Banff & Jasper Trip Advice

Hey all,

My wife and I are planning a trip from Denver to Banff and back for this fall. A couple days will be spent visiting her family in Brocket, but we definitely want to take some time to go up to Banff and Jasper national parks. Looking for recommendations for things to do/camping spots/offroading in those areas. Sorry if this already exists somewhere, I figured it might be easier to ask questions here.

Are there free camping spots (like dispersed camping) near the national parks?

Are there any good offroad trails we should hit?

 

oh... tracking this

 

This thread has some good info for Banff/Jasper as well as interior BC.

 

There's free camping in Canada's National Parks this year in honour of our 150th birthday. You can get a pass on line.

 

The day pass is free, however you still have to pay if you want to camp

https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/voyage-travel/admission

I used to live out there in banff, I recall around calgary and the foothills there was some offroading trails

Definitely go to Jasper, its a lot quieter than Banff and in my opinion more scenic.

If driving to banff take the old highway out of calgary, also if you want to hike you can take the 1A highway out of banff, lots of short and long trails off of that highway. Theres also kootenay and yoho national park which have some unique hikes

 

Yeah I agree, Yoho is great. I hiked the Presidential Range there years ago. There's an Alpine Club of Canada base camp there that's pretty cool if you are able to use it. We had special permission.