roadtripper8069702

Short drive off highway 1 and located adjacent to Canmore visitor centre. Free dump and fill open in the summer season only.

Opens on the May long weekend, Victoria Day weekend, which is the weekend before Memorial Day weekend, usually around the 3rd week of May.

Closes after the Thanksgiving long weekend which in Canada is usually around mid Oct give or take.

Easy to drive into - I gave it 2 stars for access due to the short operating season.

This provincial park campground is pretty and has lots of trees and quite a few waterfront sites. Sites are a bit small and not entirely private but many provide direct access to the water right from the site with a pebble beach footing, including my site #55. Arrive earlier in the day and avoid arriving on the weekend if you want to score a waterfront site. Campground is reservable so you may have trouble getting a site in peak season July and Aug and long weekends.

From their website: At South Campground during peak season, the campsites are 100% reservable but from April to mid June and mid Sept to October there are plenty of First Come First Serve sites available. Winter Camping (with no services) is also available at South Campground during the Off Season but with no provided services. South Campground: open from approx February 15, 2018 to November snowfall (Gate locked when closed). http://www.campokanagan.com/okanagan-lake-provincial-parks

Comfort station looks recently constructed and is quite nice. However, it has open ventilation with the outside so if it is cold outside, it is cold in the comfort station. Showers had hot water when I went but not hot enough to stave off my goosebumps and the water temperature was not adjustable. Avoid showering in cold temperatures if this might bother you.

Lake water was refreshing for swimming on warm days when I was there in mid-May. Lake water was clear and pebble footing was clean and not gunky.

Staff were very friendly and took excellent care of the property. Garbage and recycling are available and water spigots are located throughout the campground. No dump station at the campground but there is a public RV dump in the town of Summerland about 15 mins to the south plus 2 more in Penticton, all listed on Campendium.

Large open grassy area with waterfront picnic tables available for anyone to enjoy. Excellent kids play jungle gym adjacent to comfort station. There is some highway noise but the highway is high up on the hill and the campground is at water level so overall it is not too bad.

Gorgeous 1 km trail from the day use area at the top of the hill with incredible views to the Okanagan Lake North Campground. Another trail connects the north and south campgrounds at water level but was blocked by a fallen tree.

Easy striking distance to Kelowna to the north and Penticton to the south. I recommend the Penticton Farmers Market at 100 Main St on Saturday mornings May to Oct, It is huge! Go hungry and empty your fridge before you go!

Cell service on AT&T was good though it did oscillate between 3 and 4 bars on 4G. With booster I had no troubles inside my RV, booster not needed outside.

Located in the West Block of Grasslands National Park, the Frenchman Valley Campground offers a large loop with 24 electrical sites, 4 otentiks (vinyl sided cabins for rent) and a large overflow area for dry camping. The campground also includes a building with a vented wood stove where campers can congregate and an outdoor community fire pit with benches. Wifi is ostensibly available but did not work while we were there.

Two buildings with pit toilets are located at either end of the electrical loop. There is also a dump station is just outside the campground on the road in. The vistas are breathtaking, the distances are deceptively long, and the wind sometimes gusty, other times calm. The topography is wide open prairie with no trees anywhere. Herds of bison roam freely though are unable to enter the campground due to fencing and texas gates. There are various trails to hike throughout the park.

Getting to the campground is about a 2 hour drive south from Swift Current on the Trans Canada highway. There was a 16 km section of Hwy 4n south of Cadillac that was under serious construction and road conditions were very poor. However, once the construction is completed, the road to Val Marie should be excellent.

The visitor’s centre is in the small town of Val Marie. It was closed when we arrived so we missed it. The drive to the campground from Val Marie is another approximately 40 kms, half of which is the gravel road that winds through Grasslands. The views are spectacular and the road is part of the 80 km ecotour that you can drive to really see the area with 7 interpretive signs along the way and interpretive guide books readily available at multiple locations.

The ecology is considered exceptionally rare and Parks Canada is working to reintroduce native flora and fauna to restore the area to it’s virginal state. Bison were brought back in 2006, black footed ferret in 2009. The black tailed prairie dog population appears plentiful here even though they are considered a species of special concern.

Free dump with rinse water and separate fresh water fill.
Public access garbage and recycyling bins.
Spacious area with daytime parking for RVs right close to downtown area.
Park and go explore!

Easily accessible dump station with separate fresh water fill. Small garbage and recycling bins beside the dump as well.

Dump is accessible 24/7 but costs $5 to release the dump plug and you can only pay with cash in loonies and toonies, Machine does not accept credit cards or provide change so you must plan ahead and be sure to have $1 and $2 coins with you if you will be passing through after hours.

During business hours, there is a small visitor centre that could provide you with change. They also have some displays and information about camping in the area, books for sale plus bathrooms.

The drive up the mountain is happily on a paved, at times steep road. At the top, the road turns to hard packed gravel, sweeping through a forested area with multiple sites widely spaced down this road. I am not sure how many sites there are as I took the first, a spacious site with some sunshine penetrating through the opening in the forest canopy.

Footing was sand/dirt with some rocks but flat enough to be easy to drive into. There was a large stone fire pit. The forest is not very dense and it is possible to walk through the forest area around the campsite some 500 feet out in all directions while mostly keeping your camper in view. On the way into the camping area, you will pass Jakes Rocks, a short trail that takes you past a variety of erratics, large boulders left over from retreating glaciers of the last ice age. Also, there is a pretty lookout from Jakes Rocks over the Allegheny River. Jakes Rocks was about 1 mile down the gravel road from the first campsite where I stayed.

The campsite was relatively clean for a dispersed site. Sites were sufficiently well spaced that you felt quite alone except for when cars occasionally drove past, generally quite fast. I did have decent signal there on my Canadian cell plan with Bell Canada.

I found this site by asking at the ranger station where the dispersed camping was. They gave me a list of forest roads that they said had some dispersed sites. It was a fairly long list which suggested to me that there may be lots of other areas with free camping in this national forest.

Pretty government campground with a handful of sites (including tent sites) overlooking the south, short end of Squanga Lake. Only 2 lakeview RV sites so come early to snag one – these are in an open sunny area.

Other sites in the campground are treed and more shady but not very private. Sites have picnic tables and campfire pits. Pit toilets, garbage, recycling and bear proof food bins for tenters! Free firewood for use at the campground. Water pump with sign that says you must boil the water. No Sanidump.

Boat launch on cement pad and wood dock. Need 4wd for boat launch as gravel road down to lake is steep. Water is shallow but super soft mud underwater at the shore makes swimming or wading basically impossible. Beautiful sunsets from the dock over the lake!

No cell service at all on AT&T. Bell Canada worked well. Little to no road noise by the lake but sites near the entrance had some noise.

Uclelet and Tofino are both high end, resort type towns with Tofino about 1/2 the size and 2x the price of Ucluelet. Most RV parks are charging a premium. Green Point is the National Park campground which means it is usually booked up and even if you can get a site, you will need to purchase a National Parks day pass to camp there at an additional charge.

Wya Surf Shop is a rarity in the area offering dry camping to RVers for $20. You can get electric and water for $30 if you prefer (unsure about sewer). All campers have access to their shower building ($1 per minute but instant hot water and good pressure). This place caters to the surfer crowd but you don't have to be a surfer to camp here. Also, they seem to be flying a bit under the radar - there were only 2 RV campers there on the Thanksgiving Long weekend (October) including us, when basically everywhere else was booked up.

I don't want to sugar coat it - it's basically a single open loop with RV sites side by side on the outside, plus they have additional walk-in tent sites in the forest. However, we were super happy to find this place for it's great location and affordable price as a home base to explore the town of Ucluelet to the south and the National Parks beaches, trails, and visitor centre to the north.

The check in process was super lax in stark contrast to the highly involving process of registering to stay at Green Point down the road. They have a surf shop with clothes for sale and a restaurant that was closed when we were there. BTW, the office is only open 9-5 - if you arrive after hours, you should be okay to just set up at a site and pay in the morning when they arrive.

Open forest sites, almost half with a view of Windy Arm of Tagish Lake, but none with direct access. Short trail leads from campground down to the lake.

Cell signal was very strong in Carcross on Bell and may also reach to the campground only 15 mins south.

Water available in large barrel with boil water advisory. Garbage and recycling. Forest fire at time of photos across the lake. Hope the campground is still there. Good luck!

A pretty campground surrounded by tall pines and young live oaks with a palmetto understory. Some leaf litter and ticks. No electricity. Facilities include a portapotty with a poo mountain, a water pump with non-potable water and garbage bins.

Entrance to the campground is down a wide flat gravel road that has extensive washerboard - slow going for an RV but entirely passable. Only 4 official sites, if there are no sites available, Bennett Campground is farther south down the same road and has 6 sites. Great location a short 20 minute drive to Daytona Beach or Ormond Beach.

Currently you must call to book your site on the day of arrival and pay by cash or check at the iron ranger pay station in the pay envelope. Office opens at 7am and you can call even before you arrive. This may be changing as they said on the phone that they are working on setting up an online reservation system.

Site 1 has the best exposure for sun/solar, the others are more shady, though 4 is next best. Upon arrival, site 1 was empty but when we called, we found out it had already been booked. Site 2 was supposed to be available but there was a motorhome parked there the office didn't know about. A truck camper pulled in and parked overnight in the open area that was not an official site. I assume rangers do come in to check on things - I passed one on the road in but never saw one at the campground during our stay. We were able to extend our stay twice by calling in the morning and simply asking and then putting another $10 in the post.

Lovely dirt/grass road leads east from the campground great for cycling or hiking. I saw white-tailed deer and a gopher tortoise. Mostly quiet except for some generator noise from neighboring campers. Huge spacious area for equestrian activities plus multiple horse pens including a good size round pen.