Elbow Lake Backcountry Campground
5 reviews Kananaskis, AB +1 403-678-0760 albertaparks.ca suggest an edit
12 October 2023 7:23
Wonderful easy to access backcountry site with great amenities. Good food storage, clean vault toilets, great tent pads, lovely communal fire pits and cooking areas, plus free firewood. For the price I was really impressed with how nice the campground is, I don't understand any others complaints. With lots of bear activity in the area, especially this year I appreciated the efforts they've gone to in the campground to reduce attractants so everyone can enjoy the outdoors.
07 July 2023 4:04
So beautiful lake surrounded by mountains. I will come back for overnight camping
01 July 2023 0:20
Headwaters to the Elbow River. Campground had been recently groomed and redone. Lots of places to explore once there. Good hike to the Glacier, or south to Tombstone. Cutthroats in the lake.
29 June 2023 16:51
I’m incredibly frustrated with this camp site.
They have fully prohibited campfires and removed the fire pits despite fires being allowed county-wide. I suspect they did so due to wild fires this year but the logic is not thought through.
The fire pits vastly reduce the likelihood of a fire spreading. Individuals who are most likely to not carefully put out their fit are almost the most likely to have a fire anyway (against the rules) and just build their own pit, which increases risk of fire.
In fact, while there this weekend, there were multiple fire pits built and poorly managed.
This is a policy that basically vastly impacts the most rule abiding people AND increase risk of wild fire by people not accessing fire pits.
On top of this, I have noticed that rangers are intentionally placing logs anywhere where foot trails were forming, attempting to force people to only ever walk on the stone pathways.
1. This is dangerous in an area with active bears, having multiple foot paths easily accessible in case a need to detour is SUPER valuable.
2. The stone pathways are more disruptive to nature and conservation than foot paths. By placing this dead fall on natural foot paths, you’re mostly encouraging people to just form new foot paths.
There are essentially no amenities and it’s insanely expensive. Not even having access to contained fire pits made this the work camping trip I have had in years.
The paths are beautiful and the hike is absolutely worth it but DO NOT bother staying overnight.
They have fully prohibited campfires and removed the fire pits despite fires being allowed county-wide. I suspect they did so due to wild fires this year but the logic is not thought through.
The fire pits vastly reduce the likelihood of a fire spreading. Individuals who are most likely to not carefully put out their fit are almost the most likely to have a fire anyway (against the rules) and just build their own pit, which increases risk of fire.
In fact, while there this weekend, there were multiple fire pits built and poorly managed.
This is a policy that basically vastly impacts the most rule abiding people AND increase risk of wild fire by people not accessing fire pits.
On top of this, I have noticed that rangers are intentionally placing logs anywhere where foot trails were forming, attempting to force people to only ever walk on the stone pathways.
1. This is dangerous in an area with active bears, having multiple foot paths easily accessible in case a need to detour is SUPER valuable.
2. The stone pathways are more disruptive to nature and conservation than foot paths. By placing this dead fall on natural foot paths, you’re mostly encouraging people to just form new foot paths.
There are essentially no amenities and it’s insanely expensive. Not even having access to contained fire pits made this the work camping trip I have had in years.
The paths are beautiful and the hike is absolutely worth it but DO NOT bother staying overnight.
28 January 2023 0:10
There were communal fires pits and firewood available in 2019. When I want back in 2021 the fire pits were removed. In 2022 the trail was closed for the season. Paying $90.00 a year for the Conservation pass plus camp site fees and booking fees I'm paying more and getting less. I hope to go back in 2023 and hopefully see that money was spent in the right places.