Does it cost $15 round trip each time you want to go to the campground? For instance, if we stay at the campground but have to go elsewhere to a trailhead or to town to resupply will we have to pay for the bus each time?
You park off the highway in a fairly remote area to get the bus ride down the dirt road to Lake O'Hara. I say fairly remote because from what I remember there is a hotel nearby but I dont remember a lot of stores etc. So you want to have your food and supplies squared away when you get to the area. You park your car and then you and your backpack get on the 4 wheel drive school bus for the ride down the dirt road to the lake. Anyone can walk up / down the road as often as they want for free. I do not recommend it though. It is 14 miles of fairly boring hiking. You can not bike on the dirt road.
The bus dumps you off at the end of the road and you are at the end of the lake and there are some tent platforms for camping (all small 2 person / 3 person tent platforms) and there are also "cabins" that you can reserve and stay in. the cabins are part of the Lake O'hara Lodge. They are very expensive - like $450 a night. All trailheads for the area can be accessed right from there.
There is a max of limit of 3 nights of camping at the platforms. Pretty much once you take the bus in, the idea is that you stay there. Think of it as backpacking with a bus ride to basecamp.
I remember there being a small general store near the cabins / platforms. the kind you would find at a small campground - with soda and candy bars etc. Neil has been there more recently so maybe he can elaborate on what they have.
I found $387 plane tickets from BOS yesterday. Just a mere $775 from BGR!!!
Nice. I haven't even looked.
Is it necessary to rent a car for the duration of the trip or is public transit pretty easy to use?
I would want to have a car for the entire trip. The area is very big - especially if you want to drive up the parkway from Banff to Jasper (which is recommended). It is about 250 miles from Banff to Jasper and you are going to want to stop at several places and hike or camp on the way. I would not want to be tied down to bus schedules.
If you go for 2 weeks, then I see us all getting together for 3 or 4 days of it and then breaking into smaller groups to do what different people want to do. So groups of people could rent cars or maybe one group would want to rent a van or something like that.
Again it is a big area - Banff, Lake Louise, Yoho, Jasper is about 1/2 the size of New England. There are a lot of options and a lot of places you will want to go.
- darren
