Charlene, I am so old that I can remember staying at the old Tunnel Mountain hostel in Banff when it was just some temporary platform tents. I will be doing my annual trip to Jasper and Banff next week and I will have the whole road to myself because there's already snow up there. The off-season on the Icefields Parkway is within my price range these days.
I just got back from the Icefields Parkway of the north and it was dirt cheap - even cheaper than the Banff Jasper Parkway in the olden days:
The Dempster Parkway
It's a bit muddier than the Icefields Parkway but it's much less expensive and less crowded with cyclists.