Lake Louise Soft-Sided Trailer/Tent Campground — Hotel in Alberta

Seems like deferred maintenance is adding up and it doesn't reflect well on Parks Canada and especially not Visitor's Experience. Several washrooms are "closed for the season" (in July!) and toilet stalls out of order in others. Walking around looking for a washroom in working order with kids or when arriving after a long drive isn't great. Even in the (presumed) newer shower building the sink faucets badly need maintenance.

It seems that there has been a relatively recent update to the map (showing the electrified fence perimeter and rules about canabis and alcohol on long weekends) but no updates on which washrooms are in working order: staff at the gate didn't inform us of this either. Water points where you can get drinking and cooking water are poorly discreet and easy to miss (and didn't appear on the map either): the result is people using washrooms for this. This seems like a basic that should have been on the map and well signed.

It is great that campsites are attracting people new-to-camping but Parks doesn't appear to have worked out how to support the needs and maintain a good standard. However, the electrified perimeter fence was clearly needed and was added; it was obvious from the number of campers leaving dishes and food related items nothing else had been effective to prevent attracting bears.. I wondered if the fence was a big ticket item for the park that they took from maintenance etc?

We also saw people careening about on e-bikes, getting injured and bundles of bloodied wads left about (not sure if First Aid stations were readily accessible - we bandaged up one injured bleeding person who clearly didn't know where to turn) .

It feels like Parks Canada is not keeping up nor observing closely, staff don't appear to be aware that communication is important nor do they appear observant (two Parks Canada employees riding around in a truck chatting while all the above was going on doesn't make them approacable or appear helpful).

Sad to see the lack of attention to the basic issues at this site. The site itself, like all Parks Canada sites, are great but the custodianship appears to be...

Large shared sites for two RVs. But the electrical points are completely incorrectly located! They are located on the passenger front corner of each site, so when parked to have your door facing the picnic table and outdoor space provided, the electrical connection requires the cord to be run underneath the rig and an extension used in many cases to reach the plug. And they are new power points so someone simply had no clue how to pay the sites out for RVs.

On top of that, the young student registering the arrivals is not an RVer and has no clue about the most basic questions regarding the campground.

But, on the good side, the location is perfect for visiting Lake Louise and Lake Moraine.

Note that they have stopped ALL car and RV access to Lake Moraine!!! You HAVE to use a commercial or park shuttle, with reservations, at a fee around $50 each to see the lake.

Lake Louise is not open to large RVs during the day but cars are allowed. We rode our bikes up the narrow, busy, potentially dangerous, road with insufficient place for bikes. Ebikes are not allowed on the bike trail. We rode the very steep road up with cars, busses and trucks whizzing by within inches of us and decided to take the bike trail back down to the campground regardless of it being illegal due to the danger on the road. The trail was very quiet and very nice. I highly recommend taking the trail rather than the road

Overall, lake Louise is stunningly beautiful but the hordes of people made it very touristy, loud and less enjoyable. This must be expected at this time of the year (July), so it just has to be considered. Perhaps going there late afternoon around 8PM would be advisable to avoid the crazy crowds.

All in all, it is a decent campground for the express purpose of...

TL;DR: This is by far the WORST campground I've ever stayed at❗

[I'm exhausted & writing this from my tent at Campsite K8 at Lake Louise Soft-Sided Campground just before midnight]

The first thing we noticed were the sites are very close together (but a few were nice) and the site had trash and firewood strewn about.

The following list all occured after dark (Site K8 is DIRECTLY on the edge of the parking lot for the showers):

• Headlights from parking lot from visitors all night shining through our tent • RVs camped in parking lot with noise from them • Constant train going by with whistle • Constant highway noise • People often walking by to the bathhouse and the parking lot • Someone chopping firewood • People slamming the heavy bearproof trashcan lid from somewhere nearby • Car alarm • People up talking and laughing loudly from both nearby sites and the parking lot

[Night One] With all the noise, we had to sleep in the car, which you can apparently do for free right beside our campsite.

[Night Two] After coming back around 1530 from hiking tired all day (that started at 0430), we dreaded another sleepless night that would lead to try another day we couldn't enjoy at the Banff National Park, so we abandoned the site and booked a hotel in the city of Banff to head home the following day.

This is ridiculous from a world-renowned Park and a very poor first impression for our first experience there. It felt like we were camping IN the...