Two Jack Main Campground — Hotel in Alberta

This campground is badly in need of a nearby trail system and playground. With 313 sites, the campground roads are littered with people using the roads as walking/biking trails. People let their very young children essentially play in traffic. Especially in the individual loops where many people treat the roads as playgrounds.

If you get a site backing on to the forest, it's better. The sites backing onto sites from other loops are very close together. A Cacophony of noise from unruly children, and barking dogs permeates the campground. Peace and Quiet and Privacy rarely happen. Mid-week is much better than the weekends.

The Washrooms are decent, and kept fairly clean. It must be a momentous task to clean up after the animals that think its okay to absolutely destroy a toilet, or to dump their leftover soup in the bathroom sinks. There is power in the washroom, if needed. The community cooking area is roomy, but unused by people, other than the sink. Perhaps it is used more in colder months? Having a sink with hot water to clean dishes is nice.

Some of the sites are fairly large, but many are quite small. Even the larger sites can have a lot of trees within the site. Most people seem to tent, but if you come with a camper or RV be prepared to squeeze it into a tight spot. The gravel pads are also very "dirty" from all the years of pine needles falling onto the sites and decomposing. If its wet, prepare to have your tent or camper filthy from tracking in dirt.

The firewood is plenty, and fairly dry. But bring a splitting axe, because it can be a bit chunky. Some of the loops do not allow fires - so be weary of which one you book.

On Friday evenings, the check in lineup can get backed up enough to prevent entry by people already checked in.

The dump station is very weird. There are two sides - in alternating directions. If you pull in to the direction "entering" the campground, be prepared to back your unit out. As the road in from the other side is only wide enough to pass one vehicle, so if there is a lineup, you wont be able to get out. If there is a lineup in both directions, the dump station will be gridlocked. There is a third dump station opposite the check in gate that looks older, but still usable. It requires pulling up in the direction entering the campground.

I will not be...

So decided to book a quick trip to Banff. Found what I thought was an otentik booking as all the photos show the beautiful otentiks. Not what we got. We pulled up to the equipped site and found an outfitter tent with 6 tiny cots inside, a propane tank and a camp stove. No chairs, no table inside for the kids to play games at and no comfortable beds. Found out from the kiosk staff that they get lots of complaints as people book expecting an otentik. We made due and I ended up sleeping on the floor as I could not find a comfortable position to sleep in with my bum shoulder. Kids were disappointed as they were looking forward to the otentik experience. We may have still booked this if we had proper photos of what equipped camping meant. As the Parks Canada website shows dome tents. ||We are normally RVers but wanted to take the kids on an adventure and not bring so much stuff. So we changed our mindset and made it an adventure. ||Tent did its job. The cots look nice but as grown adult on the bottom it was hard to get into and out of and if you are at all overweight I wouldn't trust it. ||Campstove worked and we had a great time despite the confusion.||||Just beware equipped camping is the bare minimum no chairs, just a picnic table and tent. Would I do it again? Maybe but I would put the cots outside and sleep...

We stayed here for 4 nights in July, during an unseasonably hot spell. But Two Jack Main has a super power: it is in the shadow of Cascade Mountain directly to the west. So back at camp during the hottest part the day, the campsite ends up in the shade relatively early. Honestly, this really saved us.

The camp has no power outlets except in the bathroom. The space for tents is far too limited, so I'm downgrading a bit for that. There is very little cell coverage there, I leave this tidbit for your information. The camp does have: running water and water for your camp, good picnic table, parking for 2 vehicles, if necessary, flush toilets and running sink water. There is plenty of firewood for the campsite. There is also a kitchen with stove and sink for cleaning dishes. It also has bear-proof dumpsters and food lockers for the bears. The staff patrols the entire campsite routinely to check on the campers to make sure they are bearproofing their sites, and to make sure there are no bears. In short, this was was professionally run, state-run, campsite.

But camping is camping, it is cheaper than hotels in Banff. Finally, the campsite is a bit far from town or really anywhere. Basically, Two Jack is a bike or car ride...