Illecillewaet Campground

We camped here in August 2013.

Illecillewaet is 1st come 1st serve, so I was a little worried that we'd have trouble getting a spot for everyone in our group. We arrived on a Tuesday with a total of 8 trailers and didn't have a problem. There were only a few spots that could accommodate the 34 foot Airstream in our group.

Campsites are relatively private and many sat next to a roaring river. We enjoyed a few hikes from the campground. Apparently there were bears in the area, but we didn't see any.

We've only camped in a few places in Canada and this was one of our favorites.

Loved it - one of our favourite campgrounds in a 3.5 month trip. We stayed here at the beginning of September after several people recommended it as their favourite national park campground. We arrived early in the day as the park is first-come, first-served. The 2nd and 3rd loops were full every night - didn’t see what was available in loop 1 which has smaller sites and is further from the river. Signs said that the maximum RV length is 25’ but at 33’ we managed to find a spot that we just fit into - with some jockeying and we had to take the bikes off the back. There were a couple of sites in loop 3 that would have fit us. But this one was right beside the river and had some sun so that we could get some solar power. Generator hours are limited to 5-7 pm.
There was quite a bit of noise from the river - the boulders hitting each other sounded like a bowling alley at times. It provided a nice background or white noise for sleeping and it masked everyone’s (including ours) generator noise.
Most of the parks hikes leave from the campground - we did 4 while we were there. Our favourite was Asulkan Valley Trail - amazing views - the last part up the ridge to the hut was strenuous.
We had 1 bar on Rogers. A fire permit was 8.80/night and gave you unlimited firewood. During the summer there are ranger programs every night but there were none when we were there.

This campground has best access to many trails in BC's Glacier NP. It's along the creek in forest, with glaciers on the surrounding mountains. Limited views from the campground. Partly because of the access to the primary trails, it's a very busy campground. Narrow, winding road through the CG. The sites that I saw looked pretty small and cramped; some barely had room for a vehicle to park. A few people had managed to wedge travel trailers into some spots. Best to arrive earlier in the day because it's a first come, first served campground.

The first loop, sites 1-20 is currently closed and is not expected to reopen until 2023. Some of the sites, like #30, are very private but others are quite small and close together. The river rushes right past the campground. We attended all of the ranger talks and found them very well done and very interesting. The history of the area is fascinating and the majority of the trails originate from the campground. The hiking is great, lots of bears in the area, and the views are spectacular. We loved our stay here and would stay here again.

Starlink work great and our Google FI would sometimes have service, but not very fast.

Camp permits $9.25 per day to burn wood. You can take as much wood as you want. Right by the trails and in the middle of the mountain. We camped here Sept 23 2022, with 32' class A and a tow SUV. I had Starlink, fast speeds: 92 MB download and 25 MB upload. Just 1 bar Bell LTE, sometimes not usable. Right by the river!