Banff's Unofficial Trail Network Spans 177 Kilometres as Parks Canada Works Toward 2030 Target

Parks Canada has identified approximately 177 kilometres of informal trails around the Banff townsite and has begun decommissioning them as part of a plan to improve wildlife movement and habitat connectivity.

The work is part of a commitment in the 2022 Banff National Park Management Plan to reduce priority informal trails around the Banff townsite by 20% from 2019 levels by 2030. Nearly halfway to that target, Parks Canada has released new details about the size of the trail network and the work underway to reduce it.

Parks Canada defines informal trails as user-created routes that are not authorized or maintained by the agency. They are often formed when people repeatedly leave designated trails, creating alternate paths that can eventually resemble official trails.

According to Parks Canada, ground surveys conducted between 2019 and 2021 used GPS units to map informal trail locations and levels of use throughout lands adjacent to the Banff townsite. The surveys identified approximately 177 kilometres of informal trails.

Using wildlife and trail data, the agency has identified five priority areas where it plans to reduce human use on informal trails: Tunnel Mountain Bench, the Golf Course, Sulphur Mountain, the Lake Minnewanka area and the Norquay-Cascade corridor.

Parks Canada says the goal is to reduce human use in sensitive areas to support wildlife movement and improve habitat connectivity. According to the agency, lower levels of human activity create more effective wildlife corridors, which connect larger habitat patches where animals feed, breed, rest and seek shelter.

To reduce use of informal trails, Parks Canada says it is improving wayfinding signage, decommissioning priority informal trails, installing signs discouraging off-trail travel and introducing area closures where necessary. The work will be carried out in phases, with minor improvements to designated trails where needed while maintaining public access to official trails.

Parks Canada says decommissioning work has already begun.

"In fall 2025, informal trails in two of the five priority areas were successfully decommissioned," the agency said.

The agency said it has successfully decommissioned the Tunnel Mountain Bench and Golf Course wildlife corridors but did not disclose how many kilometres of informal trails have been removed. Decommissioning has now been completed in two of the five priority areas identified by Parks Canada, though the agency has not said how much of the overall trail network that represents.

"Updated figures will be shared as planning and work in the remaining areas continues," Parks Canada said.

Some of the work may also be coordinated with wildfire risk-reduction projects where the priority areas overlap. Those projects typically include removing or thinning vegetation and creating fireguards to slow the spread of wildfire near park communities. Over the past several years, Parks Canada has carried out fuel-reduction and fireguard projects in areas including Tunnel Mountain, Lake Louise and the Cascade Valley to reduce wildfire risk to park communities and the Bow Valley.

The work also comes amid record visitation to Banff National Park. More than 1.3 million people visited the park during the first five months of 2026, after Parks Canada's 2025 annual report recorded more than 4.5 million visitors last year, the highest annual visitation in the park's history.