Beauvais Lake Campground

So many of the campgrounds we have stayed in on our current 100-day trip have been right by highways and thus very noisy. Beauvais Lake is not one of those; it is off the beaten path and so very quiet and lovely. But you aren't far from Pincher Creek and a Walmart if you need something. There are sites for big rigs and most are easily accessible. Fairly private with well-spaced sites in a mixed deciduous and conifer forest. The campground is not right on the lake, so you have to hike a bit or take your car to get to the boat launch or picnic area. The area around the lake is gorgeous farmland with the mountains ringing the whole valley. Just beautiful countryside. The camp hosts were very helpful. There is a pay dump station. Be sure you hook up first as you only have 5 minutes before an alarm goes off. It was $6. There was no cell or Wi-Fi. There is just electric. Water at dump station.

Stayed here twice in August 2022, and it's a lovely campground. Eleanor and husband have been the hosts there for 24 years; she is an institution! Lots of walking & hiking trails lead out of the campground, the beautiful lake & launching area is a few hundred meters away, and the dump station ($6 Canadian) is across the access road. It's bear country and a cow moose joined us for breakfast one morning, so take care. The Alberta Parks reservation system requires a bit of a learning curve but has campsite graphics that accurately represent the relative sizes of each site. Our last site (68) was very spacious. Water is available via spigots thru-out as are trash facilities and nicely maintained vault toilets. Nice playground for the kids. We only saw 2-4 bars of LTE with Verizon. If coming up from the U.S., this is a conveniently located 'first stop' in Canada. However, beware of your navigation software steering you onto one gravel road after the next to reach the PP. Select paved roads into Pincher Creek and then out on 507 to the PP. The border crossing on Hwy 17 nearby Waterton National Park was closed with Covid and has no reopening date offered at this time, so Carway is where you will likely cross. Fuel up in Browning on the Blackfoot Reservation first.

Pincher Creek has a relatively large Walmart and the Co-Op gas station and grocery story (plus small mall) is nearby. Both offer large parking lots so you can take the whole rig into either lot without much drama. We recommend using the Bank of Scotland ATM in the village to get Canadian currency; several other ATMs were problematic. The Shell gas station sells bear spray. The drive from PC out to Waterton National Park is about 40 mins and beautiful. Pincher Creek area is known for its occasional very high winds (thus, all the wind gens nearby) so a weather check might be a good idea.

Nice big spaces. Treed sites, but with enough trees cleared to get the sun. We stayed a Sunday evening at it was very quiet.
The park requires all sites to be reserved. So if you don't have a reservation, you must call a reservation number(closed on Sundays) or have a smart phone to go online to reserve. No way to pay for your site at the park!!

Such a typical Canadian provincial park! Wonderfully hospitable Camp Hosts (23 years here so far). Easily accessible from paved roads, passing by gobsmacking scenery. Heavily forested sites tho’ with some open spaces for solar. Clean & tidy, and with the basics all in place (treated water from many nearby spigots, many vault toilets, trash containers & fire pits) plus all the sites are surrounded by trails. Boat launch and dock plus fishing & lake swimming only a walk away. 77 spaces with a mix of reserved and non, some of each with 15A power. Full when we were here late August so we recommend a reservation if that’s possible (877 537 2757 from USA). The 'wild' is not far away: Suggest you plan to be Bear Smart and carry bear spray as we had a close call. Cell service varied around the park (the Hosts can text and download email from their site so go there!) but, generally, service is not really available. The $18/night cost was for U.S. currency ($.73 to the Canadian dollar) and was without electricity. They were willing to accept U.S. as well as Canadian currency.

Pincher Creek (pop: 3000) nearby has a Walmart Supercentre, ATM's and, most important of all, a Tim Horton's (free wifi and good coffee - think Starbucks). Castle Provincial Park with its 4 (older) campgrounds and its ‘open areas’ (think dispersed camping) is a half hour away. Even with our home base near Yellowstone, the varied & spectacular scenery here left us in awe.