Lake Louise trailer park or Icefield parking lot.

[TenOC]

Hopefully next year with the coronavirus vaccine the Canadian - US border will be open for travel. If so, we are planning a trip in early June to see the Canadian Rockies. We like to boondocks or dry camp and sightsee mother nature and hike. The tourist traps in a town have no interest to us. So the crowded campgrounds in the towns of Banff or Lake Louise are less than desirable for us. We had wanted to camp at Kicking Horse campground, but it does not open until a couple weeks after our trip .


We have narrowed our selection to two options, camp at Lake Louise trailer park campground or dry camp at the Icefield parking lot. The advantage of Lake Louise is that it is somewhat centrally located for day trips both north and south. In addition we will have electricity and can make reservations. The disadvantage as I understand it you're very close to your neighbor; however, with the virus there may be some distance between the campsites if they only operate at about 50%.


The advantage of the Icefield parking lot is less crowds. We are self-contained with a generator and can dry camp for about a week. The disadvantage is that it is somewhat north of Lake Louise which makes travel to the southern part of the National Park a longer distance.

Your thoughts and comments and other options are very welcome. Thank you.

[Pipeman]

I'll just throw my 42 cents worth in here. Depending on the border being open, Waterton Lakes National Park, townsite campground. Our absolute favourite place to go.There are other campgrounds in the park also. Been to Banff, Icefields, Jasper. Waterton is our favourite place to go. Not overcrowded. Take the boat ride on Waterton Lake into Montana and back. Go up to Red Rock Canyon and you might have sheep surround your vehicle to,lick your wheel wells. I don't know why they did. Couldn't have been for salt as it was in the summer. Take a drive up to Cameron Lake. As far as we are concerned, it rivals Lake Louise and hardly any big crowds. If you drive slowly and get out of the way of the younger generation who want to speed to get to these places you will probably see some black bears, cinnamon black bears and maybe if you're really lucky, like us, you might see a white black bear. Maybe even a grizzly. Since the fire in the park, Red Rock Canyon and Cameron Lake roads have been shut down for major repairs and improvements. They may be open by the time the summer of 2021 rolls around. Reservations go really fast when the park opens them up. When you drive around in the park, you are right in the mountains, close up and beautiful. The Prince of Wales Hotel is an old beautiful Hotel and you might want to go in for high tea with bagpipes playing etc. Did I say the Park is our favourite place to go to. It's a great place to start and then head up north to Banff and Jasper. Ok I think I put in 50 cents worth. Something to think about. Stay safe and stay calm in this time of COVID.

[canadafan]

OK, you don't want to stay at the busy town campgrounds, so here goes:

Icefield can live up to it's name, snowing here on mid summers day in 2019! It's really just a paved parking lot.

Between Banff and Lake Louise there are three campgrounds on the Bow Valley Parkway but bear in mind the railway runs close to all of these, as it does at Lake Louise. There are up to 30 trains a day, some up to 3Km long taking up to 3 or 4 minutes to rumble by!

Johnston Canyon, gets very busy, maximum 27 foot.
Castle Mountain, probably the furthest from the railway but sites will not take your rig.
Protection Mountain, where the closest site to the railway is about 140M, furthest about 450M, will take your rig and probably your best bet.

Lake Louise, railway is REAL close. the nearest site is only about 60M away so very noisy and busy.

Take a look at Silverhorn Creek, it is 50km north of Lake Louise on the Icefields Parkway. It used to be an overflow CG but I believe that it has been recently upgraded. No problem with your rig and no railway here

Another option is Monarch in YOHO NP. this is an open type CG with no facilities. It is next to Kicking Horse and is used as a kind of overflow CG but it has, in the past, often opened earlier than Kicking Horse, check it out, No problems with your rig here. You can view it in street view on Google Maps.

Good luck
Trevor

[profdant139]

Pianotuna, I wish I could claim credit. But what you see is what was spread out in front of us -- I held the camera and clicked the button.

I do get credit, though, for forcing myself out of a warm bed to watch the sunrise from our campsite. I have missed many a wonderful sunrise (especially in cold weather) due to that dreaded malady, "Acute Blanket Entrapment." 😉

We have a better track record at sunset-time, which conveniently happens during Recreational Beverage Hour.

[pianotuna]

Amazing pictures profdant139. Thanks for sharing them.

[profdant139]

Here's a blog link that may be of some interest -- it'll get you to several other useful posts:

Peter Lougheed and other posts

And here's a little something to whet your appetite -- sunrise at Peter Lougheed:


Click For Full-Size Image.

[profdant139]

TenOC, lots of good advice already posted. Here is my two cents: stay for a while in the Banff/Lake Louise area, and then relocate to the Icefields, and then to Jasper.

Maybe even start with some time at Peter Lougheed Provincial Park.

Spend as much time in the Canadian Rockies as you can. You will be amazed.

"Commuting" on Icefields Parkway is not a great option -- there is often a fair amount of traffic. The road is slow -- 45 mph is posted, and most folks go slower than that because they slow down for the views, which are incredible. So it is better to hopscotch your campsites along the park system, rather than commuting, in my opinion.

The only downside of the Lake Louise campground is the train noise all night long. We had to leave sooner than we wanted to because we could not sleep.

Although we are devoted boondockers, none of the campgrounds in Canada seemed crowded to us. The sites are well spaced -- lots of trees.

If you have the time, add Yoho to your itinerary.

At the risk of repeating myself, the whole Banff/Icefields/Jasper area is world class -- probably the greatest place we have ever visited in fifteen years of adventure travel. And it is a long drive to get there. So if at all possible, devote a long time to this part of your trip.

[StirCrazy]

pianotuna wrote:


BC Provincial Campgrounds are wonderful--but do NOT have power.

actualy lots of them do, and more are being retrofitted every day.

there is a brand new one in the revelstoke area, just opened this summer that looks like it will be a nice one.

Steve

[StirCrazy]

pianotuna wrote:
TenOC,


There are two gas stations at Lake Louise. The Petrocan is, in my experience ALWAYS cheaper for fuel. If you are going farther west, fill to the gills as fuel costs much more in B.C.

depends where your going, its usaly cheeper by the time you hit Kamloops but ya in between its more. if your tank is big enough fill up in Calgary.

Steve

[pianotuna]

The Provincial Campgrounds I have stayed at in that area did not have power.

[SideHillSoup]

pianotuna wrote:


BC Provincial Campgrounds are wonderful--but do NOT have power.

Incorrect, some BC Provincial Park campgrounds do have limited sites with power. You will have to check the BC Parks websites to find out which campgrounds have power hookups.

BC Parks

Soup.

[TUCQUALA]

We were there late Sept '15. Only one loop was open, the largest one to the south of the parkway. Campsite number was in the 90's!! Don't remember exact number, maybe 95 or 97. Good length, large site. Only negative was the loop is nearest the rail tracks, but wasn't that bad!! That loop was pretty easy to navigate, only one tight spot where trees on opposite sides of road needed to be watched closely. Good dump station, water.

Campground info site states 27ft, but we didn't get any flack or comments from the attendants entering or during 2 day stay. Canyon is a wonderful hike, even in a cold rain!!!

[BB_TX]

Take a slow drive on 1A between Banff and Lake Louise and you might see one of these guys. :B

[TenOC]

TUCQUALA wrote:
Went in and camped in a 34+ ft travel trailer. Didn't have any problems, except snow!!

TUCQUALA, Where did you camp?

[TUCQUALA]

Went in and camped in a 34+ ft travel trailer. Didn't have any problems, except snow!!