Canadian Border Opening Alberta

[Powder Hounds]

With the Canadian border opening to US vaccinated visitors on August 9 2021, if you are thinking of exploring Alberta and booking or finding a reservable campground be warned. It is very difficult. Waterton National Park and Jasper are almost completely booked for camping in August and part of September. Waterton Town site is really all that remains after the fires a few years ago. Hiking there is really not that enjoyable, it is just burned out, most of the hiking trails are now very exposed with no shade at all. Will be years before we see some improvement. Crandle Mountain campground there is gone. Banff and Lake Louise are probably the same for booking, after seeing zero availability in Waterton and Jasper I stopped looking. The government has also implemented new fees for public lands camping (BLM) and fees for Kananaskis.

Your main option is to look for any first come/ non- reservable campgrounds, there are lots to pick from, but weekends are tuff. Families are sharing and rotating the same spot throughout the summer because the difficulty of finding a nice spot. Campers are also driving out and setting up a tent on a Wednesday or Thursday to secure a spot for the weekend. Even makes camping during the week a challenge.

Also, the province is very much engulfed in smoke.

Lots of forum members have visited Alberta prior, so I thought I would give you an update just in case you wanted to pack up and head north, now that you can!  You can PM me if you would like to know some great southern Alberta areas that are off the grid.

PH

[Merlin]

Thanks for heads up. We did a wonderful tour of Glacier, Banff, and Jasper NPs in 2018. Truly a lifetime highlight. A lot of Glacier was burned then. Reservations are tight to non-available in Michigan too.

[Paul]

In New Brunswick on July 30 at midnight all restrictions will be lifted

https://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/corporate/promo/covid-19/news/news_release.2021.07.0557.html