We were heading to a spot on the edge of Yoho National Park, hopefully we would be able to walk to Wapta Falls. But even without that, we had a view of the Rocky Mountains, with the Kicking Horse River not far from our spot. But how busy would it be near the park? Join us on the way there and find out.
Our travels took us north on Highway 95 to Golden. The valley is broad and wide, with a fair bit of boondocking potential outside of the touristy areas of Golden and Radium Hot Springs to Invermere I was surprised to see how much development has occurred around Invermere, but then again it probably has been twenty years since I have been by this way. I usually have come into BC via Highway 3 rather than through Radium as it is a bit quicker for destinations in the south part of BC. There was even a traffic jam approaching the traffic circle at Radium, but it was the Monday of the May long weekend in Canada – the first busy camping weekend of the short northern season.
Golden is still not too touristy, being originally mostly a railway town. But there were a ton of rental RVs around and things were hopping. Our stop for propane was a bust – not open on the long weekend Monday! The grocery store was packed, but in a grocery sense. They really pack things tight in the Save on Foods there. At least that meant the selection was good, but even with it not being that busy it was challenging to maneuver around people in the tight quarters. They could use a space expansion in that store for sure.
We both had enough propane for a few days still – fortunately it was not going to be cold. Your fridge and stove use are minor draws on your tanks. I would be able to do a week when my gauge reads an eighth of a tank if I need to stretch things, especially since it was at just the right temperature where the fridge was not working too hard and the furnace was not required.
The plan was to camp near the border of Yoho National Park. There is one forestry road that heads up the Kicking Horse River outside of the park, eventually bailing off and heading up another valley outside the park. I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of how busy it would be, but since it was Monday, I figured all the weekend campers would be cleared out by the time we got there. The worst case scenario was that we would have to go a bit further up the road to find a free spot – the gravel always discourages people from going too far up the way.
We shared the gravel pit with this water trailer
We only traveled a couple of klicks up the road before finding a spot in an old gravel pit beside the road. It wasn’t the greatest spot in the world, but we decided it wasn’t worth going further down the gravel road to see if there was something better. We found out quickly that the road got a fair bit of traffic on it, but we were just far enough off that it wasn’t too much of a bother. It wasn’t traveled at night so sleeping wasn’t an issue. Carolyn had a Black Bear encounter one morning with Sadie. It’s a good thing Sadie is well trained to leave the bears alone, even if she can’t pass up a big stick.
A boondocking spot with a picnic table
I on the other hand saw nothing. That’s the price I pay for sleeping in. All the wildlife has gone and hidden for the day by the time I’m out and about usually. I did hike around and find some good boondocking in the area, although I wouldn’t try for it in the summer; it is likely to be occupied. I did hike over to two rec sites down the road. Wapta Falls Rec site was one of the worst I’ve seen. The road in was mud, I’d say you would get your RV through it… probably. The sites were cramped and right by the road, with trees overgrown limiting your view of the falls below you. I could see no trail from the campsite to the falls either. The site was also mostly full, on a Tuesday, just after the Victoria Day long weekend. I wrote that one off the minute I was through the camp, it sucks from my perspective.
Kicking Horse River
I continued down the road to the Fraser Creek rec site. It is right by the main road, although there is a bit of tree screening so you are not completely visible. There are only two real spots, although if you were a group camping together another person could camp on the road in blocking off the exit for the other two. There was one camper there when I walked by, but I could see it was a much better site, if it was empty! There was also a trail heading towards Wapta Falls, which it did indeed end up doing. The trail has some maintenance and little elevation change so it’s a pretty easy hike. The falls are more impressive than I expected. I wished for better light for pictures, but you take what you can get.
The second day, I hiked to Beaverfoot Lodge, a rustic camping lodge with individual cabins and nice grass grounds. It had a sign saying it was open but I saw and heard no one around. I was thinking it generated most of the road traffic in the area, but I saw no cars there either. People must be driving further down the road to the more remote rec sites. You could hike to Wapta Falls from the lodge (I suspect they are maintaining the trail on this side). The lodge looked pretty nice, if I was going to pay for something like this, I wouldn’t mind this.
Beaverfoot Lodge grounds
In the process of hiking to the lodge, I saw that Fraser Creek was now vacant, so Carolyn and I decided to move over and make it ‘full’. That’s one of the nice things about travelling with someone, you can claim an area more easily and discourage others from coming in. We did have people come up to see if there was space, nope it’s all full, move on! There was a couple who got chased back to their van by Sadie. Little did they know they would have been just licked to death, she really likes new people.
Another RV looking for access to the falls
Speaking of people, there were many in the area, several rental RVs came through the area and I got asked several times how to access Wapta Falls from this road. It’s not obvious, but with a little internet research I already knew the trail to the falls started somewhere around the Fraser rec site. Indeed, if you cross the road from the camp, you’ll see the trail right away. There are no signs for anything other than the National Park border just before you get to the falls. It’s not like you’ll get lost – the directions you go in are pretty obvious if you have any navigational skills whatsoever.
Wapta Falls Day 1
Wapta Falls Day 2
Hiking to the falls a second day I was rewarded with better light. It still wasn’t great, but the sun did poke out a few times to get some decent pictures and video. It was fun to hike with Carolyn and Sadie and share a great viewpoint. One thing you will see at this viewpoint is people on the other side of the falls. Most people park in Yoho National Park and hike into the falls from that side, so most of the pictures are from there too. I perused the Flickr map, zooming in on the falls to compare what others have photographed. While it’s a personal taste thing, I’d say the best photos of the falls can be had from the lesser hiked side we were on.
We continued on into Alberta, diverging for a couple of days. Carolyn was going to visit Calgary, which I intended to do later. I was headed north for an easy camping spot at Cartier Creek Campground. For those of you who don’t do this all the time I’ll tell you what an ‘easy’ camp spot is:
- Easy access with little gravel road and no rough roads, not to0 far from resupply
- High availability with low probability of annoying neighbors
- At least reasonable cell service
- Sites that are reasonably level
- Bonus points for picnic tables, firepits, some scenery in the area
Cartier satisfies all those points, also being on the way north Carolyn was traveling in her (half) cross country Canada tour. It’s one of the big reasons I maintain my membership with the Friends of the Eastern Slopes Association, they maintain this and several “not so easy” campgrounds along the Rocky Mountain foothills between Calgary and Red Deer. While their primary focus is equestrian, the campgrounds they maintain benefit all users in the area, especially if you are willing to go outside of cell service areas. Cartier has one big downside: it’s right beside the highway going into the Red Deer River valley area to the forestry road and beyond. You get a lot of horse trailers and construction equipment hauling noise beyond the regular car traffic, so it’s not so peaceful until later in the evening.
Leaving the campground, you can see how it is right by the road
We had a couple more days together before Carolyn left to head to points further north. She had a long trip east ahead of her, following the edge of the farming belt of the northern prairies. Since the weather was nice, I stayed one more night before heading into Didsbury to visit my friend. Then it would be off to Calgary for the usual round of appointments. It was what I consider to be the end of another travel season. Even though I spend little time in the Calgary area, I still consider it to be home, and it definitely is home as far as any official agency is concerned! But there are still local adventures to be had, join me next time for those.
