Campgrounds in Jasper and Banff

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by gabeck

Wow .... that is an awesome photo !!! ..... but .... um ....how come Lisa is doing all the work ?

Somebody had to take photos.

[Jrn56]

We've been doing our research and fine-tuning our plans somewhat. It looks like we will be in the Jasper/Banff area from 9/10 - 9/17 and our first camping spot will be at Whistler's for 2-3 nights, then Wilcox Creek for 2-3 nights, then somewhere around Lake Louise for 2-3 nights. It seems that the following campgrounds should still be open 9/15-9/17 - Mosquito Creek, Lake Louise, Johnston Canyon, Two Jack Lake and Kicking Horse in Yoho. Distances are all pretty comparable to what we're thinking of doing. I was leaning towards Lake Louise campground but then read some not so favorable reviews. Any suggestions? Also, from all the reading I've been doing, I get the sense we might not need to have reservations ahead of time for mid-September which will allow us to be more flexible with how long we actually stay at each place once we get there! Any thoughts on that would be greatly appreciated too!

Brenda

[gabeck]

Hi ,
After school starts( Sept 3) one doesn't need to worry about reserving for most places , however Whistlers is one of the few I would reserve . We seem to get a lot of European tourists - they travel in Cruise America or Canadream and they all want to go to Jasper . Although we do live in Calgary we've not camped in L.Louise , Tunnel Mountain in Banff is huge , a good campground and don't think it ever fills in Sept . ( except possibly the long weekend - Labour day- but haven't heard it happen ) . Louise and Banff are not far apart , and there is the Johnston Canyon in between - a very worthwhile walk/hike .

[Jrn56]

Thanks gabeck. Maybe we'll reserve the first two nights in Whistler's and go from there. For the Banff area, I did look at Tunnel Mountain but prefer to not be that close into town. I'll keep that one in my back pocket though in case we are out of other options. The Johnston Canyon Ink Pot hikes is one of the ones we want to do!

[Kærnehuset]

Hi there, We stayed at Lake Louise last year, it was okay, but not really our style, again, right in town. I would recommend Yoho over Lake Louise, but each to their own. This September, we will be staying in Yoho at Kicking Horse and then move up to Wilcox and then on to Jasper. We will be there sometime after Sept. 15 th, so we may run into you somewhere along the road or trails. Reservations should not be needed in September as it is a bit quieter with the kids back in school. We did not need any last year.

Regards

Scott

[JohnB]

Last year we went camping in Kananaskis (not far from Banff area) on Sept. 21. We thought we would have no problems getting a camp site. We got there late Friday night and the placed was packed. We got the second last site available.

I think it was a bit of an anomaly. Weather in southern Alberta was setting records for warmth and sunshine and it is so close to Calgary. I guess everyone wanted one more weekend of camping? We were talking with the camp attendant and they were really surprised at the weekend demand. Part of the camp site had already been closed down for the season. They had to re-open that section due to the heavy weekend demand.

The year before we were there on the Labour Day long weekend (two weeks earlier) and stayed on afterwards. We pretty well had the place to ourselves as school was back in session. The weather was really great during the day but the evenings got a bit cool with morning temperatures right at the freezing level. We had a great time biking and hiking with no crowds and no mosquitoes. Shaking the frost off the tent zipper in the morning was something different and the mountains being so high it takes a while for the sun to rise above them.

Shows you just never can tell. I think if you did not arrive at a camp ground on a Friday night or Saturday you would have no problems securing a site.