You may notice a ‘camping’ trend in my posts over the next few weeks. We’re trying to make the most of traveling locally this year and exploring our backyard (how many times have you heard that phrase this summer?), and Alberta has some amazing camping (despite everyone always wanting to head to our neighbouring province of British Columbia!). Plus, this is a cheap way to get out of the city, and I love the simplicity and peace that eating, sleeping, and doing everything outside brings to my life.
For our first camping trip of the summer in mid-July, Holden and I headed to Etherington Creek, in Kananaskis Country near Longview, Alberta – about an hour and a half drive from my front door. Neither of us had heard of this campground before – we’d simply booked it because it was one of the few left on the Alberta Parks reservation system that worked for our dates and was close to home. We ended up really lucking out – the campground was amazing! It was quiet, remote, had large + private sites, and gorgeous mountain + forest views.
I’d booked a Monday and Tuesday off work, and we headed out camping on the Sunday afternoon, with hopes that the area would be a little quieter than if we’d gone over the weekend. We arrived at our site around 4:30, unloaded the car, set up the ‘kitchen tent’ that my parents had recommended we bring, and then it started pouring. Of course.
We huddled underneath the kitchen tent (thank god for my parents’ suggestion), sitting on the picnic table surrounded by all of our stuff, and drank, and listened to music, and let the rain (and hail, briefly) fall around us for about half an hour.
Luckily, it passed over quickly, and we were rewarded with (mostly) clear skies and sunshine for the rest of the evening. We finished setting up camp, started a fire, and made dinner – ‘Pizza Squeeze’, one of our favourite camping meals, which involves putting pizza sauce, pepperoni, and shredded cheese between two pieces of bread and frying them over the fire in ‘pie irons’.
After dinner, several more drinks, a lot more music, and many more hours spent around the campfire, we settled in to our tent for the night.
The next morning, sustained by pour-over coffees and breakfast sandwiches made in the pie irons, we tidied up our site and headed into the nearby town of Longview (about 30 minutes away) for more firewood, cell service (shoot me, we can’t let our Snap Streaks die, and I had to post my daily Insta photo, ya know?), and beers and nachos at the Twin Cities Saloon, one of the local restaurants.
We cruised through the prairies and foothills back to the campground, and went on a little hike around the area and over the creek (Etherington, I presume).
From there, we spent a little more time sitting around the fire, reading, drinking and eventually cooking some spaghetti for supper. My mom had suggested that we pre-cook the pasta, and then just heat it up in a pot with sauce on the camp stove for a quick meal (clearly, my parents are geniuses, and very seasoned campers). This worked perfectly, and was honestly one of the best camp dinners I’ve ever had – although, everything tastes better when you’re camping, doesn’t it?
After supper, we cleaned up the dishes and then walked over to Holden’s neighbours’ campsite – a few weeks ago in Calgary, they’d been chatting and discovered that we’d be staying at the same campground, overlapping one night. They’d rented a Karma campervan (one of my bucketlist items this year – it may or may not happen…) for the week to cruise around Kananaskis Country in. We joined them and their two gorgeous dogs, Harold and Larry, for a bonfire. They’re a super cool couple, presumably in their early 40s – he’s from Iceland and she’s an interior designer, and they’re extremely well-traveled. We exchanged stories for a few hours before heading back to our own site for one last little fire before bed.
We slept in the next morning, and then got up in a panic, rushing around to have breakfast and tear down our site before checkout at noon.
We’d decided in advance, since we both had the day off of work anyway and checkout was at 12pm with only an hour and a half drive home, that we take advantage of our time and stop anywhere along the way that looked interesting, ending the day by jumping in Sheep Falls before going back to the city.
This led to stops at a nearby river…
…an abandoned train car in the middle of a farmer’s field…
…The Stampede Ranch (I’m sure you can imagine my level of excitement!)…
…Longview, again…
…Marv’s Classic Soda Shop, and a few other cute shops in Black Diamond…
…Hard Knox Brewery, also in Black Diamond (we couldn’t not stop at a brewery, ya know?)…
…Sheep Falls, where we discovered that the water was too high and fast moving to safely jump in, but enjoyed walking around all the same…
…and finally, a day use area within Sheep River Provincial Park called Big Horn, for a little rest stop before heading home.
And, as you’ll learn in this post, each time Holden and I go camping (this was our fourth trip), we manage to forget quite a number of things. So, without further ado, here’s this trip’s edition of the “Things We Forgot” list…
Things we forgot on the camping trip, July 2020 version:
- Margarine
- Cups and mugs (but this was not our fault, as my mom had taken them out of my family’s camping equipment box without telling me!)
- Enough firewood
- Paper towel
This is actually a much shorter list than usual, as you’ll see!
