It seems as though quite a few people took in the hot summer weather in Banff between Friday, July 10 to Sunday, July 12. Several photos posted online show the Trans Canada highway from Banff to Calgary absolutely packed full of cars that caused hours of delays. Even pictures from inside the town of Banff and Lake Louise show massive amounts of people.
Now that things are starting to open up in the province, Albertans are taking full advantage and heading outside to take in the views.
Over the weekend, tons of people flocked to Banff National Park.
National Parks across Canada have been open since the beginning of June, but you would think this was opening weekend.
According to the Calgary Sun, traffic was so bad on the highway that Waterton Lakes National Park cautioned visitors to prepare for delays.
The park also encouraged people to maintain physical distance and follow proper health protocols while visiting.
Tons of photos and videos have been posted online that show the magnitude of the situation.
By the looks of some of the photos, the highway was so backed up that the two lanes of traffic headed to and from Banff were completely stopped.
While traffic was obviously heavy, the road conditions sure didn't help.
Good luck getting out of Banff. Single lane traffic due to construction has caused almost 2 hour delay. Ridiculous… https://t.co/l5sFX0Kwki— Wendy St.Louis (@Wendy St.Louis)1594607625.0
According to one tweet, there was single lane traffic on the highway on Sunday, July 12 due to construction that caused almost two hours of delays
The Twitter user described the traffic on the highway to stretch “as far as the eye can see.”
Not what you want on your last day of vacation. #1 highway backed up for 15 km. Google says 1hr and 27 minutes to g… https://t.co/HFEnXjYKye— Mike Gerhardt (@Mike Gerhardt)1594608954.0
Another person tweeted out that Google Maps claimed the drive from Banff to Canmore, which is only 30 kilometres, would take about an hour and a half.
Usually, this drive takes about 19 minutes.
@DriveBC if people are trying to get to Alberta through Banff expect this to happen around the Banff turn offs! Con… https://t.co/Pit3KMsYYq— Landan Semenok (@Landan Semenok)1594594952.0
The main strip of Banff, Banff Ave, was also incredibly busy especially now that it's car-free.
Several pictures and videos were posted showing how busy it was.
Even the geotag on Instagram is full of images depicting large groups gathering in the town and on hikes in the surrounding areas.
But Banff and the highway weren’t the only areas that fell victim to overcrowding.
An Alberta lake was also so cowed over the weekend that social distancing didn’t happen at all.
