Accommodation

Campgrounds, hostels, and backcountry huts near the trailheads — and how to book them.

Want to sleep close to the trailhead? This page covers the three main ways to do it — campgrounds, hostels, and backcountry huts — plus how the booking systems work and which spots are reservable versus first-come, first-served.

Start with How Booking Works for the reservation systems and launch dates, then pick your area below.

The campgrounds here are all frontcountry — car-accessible, drive-up sites you use as a basecamp, not backcountry sites you hike into. (For huts you hike to, see Backcountry Huts.)

Each area below has its own page, using the same regions as the trip reports and the Popular Locations weather page, so a forecast, a bed, and beta for the same area are one path segment apart. Within each area, the important campgrounds are grouped by how you get a spot:

Reservable — book ahead through the operator's reservation system (see How Booking Works).
First-come, first-served (FCFS) — no reservations; you claim a site in person, so arrive early on summer weekends.
Random camping on public land — outside the parks, on the Alberta side, you can camp where you like with a Public Lands Camping Pass and no booking at all. The regions where that is the usual answer say so on their own page.
Recreation sites — the BC equivalent, and a different thing: real campgrounds on Crown land with a fire ring and a pit toilet, about half of them free and the rest cash to an operator, no pass and almost never a reservation.

Always confirm before you go. Reservable-vs-FCFS status, operating seasons, and closures change from year to year, and wildfires and floods can shut sites down at short notice. Treat this as a starting point and check the official link for current details.

How Booking Works

Four reservation systems, four sets of rules and opening dates — plus camping on public land in Alberta and Crown land in BC.

Backcountry Huts

The Alpine Club of Canada hut network, on a rolling booking window.

Kananaskis and Canmore

Close enough to Calgary to decide on the morning of.

Kananaskis Country and Canmore

Bow Valley, Peter Lougheed, Spray Valley, Sheep River, and the Elbow.

The Front Ranges and the Forestry Trunk Road

East of the parks and mostly unpaved: the Ghost, Ya Ha Tinda, Nordegg, and the Bighorn.

The Ghost and the Front Ranges

Mostly random camping on public land, reached by unpaved road.

David Thompson Country and the Bighorn

Nordegg and Abraham Lake, and random camping in the Bighorn.

The Mountain Parks

The national parks and Assiniboine, from the Bow Valley up the Icefields Parkway to Jasper.

Banff National Park

Banff and Lake Louise townsites and the Bow Valley Parkway.

Mount Assiniboine

Lake Magog, the Naiset Huts, and the lodge — all of them a hike or a flight in.

Yoho National Park

Field and the Yoho Valley, plus the Lake O’Hara draw.

Kootenay National Park

Redstreak above Radium, and the campgrounds up Highway 93 South.

Icefields Parkway and the Columbia Icefield

Basic campgrounds and wilderness hostels, an hour apart, with no town on the road.

Jasper and Mount Robson

Jasper townsite and Mount Robson Provincial Park.

The South

The Crowsnest, the Castle, and Waterton, continuing across the border into Montana.

Crowsnest Pass and the Castle

Chinook Lake and the Castle Provincial Park campgrounds.

Waterton Lakes

The townsite campground and Belly River.

Glacier National Park, Montana

Recreation.gov bookings and the first-come sites on the North Fork.

West of the Divide

Over into BC: the Purcells, the Elk Valley, and the Selkirks around Rogers Pass.

BC Rockies and the Purcells

BC Parks around Fernie, Invermere, Elkford, and the Bugaboos.

Rogers Pass, the Selkirks, and Golden

Glacier and Mount Revelstoke national parks, and BC Parks near Revelstoke.

Beyond the Rockies

Weekend-trip range rather than day-trip range, and a different weather regime on each.

Sea to Sky and the Coast Mountains

BC Parks, the Vancouver and Whistler hostels, and four Coast Mountain huts.

Fraser Valley and the Cascades

Chilliwack Lake, Manning Park, and Golden Ears.

Okanagan and Thompson

Okanagan Lake, Cathedral Park, and the Kelowna and Penticton hostels.

Shuswap and the Monashees

Shuswap Lake, Mabel Lake, Monashee Park, and the Sugar Lake recreation sites.

West Kootenay

HI Nelson and the three Kokanee Glacier cabins.

Vancouver Island

Strathcona, the island hostels, and the Vancouver Island Section hut.

Trail Conditions & Trip Reports

Your go-to spots for updates on trail conditions and closures.

How Booking Works

Reservation launch dates and rolling windows for Parks Canada, Alberta Parks, BC Parks, and the NPS — plus cancellation alerts.