The B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) is twinning the Trans-Canada Highway through Kicking Horse Canyon west of Yoho National Park from spring 2021 until 2024.

Yoho National Park and Field will remain open; however, full closures of the Trans-Canada Highway will be required west of Yoho National Park.

Traffic will be diverted via Highway 93 south through Kootenay National Park and then back north on Highway 95 to Golden. The first extended closure requiring motorists to detour through Kootenay National Park will take place from April 12 to June 1, 2021.

MOTI is leading the twinning of the Trans-Canada Highway through Kicking Horse Canyon including communications for this project. Parks Canada is working closely with MOTI and remains committed to ensuring both ecological integrity and positive visitor experiences in the national parks.

Yoho National Park, including beautiful Emerald Lake and the charming community of Field, remain open and welcome visitors. Yoho Valley Road and the Takakkaw Falls day-use area will reopen in late June when seasonal avalanche hazard subsides.

Kootenay National Park also remains open to visitors and Parks Canada encourages new visitors to explore the national park. Marble Canyon, Numa Falls and the Radium Hot Springs pool facilities remain open for your enjoyment as does the Village of Radium Hot Springs.

Please visit responsibly. Parks Canada would like to remind all visitors that speed and human food kill wildlife. You can keep wildlife alive by obeying speed limits and never feeding wildlife or littering, including coffee cups and organic waste. Food and garbage kill wildlife by attracting them to roads and causing them to become aggressive and a danger to themselves and humans.

Human and wildlife safety are of the utmost importance for Parks Canada.

The annual Olive Lake no-stopping zone in Kootenay National Park will be implemented again in 2021 for the safety of people and wildlife. Additionally, trained wildlife officers will regularly conduct road patrols and dandelions are being removed from roadsides.

Between 2013 and 2015, Parks Canada installed nine wildlife underpasses and 15 kilometres of fencing to reduce wildlife mortalities on a portion of Highway 93 by up to 80% for all species and up to 96% for deer and elk alone. Since 2015, the Government of Canada has also invested approximately $85 million dollars to support road improvements on Highway 93 as part of the largest federal infrastructure plan in the history of Parks Canada.

There is no cell coverage or WiFi in Kootenay National Park.

Visitors are reminded to plan ahead by checking Drive BC and Alberta 511 for the most up to date road information. Safety is a shared responsibility.

An emergency telephone is available at the Kootenay Crossing Operations Centre. An additional three emergency phones will be installed by fall 2021 at Marble Canyon day-use area, Simpson River trailhead and at Kootenay River day-use area.

Lead image: Drivers diverted down Highway 93 who may not be familiar with Kootenay National Park or Radium Hot Springs need to know about the prodigious number of Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep in and around the village. Please always keep an eye out for sheep and other wildlife species through the park, in the village and along Highway 95 to Golden, which follows the Columbia River Wetlands, once referred to as the Serengeti of North America. e-KNOW file photos

Parks Canada

Article Share