Review: Whistlers Campground, Jasper National Park

Oh Lucerne campground, you failed us

Location: 10 minutes south of Town of Jasper
Website:  Parks Canada
Map: Google or Parks Canada (Campground)
Camping Facilities: Car Camping (Backcountry in the park)
Grade: D
Stargazing: Low light pollution, but obstructed by trees and difficult to find clearings; apparently Marmot Meadows is your best bet
Summary: Poor service, loops from hell, no privacy, dense sites, but somehow still attracts wildlife.
Thoughts: So you've just spent the day exploring Mt. Robson and you want to set yourself up for a day of enjoying Jasper National Park, just a little ways down the road.  Well, the best bet would seem to be Lucerne campground at the eastern border of Mt. Robson Provincial Park.  The town of Jasper is just a few km east of it and you can wake up as late as 9am and still be on a beautiful trail by noon.  That was our plan but it was not meant to by on that mid September day as the Lucerne campground had seen its last camper of the year and had been gated up for the season.  The next option was to carry on to Jasper National Park itself. The first surprise to us (though it shouldn't have been, as this is the case in Bruce Peninsula National Park as well) was the day use fee.  Not only were were required to pay for camping, but you had to pay $19.60 (per family, the same cost as two adult entry fees) simply to breathe the air in the park.  So if you and your family are sleeping in a camper at Whistlers campground and plan on having a fire, the stay in a serviced site will cost you $66.60 (equal to a night's stay in the house of Hades), which strikes me as a touch steep.

Car Camping at Whistlers Campground
- where privacy is for RVs only

It was already 9 pm by the time we arrived at the gate, we didn't really feel that our $20 was well spent. But alas, thems the rules and the parks system is underfunded.  For those who plan on spending longer than 7 days in any given 12 month period, the best bet is the national parks annual pass; it pays for itself after 7th day or part thereof. We figured it was worth it after the fact and the park staff kindly allowed us to apply previously paid entry fees to annual pass.

Once at the campground entrance (a 20 minute drive from the park entrance checkpoint), we had to the pay our camping fee: $26.40 per night; $35.40 if you want to have a fire...see rant below.  It was no small sum considering that we'd just gotten used to paying BC's low, low camp fees of between $16-21 per night per group.  Again, we just nodded and accepted it, given the state of underfunding that our national parks find themselves (though they're still in much better shape than our American cousins). The agreeable mood we were in was pushed aside by a grumpy replacement upon our arrival at the wood lot (where you pick up all that wonderful unlimited wood you just purchased at the gate).  The wood lot was nearly picked clean, with remaining wood either being spindly kindling or large blocks of wood that would have been stubborn to ignite (I kid you not, there were 1 foot cubed blocks!). As well, much of the wood was half buried within the cold, wet earth, so you needed to pry it out and shake it off before use.  It was a bit ridiculous. The next day, when we went to renew our permit, we opted to just use our own wood (we'd purchased some in BC) but were told that if you burn any wood in the park, you had to pay the $8.80 fee (irrespective if the wood was provided by the park).  It's not a huge deal, but come on.  The payments to the park system were beginning to feel more and more like charitable donations.  

How many neighboring campsites can you spot?

Finally came time to pull into the site itself.  It was dark at this point, so we couldn't really get a grasp of the layout, but the sites were extremely close together, even those in adjacent loops. Heck, even the sites adjacent to the adjacent loops were pretty darn close to us.  Hence, loops from hell.  Ordinarily loops are arranged outwards from the access road (see here), but some genius had decided the campground could much denser if the access road was actually a ring road around the campsites.  So in the end, you have sites coming from every direction (you'll see what I mean by looking at the campground map).  As if car camping wasn't bad enough, this was just the worst density I had seen (but not the worst I would see on my trip out west).  And on top of that, there is no understorey to speak of, so don't expect any privacy other than inside your tent.  As well, what is the deal with these picnic fire pits instead of an in-ground proper fire pit?  Does anybody what to sit around this little doo-dad and chat over burning swizzle sticks at night?  Come on, man!  One has to wonder if it's their way of limiting how much wood you use - I'm all for conservation guys, but don't treat campers like infants. There are better ways to control how firewood is consumed. 

Given that we'd paid to stay in a campground with showers, we thought that we'd make use of them.  While not a totally wretch-inducing, skin-crawling experience, it was not one that I would like to repeat day after day.  While they were as clean as you can expect for a campground shower, a few stalls were broken and a lot of the other campers were kind of creeping me out - one guy "accidentally" forgot to lock his stall, as well as "accidentally" leaving the shower curtain open while standing around buck naked (lure much, fella?), while another dude was talking (well, more babbling than talking) to himself rather loudly for the duration of my time in the shower facility.  Now I know that Parks Canada can't screen for weirdos at the gate, but I kinda wish they could.  

A rutting elk in Jasper National Park

A comment about the Parks Canada website: it's mostly terrible.  Campground maps are nearly non-existent, and some images, such as Jasper park map, are of terrible resolution.  Guys, I know the budget is suffering, but this is supposed to be a world-class nature attraction.  

A warning; Sept-Oct is Elk rutting season, so you need to be prudent about how approach elk.  There were plenty of buggling elk roaming the campground (which the park staff try to control, and I think they do as good a job as they can), so be sure to accompany your children on those late night trips to the washroom.


 In summary, I don't recommend camping here unless you have no other option in the Jasper area.  There are plenty of primitive camping opportunities that are cheaper and, from what I can tell from the maps, less crammed (i.e. Wapiti, Wabasso and Pocahontas, especially Pocahontas) . It's fine for a night or two if you really must come here, but it would make for a pretty miserable vacation spot.

Hiking

A redeeming aspect of staying in Whistlers campground is that it's close to some great hiking.  Check out this beauty of a hike on Bald Hills, just next to Maligne Lake.  Some incredible scenery, and given that it was mid-Sept, we had the place mostly to ourselves.  Consult this book for more hiking ideas. 

Bald Hills Summit