Canada Boondocking Canadian Style?

[Gearheart]

Back in the 80's I was boondocking in a Chevy van/motorhome at Long beach near Tofino on Vancouver Island. Also in Cathedral Grove near Port Alberni. All commercialized now and no longer possible. Do a search for Crown land and you can find places to camp for free or at minimal cost.

[Len n Jeanne]

If anybody in our area (Kootenays) knows of some good true boondocking sites, we'd love to hear about them.

The thing is, we already live on a small acreage in the mountains, and camping has to provide something more special than we'd get at home.

Access around here is something of a problem. There is a huge amount of crown land ("public land" in the US) where we could theoretically camp, but a lot of it is roadless, and most of the forestry roads around here aren't suitable for hauling trailers, for the most part: very steep and rough. There are some free or nearly free Forest Service campgrounds around here (Wragge Beach, Garland Bay) but the trailer-accessible ones will probably give you lots of company. Wragge Beach north of New Denver is beautiful, but only a couple of the sites are suitable for trailers. Some of the sites were built for tent-, van- or truck-camping, only.

We tend to use designated campgrounds on the water that we really like (New Denver, Riondel,) ideally bag a lakeside site, and then find our solitude during day hikes or canoe paddling.

Our boondocking has mostly been in the southwestern desert.

[gandttimes]

Len n Jeanne, have you tried the BCHydro recreation area on the Pend D'Oreille resevoir. While not a true boondocking area in that it has designated sites, it is beautiful and FREE. No hookups but there is a hand pump.
Just don't go there in the July and August on a weekend.



George

[cameront120]

Len n Jeanne, I suspect the places I used to camp for free as a teenager in the interior are now probably overrun by campers trying to do the same thing. The smaller populations of the 70's meant for relatively easy access to camping at any of the mountain lakes. The logging roads were good enough for my '64 Pontiac Parisienne to navigate easily, so would've been easy enough for a truck and trailer. I suspect that may no longer be the case, but you never know.

[Len n Jeanne]

Thanks, folks. We'll check out the reservoir. I should add that there are plenty of places around here to pull off into the woods, but since that's kind of like the scenery we have at home, we tend to look for nearby lakes. We wouldn't even try a nearby forest service road without a really good recommendation from someone who's been there, or else a preliminary scouting trip in the truck before hauling an AS up a steep and potentially muddy, rocky road. Then there might be the logging trucks coming the other way!

We're going to the Riondel, BC (pop. 356) campground at the end of the month: http://www.riondelcampground.ca/ It's a small place with no hookups; and weather permitting on Kootenay Lake, we'll put our canoe in the water either there or at Garland Bay http://www.sitesandtrailsbc.ca/searc...2106&type=Site and get some solitude that way.

[NWGetaways]

Is there a ferry from the Ainsworth side?

EDIT: Never mind, I found it.

[gandttimes]

A link for you if you are ever in the Trail area. https://www.bchydro.com/community/re...tion_area.html


George

[Arcticfox]

Interesting thread. We were just in New Denver in May and I must agree they have a very nice little camp ground.
I also noted a good looking camp ground just north of the ferry as your heading to Revelstoke out of the Slocan Valley. I don't remember the name but it looked good and was also on a lake.
Cheers
Doug


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[Len n Jeanne]

Originally Posted by NWGetaways

Is there a ferry from the Ainsworth side?

EDIT: Never mind, I found it.

We really enjoy the Kootenay Lake ferry-- a 35-minute free boat ride through spectacular scenery. We try to pick up a soak at the Ainsworth hot springs when we're on that side of Kootenay Lake. Not boondocking, but pleasurable.