Jackson, WY to Banaff and beyond

[Floridafrances]

I've convinced my husband to extend our 2019 trip. Instead of heading back to Florida after putting our oldest grandson on a plane for home post Yellowstone and Tetons, we're going to go up to Banff and Jasper. His flight leaves Jackson around 8 am and we'll head out after that. Not sure the best route to take and what roads to avoid.

I know I need to get on reservations for these new parks, ASAP. Hope to start on that tomorrow.

My husband's father had an aircraft company that built the plane Byrd flew at the South Pole. Three of the remaining planes are in museums in Calgary and Edmonton. I figure we can go through Edmonton after we leave Jasper. Is Calgary too far for a day trip from Banff? If so, I guess we'd need to go to Calgary first.

Not sure of the best route to take back to the Florida panhandle from Edmonton area.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Safe travels.

[southernsky]

Floridafrances sent you a private msg.

[JKJavelin]

To all interested: You need to buy a park pass to enter the parks and they have 20% off the Discovery Pass til the end of the year. I happened to see this on the 31st of last year and jumped on it. Normally $136, now $109 Canadian (around $81 American).
Discovery Pass

[Floridafrances]

Thanks for the replies and suggestions.

southernsky, where were you coming from? We'll be leaving from Jackson.

Am I correct in thinking we'd be better off to go west into Idaho to get to I-15 rather than retrace our route back through the Tetons and Yellowstone. If I'd have known we'd be going on to Canada, I'd have reversed this part of the trip. Could have flown the grandson into Jackson and out of Bozeman. Might look into doing that anyway. The fees to change his flights (if I can) would probably be about the same as the extra gas.

[romore]

Banff to Calgary is 75 miles on a four lane highway, Edmonton to Calgary 180.

[southernsky]

We crossed the boarder on I-15 outside of Shelby MT. Crossing was fast and easy, answering only the questions asked and offer no more. Leave guns and ammo at home. Once crossing the boarder we took HWY 4,3,2 into Calgary. Out of Calgary HWY 1 takes you into Banff. As JKJavelin said make reservations to Tunnel Mountain (full hookups) on the first day reservations open for a specific day. The ride from Banff to Jasper on HWY 93 (Icefield Parkway) is an awesome ride, easily done with your rig. We stayed in Hinton at the KOA. Your going to need two park passes, one for you and one for husband. While there last June the fuel prices were high. From Jasper we went to Radium Hot Springs BC on HWY 93 and crossed back into USA in Roosville BC. Beautiful area a trip of a lifetime, enjoy.

[JKJavelin]

Reservations for Banff for next year open on Jan. 9th. Tunnel Mountain Trailer Court is generally regarded as the best place to stay and I agree (Plus has full hookups!). We went in July this year and got a site on the first day you could make reservations, but website traffic was heavy and kinda slow. Familiarize yourself with their website and campground layout so you can act quick. The first couple of campsites I chose were already gone by the time I clicked on them. We ended up with #307 which was nice with more seclusion (greenery) compared with the other (East) end of the campground. But it's easier to view the surrounding mountains from the more open Eastern end sites.
Jasper reservations open on Jan. 8th next year. We stayed at Whistlers campground, the largest campground in the park. The bad news is that Whistlers will be closed for all of 2019 for renovations, so getting a reservation may not be easy for Jasper either.
JK

[jcsb]

If you have not traveled to Canada, I suggest you look at the Canada/Alaska Forum.

There are a lot of good info on what to and not due crossing the border both ways.

Also a lot of help while traveling in Canada.