Trip 9/17 to 10/7 to Lake Louis/Icefield/Jasper.

SideHillSoup wrote:


Your routing and ideas are all over the map.
1, first there is no “boondocking in any Canadian National Park period. There is over flow camping and places that you can “camp / park “ over night in the NP’s however they are regulated areas that you can stay at, you just can’t park anyplace you like for the night.
2 that Casino your talking about is about 30 miles from the Banff Park entrance, it is east if Deadman’s Flats, which is east on Canmore…
3. Cranbrook is 3.5 hours south southwest of Banff, there are a lot of places that you can dump your tanks without driving to Cranbrook. As well there are a lot and I mean a lot of campgrounds and our places to camp between Banff and Cranbrook, however because you can’t camp anywhere in a Canadian National Park unless it is a campground ot a permitted area, you won’t find any places to camp legally until south if Radium Hot Springs .
4 you have a campsite at Lake Louise… did anyone tell you that the campsite is only a few hundred yards for the CPR mainline tracks? The trains run past that campground 24/7/365..that means train running near your campsite all night long.

I do hope you have a wonderful time in thebCanadisn Rockies, they are fabulous
Soup.

One of the things we found great about the Canadian NP campgrounds were they were cheap.

We were paying $35CAD/n (~$25USD) for a site with electric.

Last fall we were in Yellowstone and Grand Teton. $83USD/n full hook up in Yellowstone and $50USD/n dry camping at Grand Teton.

pianotuna wrote:
HiTenOC,

What is your routing?

North on the East side by Highwood Pass to the Casino -- South on the West side (forget Golden - it was a test route) by Radium Hot Springs.



Click For Full-Size Image.

StirCrazy wrote:
if it was me, I would stay in Banff for a night or two instead of Lake Louise. there is a bus that you can catch from banff to take you out to lake Louise, and you can spend the day there then take the bus back. This way you can see both banff and lake Louise. if you have the time there are several cheap campgrounds that do not take reservations along the Icefields parkway between banff and jasper that you can do several hikes from.

Check the rules for Lake Louise. We were there in May and you could just drive up and park. No need to mess about with the bus. I wouldn't be surprised if you experience the same thing late September.

Soup,

You forgot to mention there is an electric fence around the campground at Lake Louise.

So what routing would you use?

pianotuna wrote:
HiTenOC,

It would not be unusual to have snow on the ground towards the end of the trip.

There is not much in the way of boondocking in the National Parks in Canada. There is an overflow camping site for Lake Louise.

If you are approaching bamff from the East there is a Casino on the south side of the road before the Park that allows overnight parking for free.

Large vehicles are no longer permitted to go up the mountain to access Lake Louise but there is a bus that comes to the campground.

They sometimes have "high tea" at the Lodge (hotel).

There are some walking trails at Lake Louise.

Overnight parking is permitted at the Columbia Ice Fields parking lot. They do have tourist bus/tracked vehicles for travelling out to the fast receding ice fields.

Take along a bathing suit and visit one of the hot springs. My favourite is https://hotsprings.ca/miette/

It is east of Jasper on the way to Edmonton and there is a campground nearby.

What is your routing?

There is boondocking and free dump site at Cranbrook but that may not be on your path.

I love the pool at Radium Hot springs.

Your routing and ideas are all over the map.
1, first there is no “boondocking in any Canadian National Park period. There is over flow camping and places that you can “camp / park “ over night in the NP’s however they are regulated areas that you can stay at, you just can’t park anyplace you like for the night.
2 that Casino your talking about is about 30 miles from the Banff Park entrance, it is east if Deadman’s Flats, which is east on Canmore…
3. Cranbrook is 3.5 hours south southwest of Banff, there are a lot of places that you can dump your tanks without driving to Cranbrook. As well there are a lot and I mean a lot of campgrounds and our places to camp between Banff and Cranbrook, however because you can’t camp anywhere in a Canadian National Park unless it is a campground ot a permitted area, you won’t find any places to camp legally until south if Radium Hot Springs .
4 you have a campsite at Lake Louise… did anyone tell you that the campsite is only a few hundred yards for the CPR mainline tracks? The trains run past that campground 24/7/365..that means train running near your campsite all night long.

I do hope you have a wonderful time in thebCanadisn Rockies, they are fabulous
Soup.

HiTenOC,

It would not be unusual to have snow on the ground towards the end of the trip. Bring appropriate clothing.

There is an overflow camping site for Lake Louise.

If you are approaching banff from the East there is a Casino on the south side of the road before the Park that allows overnight parking for free.

Large vehicles are no longer permitted to go up the mountain to access Lake Louise but there is a bus that comes to the campground.

They sometimes have "high tea" at the Lodge (hotel).

There are some walking trails at Lake Louise.

Overnight parking is permitted at the Columbia Ice Fields parking lot. They do have tourist bus/tracked vehicles for travelling out to the fast receding ice fields.

Take along a bathing suit and visit one of the hot springs. My favourite is https://hotsprings.ca/miette/

It is east of Jasper on the way to Edmonton and there is a campground nearby.

I love the pool at Radium Hot springs.

Waterton is my favourite park

What is your routing?

My choice would be:

Waterton
Cranbrook
Golden
Lake Louise
Jasper

Here is a Map from freecampsites.net

https://freecampsites.net/#!Waterton,+Alberta~Cranbrook,+British+Columbia~Golden,+British+Columbia~Lake+Louise,+Alberta~Jasper,+Alberta&query=routeSearch&routeDistance=25&routeIndex=0&roundtrip=false

StirCrazy wrote:

if it was me, I would stay in Banff for a night or two instead of Lake Louise. there is a bus that you can catch from banff to take you out to lake Louise, and you can spend the day there then take the bus back. This way you can see both banff and lake Louise. if you have the time there are several cheap campgrounds that do not take reservations along the Icefields parkway between banff and jasper that you can do several hikes from.

Have reservations at Lake Louise hard side. We will do a day trip into the "big city" of Banff. City sites do not turn us on. We like boon-docking.

TenOC wrote:
We are planning a trip 9/17 to 10/7 to Waterton/Highwood/Lake Louis/Icefield/Jasper to hike and see the Fall colors. All information on MUST SEE are welcome.

I have search the internet for lots of information, but would like some FIRST HAND information.

if it was me, I would stay in Banff for a night or two instead of Lake Louise. there is a bus that you can catch from banff to take you out to lake Louise, and you can spend the day there then take the bus back. This way you can see both banff and lake Louise. if you have the time there are several cheap campgrounds that do not take reservations along the Icefields parkway between banff and jasper that you can do several hikes from.

Make sure the places you would stay are still open.
After Labor Day (sorry, Labour Day there!) some stuff begins to shut down. By mid October, your choices are fewer.
It is my favorite time there, especially the roads to Maligne Lake andto Mt Edith Cavell.
Chilly at times!

Moraine Lake and Valley of the 10 Peaks rivals Lake Louise. Peyto Lake and Bow Lake overlooks among many others. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. The waterfall. Spent a quiet night at Waterfowl Lakes CG.