What you need to know before visiting Banff this summer

I'm Dave Gilson in Banff National Park. Officials here say the park's summer visitor season officially kicked off over the May long weekend. Now if you're planning on coming out here in the weeks and months ahead, they're offering up some tips to help enhance your park experience and to help you have a safe visit. Firstly, I would say plan ahead so that you can avoid disappointment when you come to Banff National Park. And really what I mean by that is make those reservations for transit, for shuttles, for your attractions, before you come to the park. So make those well in advance and then when you get here you're not going to be disappointed. You'll be able to get to your desired locations or to see the things that you want to see when you get here. And then once you're here, if you can park your car, if you come by your personal vehicle, park your car once and take transit. There's lots of options. You can take Rome Public Transit, there's Parks Canada shuttles in the Lake Louise area, as well as many commercial providers that can get you where you want to go and enjoy a hassle-free experience once you're here in Banff. Secondly, the one thing that you can do to help us out here with Parks Canada is to make sure that you're leaving no trace when you're here. And some of those things would include making sure any garbage is secure, that you take it with you or you put it in a wildlife-proof bin. The other piece would be safe wildlife viewing. When you're here, one of the things we know people want to see is that wildlife. It's part of what makes this place so special, but we need to give them their space. And so stay at a distance, give them their space, view them from your vehicle if possible, slow down, but then move on and give them their space. And lastly, depending on the fire situation that we're having this summer, really we want to make sure that people are looking after their campfires. We want to make sure that you fully extinguish it when you leave, and what that means is soak it, stir it, soak it, and make sure that it's cool to the touch before you leave it so we're not having any potential issues with a fire escaping a fire ring. Officials are also asking people to help stop the spread of aquatic invasive species. That includes complying with Clean, Drain, Dry and Certify requirements when hitting lakes and rivers this summer. More information can be found on the park's website. Dave Gilson, CBC News, Banff National Park.