Personal vehicle access to the Moraine Lake parking lot has been restricted to allow just shuttles, buses, commercial vehicles, and vehicles exhibiting disability tags.
Moraine Lake has gotten so popular that driving there has become virtually impossible for most. The Parking lot fills up earlier and earlier each year and the backlog just gets worse as the day progresses. Thousands of tourists are turned around daily.
This poses a significant problem for tourism as many people fly from all over the world to visit one of the most beautiful lakes on the planet. They spend large amounts of money and time to travel to the lake only to be turned around upon arrival.
This new system is being implemented beginning this season to try to guarantee a chance to see the stunning glacial lake. This may prevent the town of Lake Louise from becoming collapsed from the army of cars circling for hours trying to find a non-existant parking spot.
Other places in and around the Bow Valley have started making ‘Parking improvements’. These improvements seem to look a lot like improvements for bus access rather than more cars. Parking lots at Grassi Lakes and Ha Ling/Goat Creek have recently gone through these changes which makes you wonder how long before the decision is made to restrict personal vehicles from those parking lots as well.
Do you agree with this new system? Does it make international tourism better? Will it make local tourism worse? Will you have to book weeks in advance as the limited shuttle tickets sell out? Will shuttle buses be the only way to access popular trails in the near future?
The future has many questions but one thing is for sure, the popularity of world famous Moraine Lake is just going to grow.
