SideHillSoup
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Re: ? condition of highways from Montana thru Canada to Alaska?
The one thing I will add the the great posts above. My cousin who lives south of Whitehorse, her husband drives up and down the roads of the Yukon every day for work. All he asks is that travellers check/ look in the mirrors and when they see someone behind them, “ and if it is safe to do so” pull over enough so the person behind you can see on coming traffic.’ He also asks that travellers do NOT bunch up and leave at least 500 ft between vehicles. His words not mine and he lives up there.’1.9KViews0likes0CommentsRe: ? condition of highways from Montana thru Canada to Alaska?
Hwy 2 between Grande Prairie Alberta and Dawson Creek BC has lots of frost heave “bumps” across both lanes of traffic. Hwy 29 from Chetwynd BC / Hudson Hope BC to just north of Fort St. John mostly on the northern part hwy has patch work from pipeline work. BC hwy 5 north of Kamloops BC to Valemount BC, pipeline work and paving. Hwy 16 west to Prince George BC to Terrace BC bridge replacement / repair work in a few areas plus hwy work just west of Smithers BC. If you have a few days and want a great place to back up to a lake with 30 amp power. Make a reservation for a few nights at Meziadin lake Provincial park. Try and get sites between numbers, 46 to 50 or 53, 54 or 55. Also make sure you stock up on anything you need before you get there including water in your rv tank and the sani dump is at Meziadin Jct PetroCan gas station ( they have diesel) which couple thousand feet past the turn off to the campground if coming from the south on Hwy 37. You can also purchase wifi in the campground for a small fee. There are FCFS sites however when stayed there in June, the “lake front” FCFS sites were full by 11:am and every other camper that came in without reservations were up on the two benches above the lake side sites. That log roofed structure that is shown on the website below is on the 1st bench, the picture was probably taken from the top or second bench. I reserved our site because my wife is from Stewart BC and we have stayed here before as well we stayed at her childhood friend who has a cabin down the lake from the campground. The trailer in the picture is site #48, with #47 on the right. Meziadin Lake PP.1.9KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Suzanne Lake Provincial Recreation Site (Fernie) ????
pianotuna wrote: Hi, It is a lovely quiet campground. There is potable water and a dump site. No power. Lots of trees. There are large ditches between the road and some of the individual campsites. I hope your backing up skills will meet the need. I did boondock behind a tire store. This is Susanne Lake BC located in the East Kootenays, now I haven’t been to Susanne lake in a number of years, but I have never seen a dump station at any BCRS and or even knew a tire store was at the Suzanne Lake campground… But things may have changed.858Views0likes0CommentsRe: Suzanne Lake Provincial Recreation Site (Fernie) ????
I will also mention that most BC Provincial Campgrounds ( BCParks) close the last weekend in September as do a lot of the private campgrounds as well. Some will be open, but here in the Kootenays it’s very few if any when it comes to BCParks campgrounds. However, Whiteswan Lake Provincial Park does have a campground open year round called “Inlet Creek campground” as well on the road up to Whiteswan is a hot spring called Lussier Hot Springs which as free. Whiteswan is located south of Canal Flast BC and North of Wasa Lake BC ( just over an hour south of Radium Hot Springs) Note: it’s about 25kms up a very well maintained gravel road from Hwy 93/95 to the campground. I had my 5th wheel up there a few times. Whiteswan Provincial park Susanne Lake is a BCRS which is totally different from a BCParks campground, so some BCRS will close for the winter, however a lot of them there is nothing to close, and they do fill up with Hunters that time of year ( in some cases)859Views0likes0CommentsRe: Suzanne Lake Provincial Recreation Site (Fernie) ????
TenOC wrote: SideHillSoup wrote: When? If it’s this weekend ( August 4,5,6 &7) it’s a Stat weekend in BC and Alberta. In BC it’s called “BC Day Long Weekend” . October 7th You might get lucky then for Susanne Lake as in availability, however the road conditions will most likely be the same. Here is the BCRS web Page. They do indicate if a larger RV will fit in the road and or in the camping area for individual campsites, so read them carefully. BCRS web page858Views0likes0CommentsRe: Suzanne Lake Provincial Recreation Site (Fernie) ????
When? If it’s this weekend ( August 4,5,6 &7) it’s a Stat weekend in BC and Alberta. In BC it’s called “BC Day Long Weekend” The lakes in that area especially the BCRS campgrounds ( British Columbia Rec Sites and Trails) which Suzanne Lake is , will most likely be full. Being a long weekend and so close to the Alberta boarder with BC we get a huge amount of Albertans flocking to BC because we have lakes and rivers to play at, Alberta doesn’t have that stuff near as plentiful as BC has, so they come here. I haven’t camped there is 25 years, and when I did it was before BCRS came into being, so it was even more primitive then than it us now. It’s not that far from the Hwy, so you could drive in and have a look, but if it’s full, the area to turn around could be limited. The road in won’t be graded so it will mostly be rough especially in this dry weather we have been having, as well keep an eye out for low hanging branches. Grading for gravel roads in this weather ( extreme fire rating ) is not taken lightly for fear of sparks coming off the cutting edge on the grader blade, so the chances are really really low that that road is in good condition. I also see on the BCRS web page that it states it’s ok for trailers and campers… I’m thinking it might not be suitable for a 35ft 5th wheel. I had a 35ft 5er before my truck and camper, and the main reason I got rid of it was it limited me to where I could take it off into the bush. If it were me… I wouldn’t try with a 35ft 5er.860Views0likes0CommentsRe: Trip 9/17 to 10/7 to Lake Louis/Icefield/Jasper.
pianotuna wrote: HiTenOC, It would not be unusual to have snow on the ground towards the end of the trip. There is not much in the way of boondocking in the National Parks in Canada. There is an overflow camping site for Lake Louise. If you are approaching bamff from the East there is a Casino on the south side of the road before the Park that allows overnight parking for free. Large vehicles are no longer permitted to go up the mountain to access Lake Louise but there is a bus that comes to the campground. They sometimes have "high tea" at the Lodge (hotel). There are some walking trails at Lake Louise. Overnight parking is permitted at the Columbia Ice Fields parking lot. They do have tourist bus/tracked vehicles for travelling out to the fast receding ice fields. Take along a bathing suit and visit one of the hot springs. My favourite is https://hotsprings.ca/miette/ It is east of Jasper on the way to Edmonton and there is a campground nearby. What is your routing? There is boondocking and free dump site at Cranbrook but that may not be on your path. I love the pool at Radium Hot springs. Your routing and ideas are all over the map. 1, first there is no “boondocking in any Canadian National Park period. There is over flow camping and places that you can “camp / park “ over night in the NP’s however they are regulated areas that you can stay at, you just can’t park anyplace you like for the night. 2 that Casino your talking about is about 30 miles from the Banff Park entrance, it is east if Deadman’s Flats, which is east on Canmore… 3. Cranbrook is 3.5 hours south southwest of Banff, there are a lot of places that you can dump your tanks without driving to Cranbrook. As well there are a lot and I mean a lot of campgrounds and our places to camp between Banff and Cranbrook, however because you can’t camp anywhere in a Canadian National Park unless it is a campground ot a permitted area, you won’t find any places to camp legally until south if Radium Hot Springs . 4 you have a campsite at Lake Louise… did anyone tell you that the campsite is only a few hundred yards for the CPR mainline tracks? The trains run past that campground 24/7/365..that means train running near your campsite all night long. I do hope you have a wonderful time in thebCanadisn Rockies, they are fabulous Soup.261Views0likes0Comments
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