Our third and final camping adventure for this summer saw us head to Crimson Lake.
Crimson Lake is in Crimson Lake Provincial Park, about 14km from Rocky Mountain House, so about a two-and-a-half-hour drive north east of Calgary.
We were really looking forward to heading to Crimson and it didn’t disappoint. The camp site is absolutely beautiful, with huge trees sheltering large sites, so there is plenty of space and shade – it’s the prettiest of the three sites we’ve been to so far.
The lake is just next to the camp site and a short drive away. The whole area is so pretty and the sunsets over the lake were golden and magical and took our breath away. There’s plenty to do in the area, from water sports, to bike rides, and great hikes around the lake.
We were in the A loop and had a lovely site surrounded by trees, so we had plenty of privacy and shade, with the neighbouring site quite a distance away through the trees. It was so special when we arrived to see a little deer wandering passed our site and, despite the main road being nearby, it was still very peaceful. The only inconvenience was that the camp site is so large that we ended up being over a kilometre from the rest of our camping group, who were all in the B and D loops, so it wasn’t that easy to just pop in for a quick hello, and we felt a little isolated. But we still managed to have some lovely get togethers and had fun getting to know new friends.
The lake and the beach are really beautiful and, once again, we had lots of fun relaxing, playing in the water, and building sandcastles. There is always such a happy, relaxed vibe on the beach, but it did become quite crowded. Fortunately, the park, and especially the beach, where well patrolled by parks staff and once the beach became too crowded they closed access to the area. So, I’d definitely suggest going early in the morning to get a good spot and avoid the crowds. We preferred to go early and then head back to our site to relax under the trees for the afternoon.
Once again, the mosquitoes were pretty hectic – the worst of our three camping trips – and we were really chomped up. But this is just a part of camping in Canada that you need to get used to and prepare for. We also had our first encounter with a skunk as we were sitting by the fire one evening and I saw movement in the bushes – got quite the fright when we saw the big bushy tail wandering past, but we just kept calm so as not to scare him, and he crept back into the bushes.
Crimson Lake is definitely on our list of campsites to return to next summer – and hopefully we’ll be doing so in our very own trailer.
Cape Town to Calgary 
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