Winter camping can seem intimidating but with such a long winter here in Canada I can’t recommend giving it a try more! Winter camping at Mount Kidd RV Park can make for a great trial run, there are still some home comforts but ultimately you are camping in the cold. A perfect place to try winter camping for the first time, with heated bathrooms and fresh coffee to buy in the morning.
Where Is The Mount Kidd RV Park
The Mount Kidd RV Park is just over one hundred kilometres from Calgary via Highway 1 and Highway 40.
Once you have turned off of Highway 1, it is a 20 minute drive south on Highway 40 to get to Mount Kidd RV Park. It is clearly signposted, so you can’t miss it.
If you are visiting Kananaskis, you will need to purchase a conservation pass, you can do that online, over the phone or in person at the Barrier Lake visitor centre.
Winter Camping At Mount Kidd RV Park
There are so many reasons why winter camping at Mount Kidd is the perfect place to try out cold weather camping for the first time. They only have two loops open for winter camping, three during busy periods, aka holidays. Therefore I’d recommend booking your site ahead of time using their online reservation system.
The tenting loop is closed for winter so if you want to try winter camping at Mount Kidd you’ll need to stay in one of their power loops. Having power isn’t a bad thing though, it allows you to charge your devices, especially since the cold is known to reduce battery power.
The downfall of these sites is that some of them don’t offer much privacy as they are designed to allow people to pull through with their RVs. On the plus side, when we were winter camping at Mount Kidd, the site was almost fully booked, but we were one of only two groups who were actually staying the night in our loop. Everyone else had their RV parked up but they weren’t there. I am sure on a weekend though that it is a bustling place.
When we were winter camping at Mount Kidd, we stayed in Loop C, it was a few minutes walk to the guest centre which is the only spot to go to the bathroom in the winter months. They have flush toilets, running water in the sinks and also showers which require tokens. This is such a benefit compared to using a drop toilet in winter.
Also in the guest centre you will find a gift shop, this has not only gifts but also essentials and snacks in case you forgot anything! There is also a coffee shop, in winter, it has minimal on offer but you will find hot coffee if you don’t fancy making your own.
If the weather turns really nasty, there is also a games room with arcade style games in and a large room with soft chairs and pool tables to relax in. Note that these are all closed overnight. The guest centre keeps fairly short hours in the winter and when the front desk closes so does everything else except the bathrooms. When we stayed everything was locked up at 5pm.
A bonus of winter camping at Mount Kidd is that they plough the loops which are open and also the sites, when we arrived there had been a little bit of fresh snow fallen but nothing which took more than 5 minutes to clear. They also cover the fire pits with picnic benches between stays so when you arrive your fire pit should be fairly dry!
Before heading out, make sure to check out the winter camping essentials guide, a list of items which will help you have a great time in the cold!
Things To Do
There are plenty of winter hiking trails to take advantage of near Mount Kidd. At the campground itself, we put our gators on and headed out along the interpretive trail. Totally accessible in summer, the trail didn’t seem to have seen too much traffic since the last big snowfall, but was beautiful. We did need our gators and waterproof hiking boots though since the snow was quite deep in spots.
If you are looking for a longer hike, the Barrier Lake lookout trail and Yates Mountain summit is a fifteen minute drive up the road back towards highway one. This is a popular trail so you likely won’t encounter deep snow but may need microspikes to navigate the well compacted snow. This trail provides incredible views over Barrier Lake on a clear day.
For those who don’t mind driving a little further, heading down to Peter Lougheed Provincial Park is a beautiful day. You can check out the upper and lower Kananaskis Lakes without much of a walk, for those who want to stretch the legs, the Rawson Lake trail is a short but at times steep, family friendly hike.