How to plan one week in the Canadian Rockies

If you like to dry camp, you might want two try the Big Horn Dam area. It's at the east end of Abraham Lake. Stayed there for 2 and a half weeks this past summer. Try to get in there in the middle of the week as it's very popular for dry camping and ATV riding. Nothing there but trees, the lake and Nellie the black bear. If you want it, you bring it. You can dump in Nordegg which you pass on the way to Saskatchewan Crossing.

We spent several weeks in that area four years ago -- this is the first of several posts that might be helpful. Mostly we were hiking, but there are some things that still could be useful. Good luck!


Blog post -- Canadian Rockies

We did three hot springs-Radium, Banff and Miette. Some people think they are no more than glorified pools. I disagree. You don't get these views in most pools! Besides, after a day of hiking, walking, horseback riding or even just being in the car they are unbeatable!

We also prefer Jasper. Banff is a little more 'uppity'. :) There are some nice easy trails and we stay in Whistlers. If your knees aren't what they used to be definitely bring your swimsuit along and try the hot springs around the area. It feels sooooo good. We can spend hours there.

Make sure you travel the whole Parkway though and stay at least a couple days at Banff to tour that area. Radium Hot Springs near Banff is very nice on 93/95.

Do a side drive to Kicking Horse on Hwy 1 toward Golden. The waters are beautiful in color and wild-looking.

You can easily spend more than a week!!

Wow, great tips and pics, DirtyOil! Many thanks.

kknowlton wrote:
It's my understanding that one can book national park CGs starting in January, is that correct?

That is correct, start here https://reservation.pc.gc.ca/ChooseLanguage.aspx reservations for summer 2017 start Jan 1, 2017. Get in fast as CG fill up fast. For those that would rather hit Jasper via Columbia Icefields, I suggest going north through Calgary, AB to Red Deer, AB (Hwy 2) then west on Hwy 11 through Rocky Mountain House to Saskatchewan Crossing then north to the icefields and Jasper, the most scenic route of them all. Takes you by Lake Abraham (man made part of the Ram river Dam).





When in Jasper head up to Mt Edith Cavell, new road and will take you up to the site with parking. Beautiful views, easy access ( I know this as we took Mom in-law up there bad knees, quad bypass...its all about taking your time and enjoying the scenery, yeah I know mother in-law almost as bad as driving a Ford! ;)).

The Athabasca falls, easy walk from parking lot. Sunwapta falls and canyon also nice. Pyramid and Patricia lakes nice drive great views. Also Moraine lake-take a cruise on the lake.

We've gone there many times over the years, with and without RV's, most recently for a week last month. Here's my two cents:

Jasper is our favorite, as Banff is just too crowded and commercial now. There are plenty of scenic drives/hikes out of Jasper. Some great restauants in Jasper, too.
Lake Louise is wonderful. For a couple of hours, as it is jammed with day-tourists in buses.
Provincial CG's were usually better than the Federal ones. Mt Robson is very nice. Wapiti at Jasper has a great location, but it's so heavily used that it's in pretty sad shape now, and they charge extra for about everything.

Lake Louise CG on the other hand was really nice, especially if they put you on the "tent" side.

Canmore has some nice CG's just east of Banff -- Bow River CG in particular.

Most all those CG's can be booked online, and they also hold some spots for drive-ups.

More good advice!

To answser those who were asking, we are two seniors (no kids along) and enjoy going to ranger talks, visitor centers and museums to learn about an area, and have had fun at factory tours (such as the Cabot Cheese factory in Vermont). Eat lunch out about once a week during our long road trips, so we seek out fun places but mostly cook in the RV

Great scenery appeals so we plan our itineraries around national and state parks, forests, etc. and do some hiking. Our knees and other joints aren't what they used to be, so we like the easier trails. Whenever possible, we stay inside the parks, so are willing to dry camp sometimes.

No desire to shop and accumulate stuff all over again. We browse a little if we want to get a tee shirt or small gift typical of the area to take home to family or neighbors.

Someone else who is going next year asked about whether summer campsite booking window opens in January 2017 and yes, that is what the Parks Canada web site says.

You have already received lots of good advice. Your rig is small enough that you can fit into the unserviced campgrounds so I would plan at least a night or two along the Icefields parkway in places like Waterfowl lakes campground or Wilcox creek campground. Lovely places with lots of short walks and or hikes to do. The one issue is weather as it cam be pretty miserable in the unserviced campgrounds if it is cloudy with rain or snow (possible in any month). Leave some flexibility in your plans if possible.

what kind of tourist are you, I grew up going to both jasper and Banff. they are both tourist areas but jasper is a little more low keyed, having said that both are great. what you have to decide is how long do you want to spend in the town and how long out of the town. you can spend two days walking around looking at all the little shops downtown Banff and doing the gondola and sulphur mountain hot springs, Jasper I find there is less tourist things to do but it is a nice little town and you can spend a day downtown and a day around town. ice field parkway is nice, what I did with the kids is we camped in Banff for 4 days and spent a day doing the sights on the lower half of the parkway, then we drove up to jasper and send a day on the upper half of the parkway and 2 days in the jasper area.

if you want you can also spend a day driving up to Lake Louise (very nice lake) and there are lots of lakes and hiking in the area which all add time.