Photo: Parks Canada

A popular Rocky Mountain resort in Banff National Park is being cleared of guests so that crews can fight a wildfire raging in the nearby backcountry.

Sunshine Village, a ski hill on the Alberta-B.C. boundary that offers summer hiking, is about 2 1/2 kilometres from the flames.

Sunshine spokeswoman Kendra Scurfield says about 150 people are staying at the resort's hotel and they'll have to leave by midday Friday.

Rick Kubian with Parks Canada says firefighters are going to be using the property as a staging area to fight the blaze, which is spreading further into remote and rugged terrain.

He says the area will be busy with heavy equipment and helicopters and the air could get more smoky, so it's safer if there are no guests around.

The Verdant Creek wildfire has spread over about 25 to 30 square kilometres in Kootenay National Park and Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park in British Columbia on the Alberta boundary.