Review: Two Jack Lake Main Campground, Banff National Park

Bighorn Sheep near lake Minnewanka

Location: 20 minutes outside Banff town site
Website:  Parks Canada
Map: Parks Canada (scroll down)
Camping Facilities: Car Camping
Grade: B-
Stargazing: There are stars here?
Summary: Decent spacing for a National Park, but don't expect much scenery
Thoughts: Once you've spent some time car camping in the mountain national parks, your expectations begin to take form.  What you miss out on in privacy and remoteness, you gain in scenery.  You take the good with the bad, but the mountain scenery makes you forget the bad pretty quickly.  Therein lies the problem with Two Jack Lake's main campground (not to be confused with the Two Jack Lakeside campground); it's the opposite of your typical mountain park, decent privacy (not great), but the canopy blocks any potential for enjoying the mountain viewscapes.

A bit of privacy is provided by the well-spaced loops

Fixed-grill fire rings
- the bane of the national park camping experience

You might see some mountains
through the trees

The accessibility to other more scenic areas (Lake Minnewanka, Two Jack Lake, and all the other great spots around the Town of Banff) is undeniable.  The campground itself is just nice enough.  The main benefit is the price for unserviced sites, which as just under $20 before firewood.  Can't really beat that.  As well, the comfort stations have running hot water and flush toilets.


All told, nice sites, decent camping, less-than-stellar scenery, but good access to some of the highlights around the Town of Banff.

Review: Dinosaur Provincial Park



Coulee Viewpoint Trail

Location: 2 hours east of Calgary
Website:  Alberta Parks
Map: Google Maps or AB Parks Campground Map
Camping Facilities: Car Camping
Grade: C-
Stargazing: Good - especially given that it doesn't rain much
Summary:  Densely populated campground, book tours in advance, spectacular scenery only saving grace
Thoughts: Showing up at an Alberta park without reservations on a long weekend is like smoking a rack of back ribs in your tent in grizzly country during a seasonal berry crop failure - i.e. not advisable.  Throw in the unfortunate situation that you've come to one of the most popular parks for families in the province and you're even deeper in the molasses.  Those of you who have read some of my other posts have probably noticed I take a devil-may-care, spontaneous approach to car camping.  I generally feel like the good spots are usually gone by the time I decide to book a site, I just skip the booking process, save the fees and hope for a last-minute cancellation of a sweet site - I must admit, it rarely works out well, but sometimes good things come out of that strategy.  As it happened, Dinosaur failed to deliver with my approach.  Though, ignoring my poor planning for a moment, it failed to deliver in a lot of other ways too. 

View from Campground Area -
note puddles, flatness and tightly-packed sites

Campground Viewed from Above
- Privacy? Nay.  Scenery? Yay.

First, the place has to have some of the worst drainage I've encountered in a provincial park. I know, it's clay soil, it's flat as a laminated pancake and it really doesn't rain that often anyways, but the last thing that most folks want is to be splashing around in puddles on those chilly evenings in the arid climes.  Next, don't expect privacy.  Wide open, densely-packed sites are the strategy here, with park planners looking to pack the Albertans in tighter than a ring of figs.  Even with the loop design of the site layout that is typically more private (see Figure 2), the sites are so close together and lacking in good understorey that it's hopeless. Third, these had to be some of the worst smelling comfort stations I've ever experienced.  I don't know if these are due to the soils again, but holy ammonia, Batman!  If the sites weren't so close and the drainage so poor, I'd suggest a tree.

Lounging on coulees

Okay, complaining aside, there are some beautiful coulees here, with a few relatively easy hiking trails around for your enjoyment.  While the scenery is fantastic, if you don't have reservations for the guided hikes, your options are very limited.  On the long-weekend of our visit, the tours were booked up in advance, with none of them able to accommodate more than a couple from our groups.  You might have better luck on a regular weekend, perhaps outside of July and August, but be warned, planning will go a long way here, especially if you want to enjoy this park to the fullest.  Just bring suitable expectations for the quality of the camping.

River valley splendor

Review: Banff National Park - Lake Louise Tent Campground

View of Lake Louise from Big Beehive trail

Location: 2 minutes outside Lake Louise village site
Website:  Parks Canada
Map: Google Maps
Camping Facilities: Car Camping
Grade: C-
Stargazing: Not bad
Summary: Electrified fencing, decent camping experience, convenient location.
Thoughts: There is so much to see in the Lake Louise area of Banff National Park (Lake Louise itself, great hiking, Morraine Lake - which used to be on the back of the Canadian $20 bill), it's nice to be able to spend some time in the area to explore it to the fullest.  If you can't muster up the scratch to stay at the Chateau Lake Louise, then the next most convenient option is to stay at the car campground at the village.  At this point in exploring the Rocky Mountain National Parks, we had started to get a feel for how parks are typically laid out.  Lake Louise is neither the worst, nor the best of what these parks have to offer.

What is the story with these fireboxes?

The sites here are densely clustered, so as a result privacy is limited.  This of course is typical for car camping everywhere, and especially in the Rocky Mountain National Parks. We can always hope that this was a result of smart planning in an attempt to reduce ecological impacts and one somewhat humorous aspect of the campground suggests that this is the case; the campground is completely surrounded by an electrified fence to keep bears from wandering in for a cooler raid. Still, the lay out is not as weak as Tunnel Mountain Village I.

Once more, the sites here are equipped with these ridiculous elevated fire grills.  Whoever purchased these for the parks system wasn't thinking about the enjoyment of campers (perhaps they're just easier to maintain and in addition to limiting the usage of firewood?).

All in all, for the access that Lake Louise Tent Campground provides its occupants, it's a natural choice.  There isn't a heck of a lot to see in the campground itself, but plenty to see within a short car/bike ride.

Moonrise on Lake Louise

Review: Tunnel Mountain Village I, Banff National Park

Tunnel Mountain Campground I

Location: 5 minutes outside of the Town of Banff
Website:  Parks Canada
Map: Campground or Google
Camping Facilities: Car Camping Only
Grade: D
Stargazing: Meh
Summary: The densest camping you'll ever see.
 Thoughts: Just outside the town of Banff, in what seems to be a suburban residential area, you'll find Tunnel Mountain Village I and II campgrounds.  The reason for their existence is singular - a place to park your car and pitch your tent when exploring other parts of the park.  There couldn't be any other purpose, since this is about as utilitarian as a campground gets.  Dense plots (618 of them!), with a sky shrouded by trees (and drowned out by Banff's street lighting), placed amongst a tightly woven grid of campsite access roads.  As a result, privacy is not a consideration.  (You'll get a good feel of it just by looking at the map.)  So you'll see and hear everything your neighbours do and they'll find the same.  One positive point is that the facilities were clean.  But why would they create campsites without firepits?  Western Canada is not short of firewood.  Did they run of out iron spark guards and shovels?

No matter what scenery you'll find by gazing from the periphery of the park (don't let the park website above fool you), it cannot redeem the lost opportunity that is this campground.  It's just there so that you pitch your tent while you see some real beauty elsewhere in the park.  I'll let the photos do the talking.

How many campsites can you spot?

Review: Columbia Icefield Campground, Jasper National Park

Location: 1 hour south of Jasper

Morning view from Site #13

Website:  Parks Canada
Map: Jasper Park (Parks Canada) or Google
Camping Facilities: Rustic Car Camping and Walk-in Camping
Grade: A
Stargazing: Good but not amazing (though it should be...)
Summary: What car camping should aspire to be

Site #13, with log stools, recessed from the road

Thoughts: Given the likely demand for car camping at this location, being right in the heart of Jasper National Park, along the Icefields Parkway, and adjacent to the Columbia Icefield Family Craziness Centre, the existence of this modestly-developed, peaceful, non-electric campground is a bit of a low-impact miracle.   All car campground designers should endeavor to produce work of this quality, where users will find a greater degree of privacy, beautiful scenery, low noise (most sites are reasonably far from the highway), easily accessible services (toilets, firewood and water) and opportunities for socializing.

A warming hut inside the campground loop

Facilities are rustic but generous.  There is an ample number of latrines, which are built on concrete slabs and are spotless (hand sanitizer is provided for those who desire it).  There is also a warming hut in the NW corner of the loop, which I imagine is great on the early spring nights.  This campground includes radial walk-in campsites, stemming off a single car-camping loop.  The views from the sites on the western side of the loop are outstanding, where you can watch the sun set on the glacier-capped mountain range across the highway.  The rest of the loop is probably more sheltered from road noise from the Parkway, but without the mountain views.  The water is a reasonable walk from all sites, though it might be a bit cumbersome for those using the walk-in sites (though they're all close to a mountain stream that provides the drinking water, you'll just have to treat it yourself).

A walk-in campsite

The walk-in campsites to the SW seemed a bit claustrophobic, but without the understory, you'll lose privacy.  The ones to the SE (up the hill, on the north side of the stream) are a little more open, if that's what you want, and are closer to the treated water station.  The site pictured here is one of the SW sites, across the bridge on the south side of the stream.  I don't think any of these sites have views, but are more secluded than anything you'll get on the main loop.  But they all have tent pads (just as the car camping site do) and are pretty spacious.

Drinking water source - a mountain stream (pristine!)

We ended up on site #13, which we selected based on its view, and because it was sheltered from its neighbouring sites (as sheltered as car camping gets).  It's hard to beat the view from this site.  The only issue is the traffic noise, but you won't hear too much of it at night, when traffic dies down (especially in the off season). This is an honor system campground, where you are expected to deposit your fees into drop box for collection by park staff.  National parks allow you to provide a credit card number, so you don't have to carry exact change (which we found was an issue with some parks we stayed at in BC).

Given the options available after Labour Day, this is probably your best bet for car camping.  The only administrative problem we found when we arrived, we found that the contract for the firewood supply had run dry by that point in the season (late Sept; guess there weren't many fire bans that summer?).  We were essentially pick scraps of kindling from the wood pile, but the plus side was that staff posted a notice telling campers that they weren't expected to pay for the use of these scraps.

One bizarre note; we were camping in early fall, with cold nights and a new moon, yet we could hardly see any stars.  I'm not sure which phenomena were at work here, but it didn't make any sense, especially since there aren't any lights for many kilometres away.

Bottom line: this is the best campground south of Jasper on the Parkway.

P.S.  Stay away from site 12A - it's probably the least private site and on top of that, everybody strolls through it to access the outhouse.

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

Review: Banff National Park - Castle Mountain Campground

Location: Along Highway 1A, 30 km NE of Banff

Website: Parks Canada

Map: Google Maps or Parks Canada

Camping Facilities: Car Camping

Grade: B
Stargazing: Mountains and canopy made it pretty difficult. You can't have it all.
Summary: Car camping offers limited privacy, but the quality of scenery (mountains, streams) in the campground makes up for it.  Great location halfway between Banff and Lake Louise.  Plentiful wildlife viewing opportunities. 

Comfort station at Castle Mountain Campground

Thoughts: Albertans have it pretty good; energy resources, plentiful agricultural land, a strong economy, winning hockey teams (well, at least within the past few decades).  And on top of that, Alberta just happens to have some of the most beautiful and accessible scenery in the country!   Come on, guys!  At least Albertans are generally friendly as well, else us Ontarians would have to grumble and pout about it even more than we do.  (**Please note, if you're used to seeing mountains and they don't strike you with awe, then you'll probably hate this place)

Even the car camping is disproportionately nice here.  Sure, the sites are close together, there's no privacy, but the raw beauty of it all is too overwhelming.  Just look at site 21 below.  Yes, that's a stream flowing through the site.  And look at the view up to the comfort station (which has both hot water and flush toilets).  Its just ridiculous.

The other beauty thing about this campground is that its pretty central.  Just a short drive over to the Trans Canada highway, then 30 km to Lake Louise, and 30 km to Banff.   You can even jet up the Icefields Parkway and see rest stop after rest stop with indescribable look-outs (see below).  Pictures do not do this place justice 

Campsite 21 at Castle Mountain Campground

Hiking: While the time I spent in the wonderland was far too brief, I was able to do a few quick hikes.  Plain of the Six Glaciers is incredible (and can probably be labeled a novice hike).  If you do the entire length (hike 30 mins past the second tea house), you will be rewarded with an outstanding view in all directions.  The second was Johnston Canyon, which was nice and all, but I didn't make it past the upper falls (which is where most other tourists make it, so its a very crowded trail).  Perhaps treking up to the Inkpots would have been more rewarding.  The final hike was a very short but extremely rewarding hike just off of the Peyto Lake viewing platform.  If you head further along the trail, past all the tourists, you'll reach a loop that takes you around for some further viewing.  There are some side trails here that have equally outstanding views of Peyto Lake, while providing complete seclusion (people tend not to stray far from the viewing platform).

Peyto Lake, along the Icefields Parkway

View of Chateau Lake Louise
from Plain of the Six Glaciers