A method and apparatus for providing a load balanced circuit path between a source node and a destination node within a SONET ring comprising a plurality of nodes and connected by links by iteratively selecting facilities within a link that have bandwidth utilization levels that are below a threshold level. In an alternative embodiment, an alternate path is selected in case facilities meeting the threshold level can not be found. The threshold level is changed incrementally if facilities and links within the first path and/or alternate path do not meet the threshold levels.