HI - Rampart Creek Wilderness Hostel

A few advisories regarding HI - Rampart Creek Wilderness Hostel are in order. First, bring your own drinking water or be ready to boil what they have on hand. The local water board has posted an advisory, although hostel management says it's just a formality and the water is ok. Unfortunately, the kitchen building has some rodent issues -- at dawn, mice can be heard scurrying in the walls or perhaps even scampering around the campfire at dusk. You may want to keep your food in your vehicle. On the plus side, Rampart Creek has the hottest wood-fired sauna, the coldest glacier-fed creek, and one of the best climbing libraries around.

Situated near the midpoint of the Icefields Parkway, this hostel is a great place for meeting up with folks working their way either north or south. So with any given guest, your chances are about 50% that you're headed in the same direction and you will meet up again at another hostel! And with the guests headed the other way, it offers you the opportunity to swap tips on hiking trails and other natural wonders that each of you have already seen.

Bow Summit/Peyto Lake (pictured) and Parker Ridge are probably the most popular attractions nearest this hostel. Helen Lake/Cirque Peak and the Columbia Icefields are also a short drive away, but can be easily accessed from other hostels as well. Nightlife is the campfire and sauna, of course! Once the hostel resolves its water and rodent issues, Rampart Creek will be another shining star in the constellation of hostels in the Canadian Rockies.

— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
July 2006