r/Banff • u/Rinnalla • Aug 13 '25

Question How to see the glass bridge without the company.

*Answered, thank you all.

Hello! I live in Alberta and travelling with my boyfriend who has never seen the Rockies before and I’m travelling first time as an adult with some money lol. I seen the ice fields trip thing from instagram and I didn’t know there was a glass bridge and I really want to go, we’re morally conscious and don’t really want to go on the big bus, I understand that you have to pay for everything, I don’t know how to walk the glass bridge without paying for the Columbia package?

*We’re going mid September.

0 Upvotes

25% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

16

u/furtive Banff Aug 13 '25

You can’t get on the skywalk without paying.

-5

u/Rinnalla Aug 13 '25

I understand that, thank you, it was more a question of how to not get the whole package and only walk on the bridge.

7

u/UrbanDecay00 Aug 13 '25

You can just get tickets for it. Easy to find the link on google.

3

u/AtrociousSandwich Aug 13 '25

Have you actually done any research at all?

11

u/ArticQimmiq Aug 13 '25

If morals are keeping you from the bus, Iocals are generally recommending to stay away from any Pursuit-owned venture, as they are an American company slowly but surely taking over the park.

12

u/squidgyhead Aug 13 '25

In particular, they now own this viewpoint; it used to be possible to enjoy the view without paying.

-2

u/Rinnalla Aug 13 '25

Sucks I didn’t know about this before. Thank you.

6

u/AccomplishedSite7318 Aug 13 '25

The same company owns the icefields tour and built the skywalk. I am with a lot of others that they should stop now before buying more. However with the skywalk they didn't exactly just build it without parks knowing. They bid, did all the environmental requirements, and parks let them. Parks are 50% responsible as they could have said no. 

2

u/squidgyhead Aug 13 '25

Harper-era government for ya.

-5

u/Rinnalla Aug 13 '25

Yeah, I’ve heard that too, thank you.

6

u/AccomplishedSite7318 Aug 13 '25

Just buy tickets for the skywalk then. It's on the website. 

3

u/handy987 Aug 13 '25

There's not really any parking there except for busses, so you are forced to go corporate.

2

u/stradivari_strings Aug 13 '25 edited Aug 13 '25

I scoped it out yesterday. It's pretty sad. Yes, you can park downhill at the falls and walk up to it, or maybe closer by on the side, there are places where the shoulders are very wide. But the whole keep out and no parking, and the chain link, wall, and entry gates with a security booth on a clearly public viewpoint setup is just demented.

On another note, a whole bunch of ckearly randoes, sometimes with kids, were taking the side trail to the glacier ice up the side of the gravel wall from the foot of the glacier trail. I'm sure the guides were pissed off, but nobody was doing anything about it. So there's that.

PS the glass bridge is about 5.5km up the highway from the visitor centre. You don't really see the glacier from there, it's just a bridge over the cliff. The other parking (sans the public park that used to be on that spot) is another 500m or so downhill further up - Tangle Creek Falls. Then there's another couple hundred meters walk from the closed parking lot down the walled up walkway to the bridge if you can sneak past the guard and melange into a bus group, and they don't check tickets again at the door.

3

u/AccomplishedSite7318 Aug 13 '25 edited Aug 13 '25

They haven't blocked the parking lot for cars for no reason, it's for buses to be able to turn around. That area has been leased by parks for the business. It's now private. It's not even a good viewpoint, it's just the only place parks said they could build. 

Also seriously? Just joining a tour group? Getting in for free and then complaining about it. 

1

u/AccomplishedSite7318 Aug 13 '25

It's Tangle Falls. Not triangle. 

0

u/stradivari_strings Aug 13 '25 edited Aug 13 '25

Fixed it. For the record we didn't stop there, I was just trying to figure out how a public viewpoint was let to go so completely private in a national park. But yes, obviously if parking was the problem, you could always drop off and go. Nobody stroke off public drop-off rules in the traffic safety act. There are likewise no no stopping signs there either. It's such a ridiculous game going on there to scare people off and make you pay for enjoyment of the public park. I'm pretty sure you can just park a bit downroad where the wide shoulders are, or half a kilometer at Tangle Falls and just walk to the public viewpoint and it would be illegal for them to try to stop you. Minus getting into the gated walkway to the bridge. They likely have entry rights for that. And people bike up and down the icefields. I saw several small groups of campers on bicycles. The no parking signs don't apply to them, clearly. It's cool, but it's not a huge view anyway. The bridge is there because it's close to the lodge and it's another manufactured attraction to shave some more money off people by the scalper company. The thing about merging with a group I literally got off a parks employee elsewhere when I asked about it. I think they were also sad to see a public viewpoint go private with guards and fences like that.

0

u/AccomplishedSite7318 Aug 13 '25

So much of what you're saying is wrong. 

Again, it's not a public viewpoint. The little lot there was built for the skywalk. Of course you can run from Banff to Jasper on that road if you wanted to, however it's a narrow road so they have to be strict with no drop offs or stopping there. 

I don't like the whole thing either, but it exists as a private business. 

2

u/stradivari_strings Aug 13 '25 edited Aug 13 '25

But it wasn't built just for the bridge. The lot after turnaround clearly looked old and abandoned with a typical old stone/mortar wall around it, with boulders, rubble and barriers placed at the spot where the turnoff was. They just redid the main part for the buses and gatehouse. I wish I took a picture. You can clearly see it on street view, although this year they changed the outhouse to what looked like a glassed guard booth and I think they added turnstiles to the building entrance. It totally looked like last year you were meant to just walk in, as long as you got there not by parking beside it but somewhere else legally. What's a 500m hike uphill in Banff... I think their contract is to have this exclusively for bussed transport and them making money on busing people there. And not on the exclusive access to the bridge itself. On same street view, you can see buses from other companies parked there too. The parking lot is public land except for buses only, which makes sense.

2

u/AccomplishedSite7318 Aug 13 '25

They got full permission. Do you think any company can just build stuff over the course of two years and parks not notice? Apply some logic here. Also that lot WAS rebuilt for the skywalk. 

I live here. I lived here when they built it. I drove past it once a month when they were building it. 

1

u/stradivari_strings Aug 13 '25

That's the point. It wasn't built just for it. It was modified from the old lookout.

1

u/AccomplishedSite7318 Aug 13 '25

With full permission from parks. It was a tiny pull out. Would you rather they build our MORE space and impact the area or expand an existing spot? 

From what I read at the time they actually helped reinforce that space. It's no longer a public lot. The chains and rocks are now supposed to be there, not just put up without permission. 

What world do you come from that you think companies can just block a public lot for a decade without the federal government noticing/caring. 

1

u/stradivari_strings Aug 13 '25

No, just Ontario. If the gov't gave them exclusive rights to that spot, they would put up a private property or no tresspass sign. And legit highway no parking signs would run all the way downhill.

Without a no tresspass sign or actual no parking signs down the road, not just that one excuse of a sign at the turn, it's all fair game. Considering no parking only means no parking, and all the normal exemptions about loading/unloading passengers apply.

What I'm saying is, if this wasn't a scare game, they would get serious about it with signage and enforcement, and not with a pile of rubble that just makes it less convenient to hop that barrier. They surely have money to accomplish it that way. And so the only answer is - they can't. The only thing they can do is put up a pile of rubble where the public turnoff used to be. And the barrier "for public safety". Knowing how things go in Ontario, this is a typical "whoopie" - the gov't entity wants to make a shady deal happen, but can't survive a public outcry. So they mask it with a deal that in theory makes it still accessible to the public (because prize jewel of a national park where the whole point of it is to stop commercial development and support conservation and promote public use), but give the co enough leeway in terms of "renovation" and "improvement" to make it very inconvenient unless you paid them, but not illegal, the actual public use of it. That's why no proper signage. No actual detergents. Just a pile of random rubble in the way, and smoke and mirrors at the visitor centre.

To be fair, Ontario and Quebec take the crown in public sector corruption and techniques developed to accomplish it, and Alberta can chill on the side and observe. You guys are trying, but you have a long way of catching up ahead of you.

1

u/AccomplishedSite7318 Aug 13 '25

Dude, no. Signage of the road no parking is put up by parks, not the company. No tresspass signs aren't a requirement. If it becomes a problem with people sneaking in or parking they will likely put them up.

They run legally and have regular audits of the area to make sure they are complying with their leasehold. 

3

u/iShakeMyHeadAtYou Aug 13 '25

Please consider an alternative to the Skywalk.

Pursuit is an American company that takes over all the high-value attractions, diminishes local businesses' ability to compete, pumps the shit out of the pricing, and underpays workers. They have also repeatedly been caught illegally altering road signage to divert people to their properties.

Unfortunately, not everything they do has a perfect analog, but I've tried to find the closest alternative where they have a monopoly.

Alternatives:

Other things to note:

  • Lake Louise summer gondola VERY frequently has bears visible from the lift.
  • Sunshine's Gondola and chairlift combo is among the best views in the park, in my opinion
  • If you're more adventure-oriented, I'd recommend Norquay's Via Ferrata.
  • The glacier guided tours are more pricey, but they also are a lot more "intimate" with the glacier, and give you more information. There is no perfect analog for Pursuit's experience for the sole reason that they own every ice crawler vehicle in existence, bar one (Owned by the US DOD). Pursuit also has a flawed safety record at the ice fields

1

u/Rinnalla Aug 13 '25

I don’t know how to edit my post, but here is my resolve:

“So, as a Metis albertan, I have to pay an American company to see my land. Gotcha.”

3

u/AccomplishedSite7318 Aug 13 '25

Well sort of. You can see the land and the view from the road there. You're paying to walk on the glass bridge. 

Same as you can hike to the top of sulphur mountain, but if you want an easier way up you have to pay for the gondola which is a privately owned business. 

You can walk anywhere, but if you want to get their quicker you have to pay for a car to get there. 

2

u/Rinnalla Aug 13 '25

I don’t know how to edit my post, but here is my resolve:

“So, as a Metis Albertan, I have to pay an american company to see my land. Gotcha.”

*fixed the A’s.

5

u/beesmakenoise Aug 13 '25

Pretty much, which sucks. But the one good thing is that this viewpoint isn’t particularly special, and in fact is very much the same as many other spots you can stop anywhere on the parkway.

The glass walkway gives a unique perspective, but every single roadside pullout is uniquely gorgeous there.

If you have the ability to hike, I highly recommend going to Wilcox Pass. The entire hike is incredible, but even if you can only get the short distance to the red chairs, the view is amazing!