Where is Banff National Park located?

Banff National Park is Canada's first national park and the third national park established anywhere in the world after Yellowstone (1872) and Royal National Park near Sydney, Australia (1879). The park was designated by federal Order in Council on November 25, 1885 as the Hot Springs Reserve and expanded to its current 6,641 square kilometres over subsequent decades. Banff is in the Alberta Rocky Mountains, about 130 kilometres west of Calgary, and shares boundaries with Jasper National Park to the north and Yoho and Kootenay National Parks to the west.

The park was created after Canadian Pacific Railway workers discovered the Cave and Basin hot springs in 1883 during construction of the railway through the Rocky Mountains. The federal government reserved the springs from private claim and established the Rocky Mountain National Park (renamed Banff in 1930). The town of Banff inside the park has a population of about 8,300 and is the only urban municipality within a Canadian national park. The Banff Springs Hotel (1888, rebuilt 1928 after fires, designed by Walter S. Painter for the CPR) is one of the most photographed hotels in the world and a National Historic Site.

Banff includes some of the most spectacular Rocky Mountain scenery in Canada. Lake Louise, the iconic glacial lake at 1,750 metres elevation with the Victoria Glacier above, is one of the most-photographed natural sites in the world. The Bow, Saskatchewan, and Athabasca Rivers (the latter via the Columbia Icefield in adjacent Jasper) all rise within the park system. The Continental Divide forms the western boundary of Banff. Mount Temple (3,544 metres), Castle Mountain, Mount Rundle, and the Three Sisters (Bow, Hope, and Faith) are among the most recognisable peaks. The Bow Valley Parkway and the Icefields Parkway (Highway 93 north between Lake Louise and Jasper) provide visitor access.

Banff National Park is part of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks UNESCO World Heritage Site (designated 1984), which also includes Jasper, Yoho, and Kootenay National Parks plus Mount Robson, Mount Assiniboine, and Hamber Provincial Parks in British Columbia. The park draws more than 4 million visitors annually, the most of any Canadian national park. Annual park-pass revenue funds Parks Canada operations and infrastructure. Wildlife in the park includes grizzly and black bears, elk, moose, mountain caribou (the Banff caribou population was extirpated by 2009), bighorn sheep, mountain goats, and wolves. Indigenous nations including the Stoney Nakoda and Treaty 7 First Nations hold treaty rights and co-management interests in Banff.