Review: Snaring River Overflow, Jasper National Park

Location: 4 hrs from Edmonton or 15 minutes from Jasper
Website:  None
Map: Google
Camping Facilities: Car Camping
Grade: D+
Stargazing: Okay, but some interference from Jasper
Summary: Free-for-all car camping madness, with no campfires allowed - but in a nice mountain setting
Thoughts: Planning to go to the campgrounds immediately surrounding the Town of Jasper on a long weekend without a reservation?  Well, this is probably one of your few options.  Most of the other campgrounds will be full, friend.  That's what we discovered when opting to head up to the Jasper townsite instead of the tried-and-true Columbia Icefield Campground along the Icefields Parkway (which did have vacancies).  What we discovered was beyond comprehension for an Ontarian used to the calm and order found in the Ontario Park system. 

If you're early to arrive, find a decently-sheltered patch of dirt near(ish) to a latrine and set up.  If there's a picnic table, bonus.  If there is a flat surface to set your tent up on, double bonus.  Chances are high that if you're late to arrive, you'll find none of these.  We discovered people just setting up anywhere that looked reasonable.  There are no comfort stations, just latrines; neither are there any fires allowed (though many plumes of smoke were observed rising over the campground...no enforcement was evident).  The campground has little else to offer.  There are some scenic views of the surrounding mountains, but this isn't where you want to view them from.

We can at least appreciate Jasper Park's management and staff trying to accommodate anybody who is foolish, er, spontaneous enough to come up here without a reservation on a long weekend.  But there's no certainty that you'll get anything that approaches a decent site.  In fact, the night we were there, you'd have been lucky if you didn't end up sleeping on a uneven gravel-laden mound of dirt without a twig of privacy.  Plan ahead, stay out of the overflow.

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