We are sitting by a campfire in Banff National Park, Alberta Canada, Tunnel Mountain Village Campground #2, campsite 41 A. It’s an interesting campground. There are three large camp loops (A, B, & C), each consisting of five parallel roads about 3/8th of a mile long. The roads are connected on the ends by a U-shaped turn around, and an access road runs across the middle. The roads are about fifty feet apart. Picnic tables, fire rings, and electrical hook-ups, also spaced about 50 feet apart, line each side of the roads.
Tunnel Mountain Village 2 Campground. Parallel parking camping.
When we arrived, we drove down the correct road, found 41 A, swung over to the gravel shoulder in front of our picnic table, fire ring, and power station. We parallel parked, plugged in and we were there. While there is room to put up a tent, no one has. This part of the campground is clearly designed for RV’s. It is easy access, easy setup, high density, and compact. In a small area there are sites for over 200 RV’s. Some as long as forty-five feet.
High density housing.
As devout tent campers just two years ago we would have been aghast at a campground such as this. Too be sure it is not as idyllic as a tent site buried in the woods, but even tent camping is becoming more and more crowded with tent sites often no further apart than the RV sites here. One can see from the description of the campground that RVing has become so popular that facilities are being designed with them primarily in mind, even in National Parks. RVs are not just relegated to those stark, crowded RV parks we see along the side of the road as we drive by.
Bow Valley, Banff
As newbies to the RVing life, we are finding advantages and disadvantages to this mode of travel. I am going to write several blog posts about this. But first I want to address one of the mental biases that I had before we got our RV. The bias: being in an RV isn’t really being “out in nature”. Well, this morning we got up, put on our hiking gear, and took off. We hiked 9 ½ miles through the woods, had lunch on a rock outcropping beside the rushing Bow River, enjoyed dramatic mountain vistas, and didn’t see our campsite for seven hours. We were definitely “out in nature.” And we weren’t the only ones. As we left the campground with it’s 100’s of RV’s there was essentially no one to be seen. Like us, the other RVers were enjoying what Banff National Park has to offer.
Lunch by the Bow River.
The brilliant blue waters of Peyto Lake.
This is Banff!
The mountains provide a great backdrop for a glamour shot of our condo on wheels.
It doesn’t look like the quiet, serene wilderness i was imagining, with all those RVs in a row!’
Beautiful, looking forward to reading and seeing more posts
Not what I pictured for camping but that water! Happy adventuring! Have fun and be safe
And those mountains!! Wowza
I long ago gave up backpacking. I have all the gear and I can pack it with the best of them, but my knees don’t hold up under the extra pounds. So that means when I camp, I am near the car. If you are car camping (in a tent) you might as well ratchet-up the comfort level. Shaving ounces on gear, which costs extra, just isn’t worth it. Go ahead and get that extra plush sleeping pad. An RV is just the next step-up in comfort. I am 100% in favor of RV’s as long as they are not in front of my car on a two-lane winding uphill road.
Idea for future post: Compare and contrast RV park vs. sailboat mooring field.
I’ve just caught up on my reading -following the Adventurous Life of The Knapps. Its good stuff Anne! You are both an excellent writer and photographer.
See you in a few days
Robin