Jasper NP in September '17

[jrmartin67]

The DW & I are currently on the east side of Glacier NP in Montana. The smoke from the horrible fires on the west side is making this location miserable, so we (she) suggested we haul our 35' V-Lite up to Jasper NP in Alberta. I see there are fires up there, too! Anybody have data on that? We'd prefer a campsite with at least water & electric, ideally sewer as well. I'm looking at Whistler cg in Jasper, which reportedly has such sites. We'll possibly leave Saturday morning, 9/9. Any advice is welcome! Cheers!

[bruin]

Just came back from Kootenay National Park. Depending on the wind you will find the smoke here as well. All depends on wind. Even with the smoke its a great place to visit. Fire bans are still in place for all areas however you can still use propane portable fires. Campgrounds are still busy. Go to pccamping.ca for reservations in National Parks. If you do go the best route is through Fernie BC. A great mid stop to Jasper is Fairmont HotSprings or Redstreak in Radium. Ice Fields parkway is awesome! Have done that trip twice this year.

[bruin]

You can also go to skimarmot.com to look at webcam pictures to see how the smoke is in Jasper. This ski hill is very close to the Whistlers campground.

[fanrgs]

Whistler's is a great campground with electric hookups and potable water and an RV dump at a multilane dump station. Conveniently located near the town, but not in it like the campgrounds in Banff.

You don't have to go through town to get to impressive Athabaska Falls, the road up Mt. Edith Cavell (a beautiful scenic drive), or the Jasper SkyTram up Whistler's Mountain. You do have to drive through town to get to Pyramid Lake, Maligne Canyon, and Maligne Lake--don't miss those sights either.

We saw mountain goats, bighorn sheep, and a young bull elk just off the road in Jasper NP. And we woke up to an entire herd of elk grazing on the grass outside our trailer in the Whistler's campground one morning. We even had to wait to drive out of the campground in our truck while a huge bull elk ambled out of our way!

[Hutch333id]

Originally Posted by jrmartin67

The DW & I are currently on the east side of Glacier NP in Montana. The smoke from the horrible fires on the west side is making this location miserable, so we (she) suggested we haul our 35' V-Lite up to Jasper NP in Alberta. I see there are fires up there, too! Anybody have data on that? We'd prefer a campsite with at least water & electric, ideally sewer as well. I'm looking at Whistler cg in Jasper, which reportedly has such sites. We'll possibly leave Saturday morning, 9/9. Any advice is welcome! Cheers!

From the east side of GNP I would recommend crossing the US/Canada border just south of Cardston but go through Browning and via MT 464. From there drive north in Canada along Hwy 2 to Calgary. Take the 201 around the east side of Calgary (stopping at Costco) on 17th/75th if you need diesel (best price in the area for both gas and diesel). Follow that loop around until you reach Hwy 1a and drive west to Cochrane for a night or two at the Bow Rivers Edge CG.

From here it is about 90 minutes drive along Hwy 1 (not 1a) to Lake Louise. You can then drive north up the 93 (Icefields Parkway) stopping off at the glacier for a bus tour and the nearby glass bottom walkway before reaching Jasper.

There is smoke but this varies. I drove back from BC yesterday in very thick smoke between Revelstoke and Golden but it really depends on the wind.

From Jasper, you could then take the Yellowhead Hwy west towards BC. I could recommend staying at Chinook Cove Golf and RV Resort, Barriere - even if you don't play golf. From there you have a clear drive south toward Vancouver and the WA border (about 5 - 6 hours).

[Rokslinger]

We stopped at Whistler on our way to Alaska. X2 what fanrgs wrote including the Elk herd around our motorhome. It was one of our favorite campgrounds. Banff was nice also if you can find space there all pull throughs WES, but Banff is kind of a tourist mecca. We had smoke from the Montana fires all the way to Saint Maries, Idaho on the way home.