Crimson Lake Provincial Park

August 9 – 13, 2009

Loop – G, Site 4

Camping with Mom, Dad, Katrina and her friend Tara. Eric joined us for a night as well.
Wow this camping trip we were very organized and what made the difference is that we had the trailer at our house the day before and were able to pack it up. This was awesome as I didn’t feel rushed and was really able to make sure we weren’t forgetting anything.

Crimson Lake Provincial Park is a nice distance to drive for a holiday, not too far and not too close that it feels you aren’t getting away. Rocky Mountain House is very pretty and you can tell you are extremely close to the mountains as it is very bushy and there is a lot of wild life around. The campground has a lot of services, for example; there is a very nice store which has almost anything you need, and there is also an ice-cream concession at the beach, showers, flush toilets and plenty of hiking/biking trails. There are quite a few loops here as well, not many with service but an acceptable amount. The loops are very well treed and private which we really like. Loop B is my favourite, so next time I would like to stay there. Our loop was G, and it was not in the main campground but across the road from it. Very nice sites, #4 was the biggest which was our site; lots of room around the campfire area, plenty of trees and a nice spot for the picnic table. Around the back and side of the trailer it was all forest, very pretty. We did have some deer walk by our trailer one morning so that was pretty cool. There are plenty of birds, squirrels in the area as well.

The girls found the campground to be a lot of fun; they were constantly at the beach, bike-riding or just walking around. Of course it helped that the store sold ice caps which were almost as good as Tim Horton’s. At the neighbouring campground, the Wilderness Village, the girls checked out the free petting zoo and also managed to get Dad to go horseback riding one day. This place looks quite nice as well; it has two heated pools, hot tub, but no access to the beach. If you want to go to the beach you have to go to Crimson Lake Provincial Park. One thing that was really nice is that Eric was able to come up for one night to our campground as Penhold was about an hour away, it was really great to see him and to have him join us for the night. The next day Dad took Eric back to the base and then we packed up for our next campground.

David Thompson Resort

August 13 – 14, 2009

David Thompson Resort

Loop 4, Site 63

Well what can I say about David Thompson Resort....didn’t like it too much. The ‘resort’ has a nice gift store, playgrounds, mini-golf and restaurant, so that part was good. We did not like the camping sites at all, very tight together – we really had about 12’ between our trailer and our neighbour, so that was not good. No privacy at all. Not only were you tight beside each other but also in front and in the back of you. The roads in between each row were very narrow - our trailer rubbed the trees as we were leaving. One thing nice is that they are pull through sites so that does make things easier.

The drive to the David Thompson resort is gorgeous; the area is beautiful and mainly untouched. Lake Abraham is breathtaking with clean, sparkling water; it is hard to believe that the North Saskatchewan River originates from that clean manmade lake, so that is really interesting to see. Our drive from Crimson Lake to the David Thompson was about an hour and we were very excited to get there as we had heard some good things about the resort. It was disappointing to see the campground area and we were originally booked for 3 nights but because it was pouring rain and we didn’t like the how tight the sites were we decided to leave early. If the weather had been nicer we would have toughed it out and stayed as there was lots to explore. That afternoon we decided to go for a drive and check out some of the scenery, we made it to Crescent Falls which was very pretty. Well worth going to that area just to see that, we also managed to check out the Bighorn Dam which would be a fantastic place for ATV’s!

http://gateway.cd.gov.ab.ca/siteinformation.aspx?id=27

Tillebrook Provincial Park

July 13 - 17, 2009

Tillebrook Provincial Park is right by Brookes –about 15 minutes away from town but again we were surprised, very nice campground with lots of trees, walking trails, shower and flush toilets. Our site (D-062) was the nicest in the loop we were in – very treed and private. Nice thing about the sites as well is they had pull through paved pads for your trailer, which sure makes it easy to level it out. The campground had a badminton net, playground and it was so clean. All day long the staff was out there trimming the trees, mowing the lawn – very nice place to stop on your travels. We were there for three nights and it was quite relaxing and nobody was bored.

One day we took the girls to Kinbrook Island Provincial Park and that was quite nice too. It is a manmade lake but super clean and well maintained campground. Also would be a nice place to camp if you live in the area but extremely busy and lots of people everywhere. If you are like me you might prefer Tillebrook Provincial Campground as it is a bit quieter.

Well it wasn’t the camping trip we had planned but it turned out well in the end. Again our trailer was awesome but we soon realized we were using too much water and ended up running out. Lesson learned – no washing dishes in the trailer if you don’t have full service!

Dinosaur Provincial Park

July 12 & 13, 2009

Well our first holiday of any kind without Eric as he was at Penhold staffing for air cadets. Wow was that ever weird. I had a good cry after we first set up and all week kept thinking how Eric would have enjoyed everything. Because Eric wasn’t around, Katrina invited her friend Lonneke to come camping with us – which was great! The girls kept each other very busy and seemed to have a lot of fun. Dinosaur Provincial Park seems to come out of nowhere, we were driving around with farm fields on each side of the highway and were beginning to wonder about this campground. What an astounding sight when you first see the park – it is absolutely gorgeous and you can see why it is a World Heritage Site!

The campground is nestled in the canyon of the badlands and it is amazing. Our first 5 minutes in the campground the girls wandered away to explore and found a huge snake – you could hear those two screaming from across the campground! Our site was really nice and we decided we really liked it here so we extended our stay two more nights. The next day, it was absolutely gorgeous and as we walked around the campground again we came across a rattlesnake. Many people were checking it out but then the Park Ranger came and talked to us awhile and he proceeded to remove the snake and take him to where there were no people. Pretty cool but scary too! We decided to go and check out the lake that was nearby and on our way of the campground we came across another rattlesnake on the road making his way to the river. Wow two rattlesnakes within a couple of hours. After being at Lake Newall awhile we thought we should head back to camp as it looked like it was going to rain. Wolf and the girls decided to go tramping around the badlands and I was going to hold down the fort and just relax and read. Everyone just got back to the camp site when it started to rain...and man did it rain! It rained and rained, and rained, we kept thinking it was going to stop but there was no way that was going to happen. We gave up sitting outside and went into the trailer because it was pouring! Supper consisted of sandwiches and potato salad that night and just chilling listening to the rain. We kept looking out the window noticing that the river was getting quite high and people’s campsites were in danger of flooding on the other side of our loop. We weren’t really worried about it though as our site was far from the river but to our surprise at 8:00 p.m. there was a knock on the trailer door and it was the Park Rangers telling us they were evacuating the campground as the river was dangerously high and the road was in danger of washing out. We could not believe it! The ranger said to hurry and grab as much stuff from our site as we could and head up to the parking lot on the top of the canyon. Wow that was unbelievable, we were pretty lucky though the kids were a great help, everything was thrown haphazardly into the truck except for our BBQ’s and our tarp. We were getting pretty worried at this point because the river was right up against the road so it was now or never! We spent a very sleepless night in that parking lot as the rain didn’t want to let up and the wind was howling like crazy...what an adventure!

The next morning the Park Ranger again knocked on our door and asked how we are and then informed us that the campground would be closed until Friday! Yikes, just our luck! The Park Ranger said they had informed Tillebrook Provincial Park about what happened and to maybe expect some additional campers so that is just where we headed. We were extremely disappointed to leave Dinosaur as we had barely began to explore everything and there was so much to do and see but there was nothing we could do about it. We will go back one day as it is an amazing place to visit!

Long Lake Provincial Park

June 19 – 21, 2009
Our third camping trip and this time we didn't forget anything which was great except we had to detour back as we missed the water fill station. That was no big deal though, after that it was smooth sailing! Long Lake Provincial Park is absolutely gorgeous – great trails, beach, and concession. Our site was beautiful – huge site with trees, grass and with ample space between each site. Our loop was D #144, great spot that I would highly reccommend to anyone. We were really impressed with our trailer that weekend, by brother's family came along with us and our trailer held 7 people no problem! So far so good, we love our new Dutchmen Trailer and our camping experiences have been fantastic!

Ole' MacDonald's Resort

May 15 – 18, 2009

So this trip we were a lot more organized but we still forgot items such as cream and other essentials. Nice thing here though is we didn’t have to worry about bringing water as our site was fully serviced with water, power and sewer, and for the other items we forgot it was a quick jaunt into Stettler for that that. Our site #452 wasn’t great though as it was in the overflow area but we were lucky it was the last site on the end so we did have some privacy. The other sites in the trees were a lot nicer but not really private as in provincial campgrounds. Other services offered there were rentals such as boats and pedal bikes. Also had a petting zoo, horses, mini golf, arcade, pool tables and a merry go round. The only free activity was the lake, so these guys are out to make money and they are good at it. The campground is very clean and they seem quite organized as well as they even have their own radio station which was pretty cool.

Weather was decent all weekend – Sunday was gorgeous but on Monday morning we woke up to snow! Thank goodness we were in a trailer - so a lot warmer and drier. All in all it was a really good camping experience, our kids had fun and so did we.

Miquelon Lake Provincial Park

May 8 – 10, 2009

First camping trip in our new trailer, it was a lot of fun but a huge learning experience for us as well. Our biggest error was in thinking that Miquelon Lake would have their water turned on, so we drove there and of course there were no water services at all. We ended up using the water my husband brought with us and still managed to be able to use the washroom, and the faucets which was really nice. Other items we forgot were a BBQ lighter, our pillows and cream. We ended up going home on Saturday morning to pick up more water and the items we forgot. The location is very handy as well, especially for us as we live only 30 minutes away - great spot for any family and a sure bet for a great camping spot if you live around the Edmonton area. We were also quite lucky we were with some experienced campers and they had extras of everything to borrow us; for example our power cord wasn't long enough and one of our friends had an extra. Whew that was lucky!

On the campground side, Miquelon Lake is great, very nice treed sites, new washroom facilities, and a great beach area with concession. Wonderful place to take the family but you had better watch out it books up fast! We would definitely camp at Miquelon Lake again and look forward to going there next time!