcox Pass trail follows the bypass that Indigenous families and later travellers on horseback used to avoid a canyon on the Sunwapta River, and the Poboktan Creek trail was historically used by Indigenous travellers.
Remote on purpose. Parks Canada’s description of driving it is mostly a list of what is not there: no cell coverage except, from May to early October, a little at the Columbia Icefield; one fuel station, at Saskatchewan River Crossing, in summer only; no hotels, restaurants or fuel at all in winter. Winter weather, it says, lasts from early November to mid-June, snow can fall in any month, and it is “not uncommon to have a sunny day in Jasper and a blizzard at the Columbia Icefield”.
The field notes
232, 230 or 227
Banff National Park’s page gives the parkway as 232 kilometres; Jasper’s winter page speaks of “a distance of 230 km” between Jasper and Lake Louise; Wikipedia gives 227 kilometres. None of the three says where it starts counting. We use Parks Canada’s 232, from the park that publishes the stop-by-stop distances.
Where the gates are
When the parkway has to close, Parks Canada closes only the sections it must, at gates it lists by name: Valley of the Five Lakes, Athabasca Falls Hostel, Sunwapta Warden Station, Parker Ridge, Saskatchewan River Crossing, and the Trans-Canada Highway junction at Lake Louise.
Mount Athabasca and Mount Andromeda above the gravel forefield the Athabasca Glacier has left behind, August 2012.
Photograph: Florian Fuchs · Icefields Parkway near Columbia Icefield · CC BY 3.0 · cropped
Waterfowl Lakes beside the parkway, August 2012.
Photograph: Florian Fuchs · Waterfowl Lakes beim Icefields Parkway · CC BY 3.0 · cropped
A mountain goat and her kid at a mineral lick beside the parkway, June 2015.
Photograph: Traveler100 · CC BY-SA 4.0
The braided gravel flats of a river plain near the parkway, July 2017.
Photograph: Thomas Fuhrmann · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Fill the tank and the washer bottle before you leave town, and do not count on finding either again until the other end.
- Stop at the small lay-bys nobody else is using. The big ones are not better, only bigger.
- Keep to the marked path below the glacier, and leave the ice itself to the people with ropes.
- Leave the sheep and goats on the verge alone. It was their road first.
- Item about the colour of the lakes: withdrawn. Nobody at the railing could find the word either.
The forefield of the Athabasca Glacier. The stretch of bare rock, boulders and moraine below the toe of the Athabasca Glacier, across the Icefields Parkway from the Columbia Icefield Discovery Centre. Parks Canada describes it as “the barren area exposed by glacial melt since the mid-1840s”, a strange landscape where hardy alpine plants have gained a foothold, and asks walkers to stay on the trail to protect them. Its trail to the toe of the glacier crosses glacially smoothed limestone that was under the ice in the 1950s, with scratches in the rock aligned with the old ice flow. Meltwater streams cross the Forefield trail and on warm days, Parks Canada warns, can grow large enough to turn walkers back.
Tally, in the marginI had been walking across it for some time, admiring the bare rock and the boulders, before I understood that I was walking where the glacier used to be. So, it turned out, was the car park.
Getting there
How to drive it. The parkway leaves the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 1) about 3 kilometres from Lake Louise and ends at the Yellowhead Highway (16) about a kilometre from Jasper. Parks Canada lists its stops from south to north with their distances: Bow Lake at about 37 to 40 kilometres from Lake Louise, the Peyto Lake viewpoint at 43, Saskatchewan River Crossing at 80, the Columbia Icefield Discovery Centre at 128, Sunwapta Falls at 179 and Athabasca Falls at 203. In summer, it warns, parking lots can fill early and stay full all day.
When to go. The road is open all year, but Parks Canada says winter weather lasts from early November to mid-June, lakes typically thaw by late June, and services run only from early May to mid-October. From October through May, snow clearing happens between 7 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., and the parkway can close for extreme weather or avalanche control. Parks Canada advises against using it as a winter alternative to the Trans-Canada highways.
What to arrange ahead. A national park pass, sold online, at the park gates, information centres and campgrounds, and at automated kiosks in Jasper; on 13 October 2026 Parks Canada also noted technical difficulties with its online pass sales page. Fuel and washer fluid before you leave Lake Louise or Jasper. From 1 November to 31 March, snow tyres marked with a snowflake or “M+S”, or chains. Recreational drones are prohibited in all national parks, with fines of up to C$25,000.
Safety. The State Department has Canada at Level 1, exercise normal precautions, its lowest level; it says petty crime is common in popular tourist locations (advisory dated 5 June 2026 in its feed, read 13 October 2026). The hazards here are mountain weather, ice, avalanches and wildlife on the road, and the glacier itself: Parks Canada says walking on the Athabasca Glacier is not safe, that the ice at its toe is hollow and collapsing, and that several people have died in its crevasses. For conditions, call 511 in Alberta or 1-855-391-9743, or check 511 Alberta; there is no phone signal on most of the road.
Mark this place
Common questions
How long is the Icefields Parkway?
Parks Canada gives the Icefields Parkway, Highway 93 North between Lake Louise and Jasper in Alberta, as 232 kilometres. Its Jasper winter page speaks of 230 kilometres between Jasper and Lake Louise, and Wikipedia gives 227.
Do you need a park pass to drive the Icefields Parkway?
Yes. Parks Canada says a valid national park entry pass is required to drive the Icefields Parkway, which runs through Banff and Jasper national parks. In October 2026 a day pass cost C$12.25 for an adult and C$24.50 for a family or group in one vehicle.
Is the Icefields Parkway open in winter?
Yes, but Parks Canada says it has no services in winter, is plowed only between 7 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., and may close for extreme weather or avalanche control. Snow tyres or chains are mandatory on the Icefields Parkway from 1 November to 31 March.
Is there gas and cell service on the Icefields Parkway?
Barely. Parks Canada says the Icefields Parkway’s one gas station, at Saskatchewan River Crossing, opens in summer only, and that there is no year-round cell coverage, with limited coverage at the Columbia Icefield from May to early October.
Can you walk on the Athabasca Glacier?
Not on your own. Parks Canada says walking on the Athabasca Glacier beside the Icefields Parkway is not safe: the ice at its toe is hollow and collapsing, and several people have died falling into hidden crevasses. A marked trail leads to a viewpoint near the toe.
When was the Icefields Parkway built?
Construction of a road between Lake Louise and Jasper began in 1931 as a Depression relief project, built by hand by 600 men, and was completed in 1940, Wikipedia records; a rebuilt, paved Icefields Parkway opened in 1961.
Can trucks and RVs use the Icefields Parkway?
Parks Canada says commercial vehicles over 4,550 kilograms are not allowed on the Icefields Parkway, to protect its scenic character, and that it is not managed as a through route like the Trans-Canada highways. When the parkway is closed, it points drivers to three other north-south routes: Highways 2, 22 and 5.
What are the main stops on the Icefields Parkway?
Parks Canada lists, from south to north, Bow Lake, the Peyto Lake viewpoint at Bow Summit, Saskatchewan River Crossing, the Columbia Icefield and Athabasca Glacier, Sunwapta Falls and Athabasca Falls, with distances from Lake Louise and Jasper for each.