Banff National park this summer?

** Clicky **

Actually, yes. We want to camp in Banff and all along the Canadian Rockies. Thanks for the heads up. Sadly, we have to wait a couple months before we know our schedule to be sure we have the time off. If there's no spaces available, we will stay in the states.

If you want to see the Rockies in Canada this summer, I would plan for private or provincial parks. The national parks will be an absolute disaster.

We plan to go in September after the rush is over.

I agree, good luck this year for Canada's National Parks, got my free passes for the GOV and prob never be able to use them

I just shake my head about the excitement over saving the price of 1/3 of a tank of fuel for my rig, and being part of a crowd as a result. We're only going to one NP this year, Long Beach, and that's in early May. The Rockies in particular is the place to avoid this year.

MACHZER wrote:
I agree, good luck this year for Canada's National Parks, got my free passes for the GOV and prob never be able to use them

X2

I have heard that the reservation campgrounds in Banff and Jasper are all full for the entire season all ready.
The only sites that are available are the non reservable sites . September is not a slow month as some would believe, less kids yes, but those parks are still busy that time of year.
If I were going to camp there any time in 2017 I would be looking on line now to try and find reservation site and if you do find something, that's when you should be planing your trip.
If not you will most likely be having to stay outside the parks and drive in and out daily.
Free parks passes are going to make those parks around Banff and Jasper it more of a gong show than usual.
Soup.

Unfortunately, we'll be there right over the Canada Day and the US 4th of July holiday. It's when we could make it work. We already have reservations for Johnston Canyon CG in Banff and Wapiti in Jasper. Having seen many of the popular "main" attractions, we'll be focusing on taking trails that are less well know. But think of it this way. In the summer, every camping spot is probably taken every day in a "normal" year, as is every motel room. There may be a lot of early reservation activity this year, but except for the non-reservable sites, there's not many places for people to stay. So they'll have to find someplace outside the park and drive in every day.

So just how early do you think the non-resevable sites fill before July 1? Can you imagine heading into the park on Friday, June 30th and hoping to find a spot that weekend?

We have our new passports, our entry pass to Canadian National Parks, and our reservation for Banff, July 27-August 1.

This will be our first RV trip to the Canadian Rockies--and, no doubt, our last, (I will be 85 in October,) but we are looking forward to it. We made our reservations over a month ago, and glad that we did. We knew nothing about the 150 anniversary or the free entry. We had made our plans and requested reservations before we knew anything about those special arrangements.

We are continuing to make reservations for the places we will visit on the way up to Banff and those on the way back.

I wish I could wave my magic wand and ensure that all campers and visiters to Banff, Jasper, Yoho,Kootenay, Glacier(Canada) ,Waterton NPS this summer will get their wish of the perfect camp site every night during their stay for 2017. It ain't gonna happen. But here are a few observations and suggestions taken from last summers(2016) camping and hiking trips to some of these parks and it was the busiest summer I have ever seen.

1) Many of these campgrounds allowed for overflow campers virtually doubling the amount of groups. IE: Mosquito Creek= 32 regular sites with campfire ring. When we were there, the attendants were allowing campers along the creek, by the cook shack, and all around the grass circle where the registration was when all of the other regular sites were taken. This was observed at Monarch(Yoho) and Waterfowl Lakes CG and I am sure other CG in the NPs were practicing this also.

2) We were at Tunnel Mountain CG just after Labour Day(first weekend in September). All of the kids had gone to school and the place was almost deserted. September is a great month to see the Parks as is June. This was at the dry camping area. Full hook-ups might have been busier.

3) Pospone the trip to the NPs for another time and go visit some of the over 1000 Provincial Parks in British Columbia. Most of them especial further north will have plenty of campsites available. BC with an area of 944,735 Km2 makes America's second largest state(Texas) with an area of 695,662 Km2 look almost puny. So there is lots of area to explore.

Think about it.

Dave