RV Camping recommendations?
 

Hi. We will be RV touring for two weeks in the Canadian Rockies and Waterton/Glacier in mid-to-late August. We are seeking some recommendations about campgrounds that can handle RVs. Although I've found some limited reviews/recommendations from other websites, I was hoping to hear more personal experiences. Although we will occasionally want full-service sites, we would certainly trade off services for the beauty of our surroundings.
Can you share any RV-tolerant campground experiences in the following locations: Calgary, Drumheller, Waterton, East Glacier, West Glacier/Kalispell, Japser, Banff, Lake Louise....?
Thanks!

I guess I'm not sure what you mean by campground. We have stayed in many RV parks that allowed tent camping, but their purpose in life was RVs...including a nice one in East Glacier. Any RV directory such as Good Sam's will give you the guidance you seek...unless you're looking for something outside my experience as an RVer.

Hello raphaekg,

Have you tried the Open Roads forum, which is dedicated to RVing? I'm not an RVer myself, but the few times I've dipped into that forum the regular members have seemed extremely knowledgeable about specific campgrounds:

http://www.rv.net/

I also recommend the guide to RVing in Western Canada that Camping_Girl (Tanis from Nanton, Alberta) posted at Virtual Tourist. It is very comprehensive:

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/adecc/

Although it's not the same as getting opinions from people who have used campgrounds, the camping page of my website has an extensive list of links to websites about campgrounds in British Columbia and Alberta:

http://groups.msn.com/CalgaryandCana...s/camping.msnw

Hope that helps.

Thank you both for the recommendations of links/resources. I know of those resources (finding out about many of them through this forum, in fact) but was hoping for more personal experiences and opinions (e.g., beautiful setting, crowded, quiet or noisy, dirty restrooms, great manager, etc...the good and the bad).
And, yes, I mean "RV Parks" but also campgrounds that allow RVs but may not have hook-ups.
Thanks!

We have camped with our RV in Jasper, Banff, and Calgary. In Jasper and Banff the campgrounds are run by the National Parks Service. In Jasper, the campground closest to the townsite is called Whistler's. There are 781 sites, but only 77 have full hook-ups. Another 100 sites have electrical only. There are flush toilets and showers in the campground. Although the camping season is starting to wind down by the end of August, it is still very difficult to get a site with hook-ups. There are gravel pads to park on and there is a lot of space between sites. Wildlife (especially elk) is plentiful in the campground - several times we had to detour around the herds of elk when out walking.
Pocahontas Campground is on the road to Miette Hot Springs (about 1/2 hour drive from Jasper). This campground is smaller and does not have hookups. If you plan on visiting Miette Hot Springs and Maligne Lake, you may want to consider renting a car for a day or two. It cost us about $50 to rent a car for a day, but we saved more than that in gas for our RV driving the steep mountain roads.
In Banff, the main campground is called Tunnel Mountain. The area with hook-ups is wide open with few trees. Basically you park on the road and have a small patch of grass in front of you. Although the campground itself is not very scenic, the mountains surrounding it are breathtaking. Watch out for sneak attacks by the chipmunks - lol. Washrooms were clean and Parks staff is usually readily available. Their is a shuttle that runs from the campground into the townsite. Both Whistler's and Tunnel Mountain have interpretive programs in the evenings that are very interesting. Campgrounds in both Jasper and Banff were very quiet (I think quiet time started at 10:00 p.m.) If you would like to camp at Lake Louise, the campground there is quite small and you have to be there fairly early in the day to get a spot. I'm not sure if you're aware, but the campground is in the village and not by the Lake. We left our RV at Tunnel Mountain and rented a car for the day to go to Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, and Johnson Canyon.
In Calgary there is a KOA campground along the Trans Canada Highway as you come into Calgary from Banff. Fairly typical KOA campground, but pretty crowded.
I haven't camped in Waterton for many years, but I remember the campground there as being very nice. We were there in a tent trailer and a very friendly deer came right up and stuck his head in the door of the trailer.
Several of the National Park campgrounds take reservations for an extra fee, but I don't think they're really necessary, especially at Whistler's and Tunnel Mountain. But if you want to be safe, you could book ahead. More info is available at the Parks Canada website.

People here at Fodors occasionally have spoken well of Snaring River, which is a "primitive" campground in Jasper National Park. Primitive means it doesn't have showers or flush toilets, only pit toilets. If you do a word search here, you'll find the comments about it.

Other small (often primitive) campgrounds that accept RVs include:

* Wilcox Creek - on the Icefields Parkway, in Jasper National Park, near the boundary with Banff National Park

* Rampart Creek - on the Icefields Parkway, in Banff National Park, a few kilometres south of the Columbia Icefields

* Mosquito Creek - on the Icefields Parkway, a few kilometres north of Lake Louise

* Castle Mountain - on the Bow Valley Parkway between Lake Louise and Banff

I haven't stayed at any of them myself, but that gives you some names to ask about at the Open Roads Forum.

Hope that helps.

Sorry, Cathy61, I didn't see your post. I guess we posted at the same time. :)

Thank you, once again, Judy. And Cathy61, that's just the kind of info that I was hoping for. Thanks much!

if you don't mind basic, then i do recommend snaring river in jasper. it is the furthest campground from town - about a 10 minute drive. very nice setting.