Visitors flock to Waterton Lakes National Park in 2024 [Video]

Visitation records at Waterton Lakes National Park were broken in 2024, with the year marking the second-busiest on record.

More than 540,000 people went through the gates of Waterton Lakes this year.

“All of the mountain parks are seeing an increase in visitation and Waterton is no different,” said Matt Nodge, Waterton Lakes National Park communications officer with Parks Canada.

“Canadians are going to the mountain parks in large numbers. It’s hard to say if the fire in Jasper did play a role in that, but anecdotally it may have.”

According to Parks Canada, more than 128,000 people visited the national park in August.

According to Parks Canada, more than 128,000 people visited the national park in August.

September saw 80,400 guests, the busiest September on record.

“We had a lot of locals, we had a lot of tourists and we had a lot of weddings that were (oriiginally supposed to be) in Jasper that got re-routed down to …