For national park lovers, the recent staff and budget cuts to the U.S. National Park Service threaten to bring long admission lines, shuttered campgrounds and overflowing garbage cans.
If you’re seeking to avoid the potential chaos, there’s a set of parallel parks just north of the border, in Canada’s park system. American visitors are second only to Canadians in park visitation, said Guy Thériault, the chief spokesman for Parks Canada, which oversees 48 national parks.
It could be a big year for Canadian parks, with politics and the economy driving visits. Canadians are canceling trips to the United States to protest President Trump’s tariffs and threats to Canadian sovereignty, while also dealing with a weak Canadian dollar (the U.S. dollar is worth about 1.38 Canadian dollars).
“I think it’s going to be very busy, with domestic travelers staying at home and busy with international travelers,” Mr. Thériault said. Dropping gas prices may help. “We rely on a big U.S. drive market,” he said.
Whether you drive or fly, the following Canadian alternatives offer similar appeal to certain American parks.
Instead of Acadia National Park, in Maine
Fundy National Park, in New Brunswick
Spread across 47,000 acres of rocky shoreline and mossy forests in Maine, Acadia welcomed nearly four million visitors last year. By contrast, Fundy National Park (admission 9 Canadian dollars, or about $6.50), a roughly 250-mile drive northeast along the coast, receives about 250,000 visits a year.
With its fishing fleet and restaurants selling lobster rolls, tiny Alma, the coastal gateway to Fundy, looks a bit like Maine. But where Acadia faces the open Atlantic, Fundy borders the Bay of Fundy, known for having the highest tides in the world.
“You can arrive at high or low tide and have a different experience,” said Asloob Mohammad, a spokesman for Fundy.
At about 80 square miles, Fundy — one of Canada’s smallest national parks — is packed with attractions, including more than 25 waterfalls. Hikers can reach one of its most popular, Dickson Falls, on a roughly mile-long loop that descends into a verdant ravine where Dickson gushes over a mossy rock face.
Long-distance hikers travel the last 13 miles through the national park on the 40-mile Fundy Footpath, a wilderness trail that hugs the coastline beginning in Fundy Trail Provincial Park.
Instead of Glacier National Park, in Montana
Waterton Lakes National Park, in Alberta
In southwest Alberta, Waterton Lakes shares not just the ecosystem and landscape of neighboring Glacier National Park. The two also share a border and a collective distinction as the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, established in 1932 to honor peace and good will between the United States and Canada.
The proximity of the parks makes them a natural pair, provided travelers carry their passports (Waterton Lakes admission is 11 dollars).
One-eighth the size of Glacier, Waterton Lakes offers a concentration of attractions, including mountains, prairie grasslands and glacier-carved lakes. More than 250 species of birds have been sighted in the park, along with grizzly bears, wolves and cougars.
The hub for park access, including canoeing and kayaking on the mountain-ringed lakes, is the village of Waterton, on Upper Waterton Lake, home to a campsite and about 400 hotel rooms. Eighty-six of them reside in the grand-chalet-style Prince of Wales Hotel, built in 1927.
“Waterton is very mom-and-pop,” said Shameer Suleman, who runs two hotels in Waterton and is the president of the Waterton Lakes Chamber of Commerce, adding that most of the businesses are family-owned.
Road trippers can see the park’s three main lakes (Upper, Middle and Lower Waterton) while backcountry routes venture into higher ground, including a hike along the Continental Divide.
“The park is unsung, so it’s uncrowded,” said Kim Gray, who writes the Canadian blog Toque & Canoe, which focuses on the outdoors and travel.
Instead of Olympic National Park, in Washington
Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, in British Columbia
The old-growth temperate rainforests and wild Pacific coastline that attract visitors to Olympic National Park in westernmost Washington continue north on Vancouver Island, where the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve (11 dollars) offers access to beaches, trails and protected islands.
“There’s an edge-of-the-world kind of feeling here,” Ms. Gray of Toque & Canoe said. “It’s very peaceful.”
Covering about 78 miles of the west coast of Vancouver Island, the park is broken up into three units: Long Beach, the West Coast Trail and the Broken Group Islands.
The most accessible, Long Beach, covers about 15 miles between the towns of Tofino in the north and Ucluelet in the south. A paved multiuse pathway runs the length of the Long Beach unit.
Beachcombing, surfing and exploring tide pools are popular activities in the area. Hiking trails wind through the cedar and hemlock forests, often with boardwalks to protect the forest floor.
“The forest creates a natural canopy, even if it’s raining,” said Danielle Fox, a spokeswoman for the tourism office in Tofino, a popular gateway to the park.
The difficulty of trekking the roughly 47-mile West Coast Trail, which requires climbing more than 100 ladder systems up steep inclines and crossing swift rivers, effectively limits access to experienced backpackers.
More than 100 islands make up the Broken Group, where visitors may see whales, sea lions and otters among the rocky islets. Outfitters offering boat trips, including kayaking and overnight camping adventures, generally leave from Ucluelet.
Instead of Rocky Mountain National Park, in Colorado
Banff National Park, in Alberta
Canada’s first national park, Banff (11 dollars), like Rocky Mountain National Park, protects a glorious swath of the Rocky Mountains. Both parks are extremely popular, and while Banff doesn’t require timed-entry reservations as does Rocky Mountain, its strong bookings for accommodations — including campsites — in the summer high season require advance planning.
“Timing is important in planning a summer trip,” said Leslie Bruce, the president and chief executive of Banff & Lake Louise Tourism, identifying at least one pocket of availability, largely driven by school calendars. “The last week in August is, interestingly, one of the best weeks to come in summer.”
Banff frames jaw-dropping views of imposing mountains rising above evergreen forests nearly everywhere you go. Recreational choices include paddling, biking, horseback riding and rock climbing. Popular sites include its glacier-fed turquoise lakes, among them, Lake Louise and Moraine Lake (the Parks Canada Shuttle connects both; 8 dollars).
Banff’s numerous day hikes are rated by difficulty, from easy strolls of less than a mile to 10-hour mountain pass ascents. Roam Public Transit buses drop hikers at many of the trailheads (one-way fares start at 2 dollars).
While the park encourages using public transportation while visiting, Banff is a popular destination for road trippers seeking to also visit nearby Jasper National Park and Kootenay National Park.
Instead of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve, in alaska
Kluane National Park and Reserve, in Yukon
Next to each other, Wrangell-St. Elias, in Alaska, and Kluane together form the world’s largest nonpolar ice field, filled with spectacular snow-capped mountains draped in glaciers. Along with neighboring Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park, in British Columbia, and Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve, in Alaska, they make up a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Both Wrangell-St. Elias and Kluane — home to Canada’s tallest mountain, 19,551-foot Mount Logan — are remote and relatively difficult to reach. But the Alaska Highway, the historic route built during World War II to link British Columbia to Alaska, skirts part of Kluane, as does the 44-mile Haines Highway, extending along the park south from Haines Junction, Yukon, to Haines, Alaska. Both routes offer stunning mountain and lake views, park-managed campgrounds, and access to day or overnight backcountry hikes (no entry fee for day visitors to Kluane).
From the park’s northern Thechal Dhal Visitor Center, the six-mile Sheep Creek Trail offers views over the Aay Chu Valley, also known as Slims River Valley, and peeks at the Kaskawulsh Glacier.
About 15 miles south of Haines Junction on the Haines Highway, Kathleen Lake is a good base in the park, with access to short and more challenging trails as well as campsites and furnished tent-cabin hybrids known as oTENTiks (133.25 dollars a night).
Haines Junction is the commercial heart of the park, home to a visitor center, and the base for many outfitters and lodges offering fishing, hiking and flight-seeing trips in and around Kluane.
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