May/June 2023 – Camping in Western Canada
- Trevor
- Oct 12, 2023
- 11 min read
Why
Why Canada? Why camping?
When Sandy and I headed into early retirement, our plan was to travel extensively, but with a reasonable budget. This meant limited stays in traditional hotels, relying on long-term condo rentals and also on the cost savings found in many places outside the United States. Living outside of the U.S. for most of the year also qualifies us for lower-priced health insurance found on the international market.
We returned to the U.S. in mid-March to help daughter Skylar with her new baby in Butte, Montana. This created a red-flag with our plan to head south to Mexico in September - it would basically put us at our limit of 6 months in the U.S., leaving us with no flexibility for emergencies or travel changes, and at risk of having our coverage declined for being in the U.S. too long. Basically, we needed to get out of the U.S. for part of the summer.
Mexico was our first option, but it would be a long drive back south, and most of Mexico is very hot in the summer. What about Canada? All of the travel restrictions had been lifted, and my online research said that driving across the border with a dog is very straightforward. But what about costs? Our typical condo/restaurant lifestyle in Mexico costs us around $100/day, but could easily balloon to $200+/day up north. (Note - these are only “daily costs” for lodging, food, transportation, entertainment, etc., and does not include costs like cell phone, car maintenance, insurance, or periodic costs that aren’t tied to a location, like laundry, household supplies, or any costs for Gunner.) We discussed that the only way we could even come close to our Mexico daily spending levels was if we camped our way through Canada. Sandy has not historically enjoyed camping, but has tolerated it for our daughter and grandkids. Surprisingly, she wanted to give it another shot. Even more surprisingly (spoiler alert), she really enjoyed spending 60+ nights in a tent this summer!
How
Now that we’ve covered the “why”, let’s discuss “how”:
We kept a lot of our camping equipment in our storage unit when we started our retirement journey, so we already had a family-sized tent and the majority of gear and cooking equipment that we would need. We upgraded our sleeping system to include a king-sized inflatable mattress so that we could easily share our sleeping space with Gunner. Over the course of the summer, Sandy created a sleeping-system recipe that she carefully assembled and disassembled at each stop: space blankets – wool blanket – inflatable mattress – mattress topper – fitted sheet – sleeping bags – top sheet - fleece blanket
For the majority of our locations, this system worked well and kept us warm. Additionally, Sandy typically slept in long underwear and a hoodie. I started the summer with long underwear, but typically wore pajamas and a fleece cap later in our trip. We also took a propane “Buddy heater” with us for cold nights. We would usually only run the heater for an hour or so at night, then again in the morning, though there were a couple of weeks that we ran the heater on low for the entire night. Whenever we used the heater, we also turned on our CO alarm as a precaution. At some locations we had electricity at our site, so we bought a small electric heater, but we both agreed that the propane heater worked better. We started the trip using the green Coleman 1-lb propane cans, but ended up buying a 20-lb tank and a 10-ft adaptor hose. By the end of the summer, the lower cost of propane ended up paying for itself.
For our camp kitchen, we used a 2-burner propane stove for all of our cooking. We had a few camp-style recipes in our cookbook, but we scoured the internet for new ideas throughout the summer. We also invested in a screen-style tent to set up over our dining area. It worked well to keep bugs out, but was not very sturdy in the wind. We often washed dishes in our camp site unless the campground offered a good camp sink nearby. You would be surprised how many campers don’t think about washing dishes – lots of people making a mess near the fresh water supply faucet, rather than taking time to heat water.
We decided early-on that we would stay only at campgrounds with running water and flush toilets. We also avoided “primitive” sites with no access to power, and often no cell service. There’s only so much “roughing-it” that we were willing to take on during our first summer outdoors!
Where
Sandy’s cousin got married in Wyoming in July, so we broke our travel down for pre- and post-wedding. Our original plan (actually lack-of-plan) was to randomly explore Alberta for the first half of the summer. Once we got to Alberta, we very easily found a camp site at the Garner Lake Provincial Park. There, the camp host commented how lucky we were because the campground would be filling up quickly and it would not be as quiet. Taking her comments to heart, some quick online research showed that: 1) Canadians love camping, especially June through August, 2) while it was fairly easy to find open camp sites during the week, many campgrounds were already reserved on weekends, and 3) rain was forecasted for Alberta for the coming week. With all of that to think about, we decided to get a hotel for 2 nights to make some reservations for the rest of our time pre-wedding. For your entertainment, and for my own future reference, here are all of the places we stayed:
Garner Lake Provincial Park, Alberta – Nice clean park, but a lot of buzzing insects. It took us a bit to realize the persistent low droning noise was a swarm of insects, which fortunately hovered about 20 feet up in the air, rather than in our camp. The bugs were bad enough at the lake that we didn’t try to do any fishing. We probably won’t return to this park.
Hinton, Alberta – We stayed at the Quality Inn and put together a schedule and made all of our reservations. Hinton is a small logging town, lacking many good restaurants, but with a really neat park built around and across some beaver dams. We made a short trip up to the Miette Hot Springs near the national park. There is a nice, clean facility for accessing hot pools, where we sat and enjoyed the surrounding mountains. Overall, there’s not much to do in Hinton, but it’s a nice gateway to the Jasper National Park. We’re not likely to return, unless we’re just needing a place for an overnight stop.
Knutsford Campground, Kamloops, British Columbia – The camp host at this private campground was super-friendly and went out of his way to make sure we enjoyed our stay. Kamloops is a nice, small city surrounded by mountains and hills. It has many modern comforts and restaurants, as well as a very nice dog beach along the river. We would like to spend more time in Kamloops.
Clearwater Country Inn Motel & RV Park, Clearwater, British Columbia – This campground was a disappointment. The owners have many full time RV residents and the tent sites are an afterthought. The town of Clearwater is a wonderful base for the Wells Grey Provincial Park, home to many dramatic waterfalls. Backtracking on our loop to stay in Clearwater was not ideal, but the parks were booked solid in the direction we wanted to go. We enjoyed the provincial park and would try to stay at one of their campgrounds on a return trip, rather than in town.
Bear Creek Provincial Park, Kelowna, British Columbia – Very nice provincial park. We could only get in for 3 nights mid-week and really wish we could have stayed longer. We had some unplanned work done on our car here, so really didn’t have much time to explore. We would love to plan ahead better and return to explore this city.
Revelstoke RV & Cabin Resort, Revelstoke, British Columbia – We were supposed to stay here, but rain was in the forecast for the entire stay. We ended up cancelling and avoiding the rain, but we lost $85 on our campground reservation. We would like to return here as a base camp for some of the smaller national parks nearby.
Hidden Valley Campground & RV Park, Salmon Arm, British Columbia – Probably our most scenic campground, next to a creek, surrounded by tall pines. But… a steady stream of noise from the nearby highway all night and inconsistent shower temps mean that we would not come back to this campground. Salmon Arm is a nice town, plus there are many other nearby towns with touristy things to do. We managed to find a winery in one direction and a farmers market and local dairy in the other direction. We would enjoy a return trip, but staying in a different campground.
Tunnel Mountain Village I Campground, Banff National Park, Alberta – Beautiful National Park with decent spacing between the camp sites. There is so much to see around here that 4 nights was not enough. We got a bit of rain here, and nights cold enough to run the heater full time. We definitely want to return to this area and would stay in this campground again. Lake Louise is a very popular spot nearby, but we were not able to see it. It’s so popular that visitors need to park in a satellite lot and take a bus to the lake, which we were unable to do with Gunner. We would try to book early enough to get a camping spot at Lake Louise if we return.
Wapiti Campground, Jasper National Park, Alberta – Our first thought was a bit of disappointment. Very few trees and the showers were broken (we had to go down the road to another campground). Our impressions changed when we realized the campground was well-named, because we saw multiple elk every day of our stay. This location had our best weather and we would camp here again.
Rainbow Valley Campground, Edmonton, Alberta – Nice city facility with a surprising number of available tent sites. The infrastructure at the campground was just so-so. We really didn’t explore Edmonton – it was hard to find dog-friendly entertainment, and we can’t leave Gunner alone in a tent. It also rained most of the days we were here. It would be fun to return to explore Edmonton, but I don’t think we would stay at this campground.
Innisfail, Alberta – Back to a motel after a month in the tent. We had to get our car checked out (again) and they confirmed some issues, but they’re only covered under warranty in the U.S.! Innisfail is a decent town, with some good restaurants and really nice parks. It’s a reasonable place to stop mid-travel, but I’m not sure we need to come back for a longer stay. This was our last Canadian stop before heading south to the wedding.
Throughout the trip, we ended up moving every 4 or 5 days. It would have been nice to stay in some places longer, but couldn’t find many longer blocks due to our lack of planning ahead. In each spot, we spent most days exploring, along with the occasional hike. We went grocery shopping 2-3 times per week, helping to keep our ingredients fresh and to make sure that we had enough space in our cooler. We made time for laundry every couple of weeks, sometimes at our campground, but occasionally at a local laundromat.
For anyone considering a trip to British Columbia, the scenery is the main attraction. Our favorite location, by far, was the Icefields Parkway, which is the highway that connects Banff and Jasper. The highway winds through valleys, between dramatic mountains, and with lots of great views of glaciers and light blue-green lakes. There are some “primitive” camping spots along the Parkway and all appeared to have plenty of spots available. We discussed staying at 1 or 2 of these if we return.
People have asked if we were impacted by the large Canadian fires this summer. Basically, no. We did have a few days with haze and a couple of locations where we were not allowed to have a campfire. We also had some excitement in Kelowna where a fire started across the road from the campground. We watched a helicopter dip water from the lake and the fire was put out quickly. Other than that, the wildfires really didn't affect our trip at all.
Our final Canadian animal count included: 10 bears – 9 black bears and 1 grizzly, too many elk and bighorn sheep to count, a handful of deer, some beavers, 2 mountain goats, 1 coyote, and 3 foxes. We were sorely disappointed that we never spotted a moose during our entire time north of the border!
Some general comments about our camping trip to Canada:
Everyone wonders about bears. Yes, there are a lot of bears in Canada. Everyone we saw seemed to be bear-aware and very responsible in the camp sites. We kept our cooler and food in the car and didn’t have any issues, or hear of any issues at our campgrounds.
Provincial parks are free for day use, you only need to pay for overnight camping. This is different than our experiences in the U.S. where most state parks have a day-use fee.
Both the Banff and Jasper National Parks required a “fire permit”, which basically provided unlimited firewood for $7 USD per night. We took advantage of it, because we were spending $5-6 for bundles of firewood at our other sites. It’s critical to have a hatchet to split firewood because most pieces are too big to burn. Fire-starting blocks and lighter fluid are also handy to avoid having to collect a lot of small sticks.
Private campgrounds typically have wifi internet, but provincial parks do not. Public libraries are a great place to set up with a laptop for free wifi.
Power – we appreciated camp sites that had electric hookups, but didn’t like paying $7-10 per day extra. We often relied on outlets at the bathroom or other public area, or charged phones and devices while driving in the car. We are strongly thinking about buying a portable solar system if we camp again next year.
Most campground showers in Canada are pay-as-you-go. It’s important to keep a stack of dollar coins ("loonies"), and every campground seems to provide a different amount of time for your money.
Canadian Tire might be my new favorite store. I originally thought they were an auto parts store, but really they’re a catch-all with a ranching/camping outdoor feel, somewhat like Murdoch’s in the U.S.
Packing and moving is a lot of work. If we can plan ahead better, it would be nice to reserve longer stays in each spot.
Costs
We went camping so that we could stay close to our daily Mexico costs – so how did we do? Amazingly well! The first item to consider when reviewing our costs is the exchange rate. We were fortunate that the U.S. dollar has been comparatively strong for a while, averaging around 75 cents to the Canadian dollar during our trip.
Most of our campsites were $25-$30 USD per night. Even with the hotel nights bracketing the trip, we averaged $38 per night for lodging, which is lower than we plan for Mexico. We had campfires about half the time, at a total cost of $120 for wood and supplies.
We typically ate in camp, took a picnic lunch when we explored, and only ate in restaurants about once per destination. Grocery costs in Canada were often similar to the U.S. (but higher than Mexico!) and we did find that small town costs were often higher than larger cities. Our food costs ended up at $42/day for groceries, restaurants, and alcohol. This included A LOT of ice throughout our travels, usually a block or bag every 2 days, averaging about $15-20 per week. In total, our food costs were about 25% higher than we spend in Mexico.
Our real budget-buster for the trip was gasoline - $705 for our 6-week trip, or about $16.50/day! (This is just the costs in Canada and doesn’t include any before/after travel within the U.S.) That’s quite a bit higher than I had expected, but we made a very large loop around the area, and we also did a lot of exploring from our camp sites throughout the Canadian Rockies. When you consider that driving around was the bulk of our entertainment, maybe it doesn’t seem so bad.
Other higher-cost items included a Canadian National Parks pass ($107 USD for an annual pass) and $71 for a fishing license that I never used. Our final average costs for travel, lodging, food, and entertainment were close to our target, around $106/day.
In addition to what I would call “daily travel costs”, we also had to make some investments in our camping gear - $600 for items such as our sleep system, screen tent, space heater, propane tank, and bear spray.
Final Thoughts
We had a wonderful time camping in Alberta and British Columbia, and Gunner loved the weather and hiking in the parks. We preferred the scenery in British Columbia and are definitely thinking about returning next summer. If we do, we’ll plan further ahead, especially for the national parks.
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