In mid-July we booked a campsite at Beaver Mines Lake, a campground I had never been to before. It is tucked away in Castle Provincial Park around 20 minutes from both Pincher Creek and Crowsnest Pass. The drive from Calgary takes about two and a half hours, but as we had lots of time before check-in (4 pm), we took a detour through Okotoks to visit the erratic and check another site off our Southern Alberta tourist bingo.
The Okotoks Erratic is the largest glacial erratic in North America and was carried from Jasper National Park all the way to the Southern Albertan prairies around 10-30,000 years ago. This site is so significant, in fact, that the town of Okotoks is derived from the Blackfoot word for the rock.
We arrived at the campground and found our campsite to be very nicely sheltered from its neighbours about the road. The surrounding vegetation gave us lots of privacy and the campsites were not too crowded together. Overall it was one of the nicest sites I have been to. However, there are few amenities, meaning campers need to bring their own potable water and firewood as neither are provided.
It was quite smoky in the area on our first night, but the smoke started to burn off by midday the next day. We went for a walk around the lake and down one of the interpretive trails in the morning, and then drove to Crowsnest Pass in the afternoon for a hike around the Frank Slide area.
The weather was very hot, and the first hike we took around the interpretive trail for Frank Slide offered little to no shade. The hike was only 1.5 km but there is a little elevation climbing down then back up the trail. It is a wide, well-maintained trail.
Our next trail was towards Bellevue, a 3 km link to the next town. Crowsnest Pass is the result of the amalgamation 5 municipalities in the area (including Bellevue and Frank among others). We did not take the link all the way to Bellevue as we were worried the hot weather was getting to our pup, but there was a large group of runners on the trail, so it is definitely in use!
After spending a few hours in the Frank Slide area, we drove back to the campsite where we let our dog wade in the lake. This would be a great area for boating if you have kayaks or canoes, and is popular amongst fisherman.
Sunday was spent in and around the campground, hiking through the area before it was time to pack up and drive home. We stopped for lunch in Pincher Creek and continued on our way back into the city.
Beaver Mines Lake was a great reprieve from the city and a very lovely campground. I would highly recommend the area as it seems to be less popular than site in Kananaskis or Banff, though the campground was still pretty full. There are also cabins available to rent if that’s more your style.
Immersive Traveller 