Ice Fields Parkway

 (We have been away from a good cell connection for 4 days, so these next 4 days all get dumped at once)

After a leisurely breakfast. I dump the black and gray tanks and fill the water tank.  We would like to stay another day, but the RV park is full. Driving through downtown Banff it is amazing the amount of tourists and traffic. Stopping at a supermarket to pick up a couple things I spend nearly an hour trying to make a reservation at a park campground in Jasper in two days. The online registration system sucks. When you try to register for a site it lets you enter all the requested information only to kick you out in the end.  Turns out if someone else is registering for the same site and finalizes the process ahead of you it kicks you out.  This happens 3 or 4 times. The system also freezes and hangs.  Extremely annoying.

Very happy to finally get out of Banff.  Our last visit 11 years ago in September was much less hectic.  The place is being loved to death.  Interestingly, we hear very little English or French spoken amongst tourists. The Chinese seem to be the largest group.

I can not get a camping reservation for tonight, so will try one of the first come first served campsites. We find a nice campground just north of Lake Louise with lots of available sites without water or electric, which is what the majority of RVers seem to want.  Not necessary for us, we can go for days, before we need water or a pumpout. We have a generator and lithium batteries that are good for a couple days if we aren’t driving, otherwize the batteries fully charge with a couple hours of driving. We have yet to run the generator this trip. It is recommended to run it once a month to keep it in good working order.  

Fortunately we have been to Lake Louise before, about 10 years ago, because it's not happening this trip. It's $40 to park, but you would have to get there early in the morning to get a spot. You can take a bus up from the town, but need to have a reservation two days in advance. At least 50 years ago, I was able to bike up for free, hopefully you can still do the same today, just not me personally. 

We have a nice quiet night at our campground, except for a little rain.

“Mosquito Campground”,  fortunately did not live up to its name.