I know a little bit about tourist towns. When I was growing up, my father’s parents lived in Red Lodge, one of the communities that is near an entrance to Yellowstone National Park. My grandfather owned a service station that sold gas to car after car of tourists during the summer. The tourists were heading through town up the Beartooth Highway, sometimes called the Highway to the Sky. Highway 212 zigzags across the Montana-Wyoming border through the high country. It takes over an hour to get to the Northeast Entrance of Yellowstone Park near Cook City, where the price of gas is even higher. Sensible drivers leave Red Lodge with a full tank of gas. Service stations are few and far between, the road is steep and people want to stop often to look at the scenery. The highway closes in the winter due to heavy snow and when it does the ski season opens on Red Lodge Mountain. In the summer there are days when there are more tourists in town than permanent residents.

We lived for 25 years in Rapid City, South Dakota, which has a lot of different elements to its economy, but tourists are definitely part of the picture. People come to Rapid City to see Badlands National Park, Mount Rushmore National Monument, the Crazy Horse mountain carving, Custer State Park, Wind Cave, Jewell Cave, and a host of other attractions. The annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally brings more visitors to the region than permanent residents.

And now we live in Birch Bay, Washington, where approximately 40 percent of the houses are offered as short term rentals to guests who come to the beach, many from the nearby busy city of Vancouver. Some of the businesses along the beach operate in the summer only. We play host to guests throughout the summer, and our little area is fairly quiet and calm during the winter months.

I have also visited a number of tourist towns as one who travels and enjoys seeing new places. Among the places we have visited that I would love to return to one day is Jasper, Alberta. We traveled there with our pickup camper coming up highway 99 through Banff National Park past the ice fields into Jasper National Park. The scenery is gorgeous and camping next to roaring mountain streams and putting our canoe into remote mountain lakes was delightful. The historic town of Jasper features a beautiful train station where tourists come and go. Jasper is a town like Red Lodge, where you want to make sure to fill up your gas tank. Just three roads come into the town and it is a fair distance on any of them to the next town. The remoteness of the location is part of its appeal in my mind.

I can imagine the chaos when wild fires forced the evacuation of both the town and the National Park earlier this week. Wildfire had already cut off the road south towards Banff, the quickest way to the major city of Calgary. There were also fires burning to the northeast closing Highway 16 to Edmonton. The only way out of town was to travel west through the mountains toward Kamloops and even farther to Kelowna. As tourists and residents lined up at the gas stations to prepare for the journey the electricity was cut off. Some didn’t get their cars filled up. Then they had to drive through smoke and ash in a line of cars heading out of the town. The town of Jasper has about 10,000 residents. It is estimated that there was an additional 15,000 visitors in the national park who were asked to flee late Monday. Over 2,000 campsites were closed and reservations cancelled.

And when people arrived in Kamloops, that town was overwhelmed with people fleeing wildfire. Kamloops had already opened itself as a shelter for residents of Williams Lake, in British Columbia, which also had to evacuate due to wildfire. Evacuees are now being instructed to circle back to Calgary by a southern route through the mountains.

It remains to be seen what will remain when people are allowed to return. There are multiple fires threatening the town and burning through the National Park. Some fire predictions say that flames could reach the town this week. The fire is within 5 miles of town and conditions are very challenging for firefighters who are making preparations to protect residences and businesses.

What I know about tourist towns is that being forced to close in the summer can be devastating for local businesses. Hotels, restaurants, ice cream parlors and liquor stores all depend on summer traffic to earn their profit. Evacuating summer vacationers from the park means removing customers from businesses. Although some businesses will be able to maintain limited services for firefighters in the area, most have simply had to be closed without any certainty when or if they will be able to return to serving people. And if they are able to re open this summer there may not be any customers. It simply is not a good year to visit Jasper National Park. Consequently, it simply is not a good year to be in business in Jasper.

All of Alberta is under weather warnings with unseasonably hot temperatures and hundreds of wildfires Similar conditions exist in British Columbia to the West, Northwest Territories and the Yukon to the north and Manitoba to the east.

Wildfire has now become an important part of planning travel in the north. We had planned to do quite a bit of camping and exploring in the western provinces when we retired. So far we haven’t camped in Canada a single night since retiring, however. Fires are only part of the picture for us, but we know that we will have to pay attention and have contingency plans when we are able to camp and explore. A satellite phone is now an essential piece of equipment for those who explore the back country.

Right now our little community has a bit of space for guests who choose the seaside over the mountains this summer. We’re open for business. We may have to learn to welcome and provide services to an increasing number of climate refugees going forward.