Most Rocky Mountain parks ease you in. Foothills, then forest, then peaks. Waterton skips all of that: the prairie ends and the mountains start, with no transition and no warning. It is under three hours south of Calgary and it has always been a car-or-nothing destination.
This route is new and it is not on sale yet. When dates open they appear here, and the pickup point in Calgary is confirmed with your booking.
Coming soon
We are running this one. The seats are not loaded into the booking system yet, so there is nothing to click. Leave your email and you will hear the moment it opens, which is usually before it goes anywhere else.
See every trip with dates on saleEverything we run from Calgary
Cancel 14 or more days before you go and you get 90% back.
Choose your own adventure: we drop you off, and the bus picks you up in the same spot.
A few hours on real trail with roots, rocks and some climbing, so wear proper shoes.
The rock under your feet is 1.5 billion years old, shoved into place by a single massive thrust sheet that carried it about a hundred kilometres. The red and green argillite at Red Rock Canyon takes its colour from iron laid down on a seabed before complex animal life existed, which is a strange thing to think about while eating a granola bar.
Bear's Hump is the one everybody does, and for good reason. Ten minutes on foot from the townsite to the start of the trail, then 2.8 km there and back with 225 metres of climbing. Steep but short. At the top: Upper Waterton Lake, the Prince of Wales Hotel, and prairie running away to the horizon. Bring a windbreaker, because Waterton's winds are not subtle.
Cameron Falls is five minutes from Main Street, and after heavy rain the water sometimes runs pink-red with argillite sediment. People check whether their camera has broken.
From June through August the wildflowers arrive: beargrass, glacier lilies, Indian paintbrush, silky lupine. Waterton gets called the Wildflower Capital of Canada and for once the nickname is earned.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site with no bus to it, until now.
Waterton is compact. Most of what you have come for is a short walk from where the bus puts you down.
The townsite sits on the shore of Upper Waterton Lake with the mountains straight above it. Several of the park's main attractions are within a short walk, and everything else is a short drive that the park's own roads handle.
Good to know:
Facilities: Public washrooms at the marina and the Waterton Lakes Visitor Centre, Cafés, restaurants and ice cream shops in the townsite, Tap water in the townsite is safe to drink
Note: As of spring 2026 the Cameron Falls washrooms are closed for repairs, and the start of the Bear's Hump trail has no facilities.
A mountain park with real weather, real wind and real wildlife.
Waterton is home to grizzly and black bears, along with elk, wolves, cougars, bighorn sheep and deer. Encounters are uncommon but possible, especially on trails and in valley bottoms in spring and late summer.
Bear spray is strongly recommended for any hiking here. Buy it at an outdoor shop in Calgary before you travel, or at one of the shops in the townsite, and make sure you know how to use it before you set off.
If you see a bear: stay calm, do not run, back away slowly while talking in a calm steady voice, and keep at least 100 metres between you. Give it the right of way on a trail. Report all sightings to Parks Canada Dispatch on 1-888-927-3367.
Bighorn sheep and deer wander the townsite as though they pay rent. They are still wild animals. Keep at least 30 metres from elk, deer, moose and bighorn sheep, and do not approach, feed or try to photograph yourself with any of them.
During spring calving in May and June, female elk can be particularly aggressive. Feeding any wildlife, including the ground squirrels at the start of a trail, is never acceptable: it harms the animal and it creates a dangerous habit.
International Peace Park, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Biosphere Reserve and International Dark Sky Park. Waterton asks a lot of its visitors because it is small, fragile, and still recovering from the 2017 Kenow wildfire.
Stay on the designated trails. Pack out everything you pack in, and if a bin is full take your rubbish with you rather than leaving it beside the bin. Take nothing home: no wildflowers, rocks, driftwood or berries. Many of the flowers here are provincially rare or grow nowhere else in Alberta.
Drones are prohibited anywhere in the park, with fines up to $25,000.
Ticks are present, particularly in spring and early summer. Check your clothes and yourself after hiking, and remove any promptly.
Tap water in the townsite is safe. On the trail, do not drink from streams or lakes without treating it first: giardia and other waterborne parasites are present in the backcountry.
This is a new route and dates have not opened yet. When they do they will appear here.
Placeholder dates · the real ones come from our booking system
We're Canada's outdoor bus service. Since 2010 we've taken more than 300,000 people to parks and trails without a car. You bring the boots. We handle everything else.
No public transit and no shuttle, until now. That is the whole reason most Albertans default to Banff or Jasper and have never seen this one.
Prairie, then mountains, with nothing in between. It is one of the most dramatic transitions on the continent and a big part of why UNESCO listed it.
505 square kilometres holding over 400 wildflower species across four ecosystems, more than 20 of them found nowhere else in Alberta.
Cafés, ice cream, a marina with kayak and canoe rentals, and the Prince of Wales Hotel on the bluff looking like a set designer put it there.
★★★★★ 4.6/5.0 on Google
This is a great service if you don't have a vehicle or just don't want to drive. I'm so happy to have discovered this. There will definitely be more Parkbus trips in my future!James Taylor Wilson · Happy Parkbus customer
All stops enable guests ample time to explore the destination. This is a highly a good idea trip for those that appreciate spending time in nature minus distractions.OnAir48444 · Tripadvisor · Oct 2025
Speaking from someone who doesn't drive. This is a must!! I highly recommend this!Linda Ann · Facebook · Jun 2024
Parkbus is an official partner of VIA Rail and Parks Canada, helping keep car-free trips to Canada's parks and wild places genuinely affordable.
Factor in the cost of gas, parking and renting a car, it's a lot cheaper than taking a personal vehicle.Toronto Star
Parkbus is a great option for nature lovers, whether it's a day trip or overnight camping getaway.The Globe and Mail
Cancel more than 14 days before departure and you get a 90% refund, with 10% withheld for payment processing. Inside 14 days refunds are not available, except for a medical emergency in the 48 hours before departure, which needs a signed doctor’s note within 14 days of the missed trip and returns 50%. Tickets are transferable: you can change the passenger name up to 48 hours before departure.
If Parkbus cancels a trip, you get a full refund. We decide no later than 48 hours before departure and only on confirmed conditions: the park closed or the park authority asking us to stand down, an evacuation order or alert, an area restriction order, the highway closed, or the trip judged unsafe to run. A forecast is not one of those things, and trips run rain or shine.
Bring boots, a windbreaker and bear spray you know how to use. We handle the highway.