Banff National Park offers the best stargazing experience of all national parks in Canada, scoring a 9.65/10, according to a study conducted by Ontario Casinos. Banff received a two on the Bortle scale, indicating high quality of the night sky for the area, according to the study. Ontario Casinos said this classifies Banff as a typical truly dark site, which means there is a good chance of witnessing many celestial treasures, including the Milky Way. It had a fantastic average rating of 4.9/5 on Google. Additionally, it had the greatest number of stargazing Instagram posts at 610, with hashtags such as #stargazing and #astrophotography. Ontario Casinos said Glacier National Park came in second place (9.56/10). It said Glacier had a Google score close to Banff (4.8/5). Jasper National Park finished in third place (9.03). Jasper is the second largest dark sky preserve in the world, having a 0.180 microcandela per millimetre. After Jasper was Yoho National Park (8.44). This was followed by Gros Morne National Park (8.39), Kejimkujik National Park (8.33) and Grasslands and Pukaskwa National Park (8.31). While Canada’s national parks offer perfect conditions for stargazing, they promise plenty of breathtaking views during the daytime. Ontario Casinos said Glacier ranks the most picturesque of all according to social media, with 443.1 million impressions. These impressions come from 1.1 million Instagram posts and 442 million TikTok views. After Glacier was Banff (311.7 million). This was followed by Jasper (63.8 million), Yoho (35.3 million) and Waterton Lakes National Park (4.6 million). Ontario Casinos created an index ranking Canada’s national parks based on Google review score, number of stargazing-related hashtags on Instagram, Sky Quality Meter, brightness, artificial brightness, and Bortle score. The number of Instagram posts and TikTok views were recorded for each park’s hashtag to reveal the most picturesque.
