RVing in Canada

[alan]

Originally Posted by SailorSam205

And your bear/pepper spray, though it's my understanding that you are free to buy it once in Canada but not for use against people, ie. don't carry it in big cities.

You can take bear spray into Canada. All you have to do is declare it at the border. I do it every year.

[Aika_Holiday]

Good day Bob & Julie,

As a "local", here is my perspective...

Banff will be crazy busy during your planned visit, and Jasper a bit less so. Therefore, as others have mentioned, and as you have been doing some pre-planning is strongly advised.

Golden is about 1hr 40min from Banff and the highway east of Golden is steep. There are closer alternatives. I live in Cochrane, AB - between Calgary and Banff and there is a wonderful campground along the river (Bow Rivers Edge). There is also "K-Country" just east of Banff National Park in and around Peter Lougheed Provincial Park with some wonderful camping opportunities as well, but they tend to be busy during the time period you mentioned.

With regards to boondocking there are plenty of opportunities on Crown land (public land owned and managed by the Province on behalf of its citizens). When you head up from Banff to Jasper along highway 93 you can take a detour out of the National Parks and head east on highway 11 (Saskatchewan River Crossing) towards Abraham Lake - plenty of very nice spots

Enjoy your adventure, and welcome to Alberta!

[mefly2]

Originally Posted by alan

You can take bear spray into Canada. All you have to do is declare it at the border. I do it every year.

Make sure that it is marked for bears ... or you will have it taken away until you cross back at the same border crossing.

[rp709]

We have traveled to Banff many times. The preferred place for RV's is called the Tunnel Mountain Trailer Court. This can be researched at the Parks Canada web site. This park has sites numbering into the 700's. All sites are pull through gravel in an arc parallel to the roads. They have picnic tables and full hookups. The rate is about $37.00 Canadian. A great place to stay. There is another Tunnel Mountain camping area adjacent that has electrical and water, but no sewer. Also, there are some dry overflow areas to park. We reserved our sites January 9th when the booking window opened for the season, for this July. It fills up really fast. But, you can search and find some sites throughout the summer, but may have to move a few times to stay a week. There is even a function on the web site that allows you to build a stay connecting several sites to make, say, a week long stay. Lake Louise also has RV sites with full hookups and can be reserved. There is a large overflow are there too. Banff and Lake Louise are wonderful. Banff is an international destination and staying in a RV is one the great bargains. Tunnel mountain is located on a plateau 500 feet or so above town with fantastic views. Parks Canada sets the bar for web site reservations, in my opinion. BTY, bear spray purchased in America is allowed in Canada as long as the can says 'bear spray'. You declare it to customs when you cross the border.

[RWitherspoon]

We are going to buy "bear bangers" at Canadian Tire, they were sold out at Christmas, this is much better than spray. use Google for more. I also watch for mountain lions as they attack from behind. To my knowledge, groups of 4 or more never get attacked, we have pictures of a huge golden grizzly from 20 feet way, as we were in a group of 20. (About 5 people ran screaming, which is the wrong thing to do). We camp in these areas a lot, there are overflow campgrounds but we never got sent to one. There will be elk in the Jasper camps, don't approach them and no problems. If you have pets, there is a chance a wolf or coyote will harvest them, nearly lost the girls rabbit once. The rain is cold, but we're Canadians and hike anyways.

[wvollans]

Originally Posted by Julie-Bob

We are looking into traveling to Jasper, Banff in mid July Is there RV parks in that area and if so when to start making reservations? Is there places to boondock in those area? Any ideas. Thanks [emoji120]

There are several campgrounds inside the park and many on both sides outside the park. To the west is Radium Hot springs with campgrounds and a little south is another hot spring with campgrounds. To the east is Csnmore with campgrounds all around.