Cold Lake Provincial Park — Attraction in Alberta

DO NOT PARK IN THE BOAT LAUNCH PARKING LOT!! I feel obligated to disclose the absolutely crazy and out of control situation in the boat launch parking lot. Theft from vehicals, vamdalism and especially the drilling of gas tanks leaving gallons of gas on the ground is just insane. It is not just a few isolated incedients....its a very regular occurance. My buddies truck was drilled out just after parking there for 3 hours. Having reported it to the RCMP we were informed that its very common out there and that they would NEVER park their personal vehicals there. A search on fishing forums will turn up dozens of posts regarding these exact circumstances. Eventually someone will get hurt when the pools of gas find and ignition source. If you park there...just expect your tank to be drilled, your windows broken, anything in the vehical to be stolen, and who knows what else. Its also a great shopping dept for individuals who need trailer parts..you just never know what you will find after a great day on the lake.

The thing is, I believe this is one of the best Provincial Parks in Alberta! The Lake is just AMAZING! The sites are large and very private with large trees and forests. The hiking trails are breathtaking and endless! I also find the staff there to go above and beyond. The proximity of the City of Cold Lake is great beacuse in the park, it feels your are hundreds of Km away from anything, but if you need something, well its just 10 minutes from your site to whatever you need! So it is very sad that a few individuals have to spoil it. Hopefully the Parks system will just bite the bullet and hire security to patrol the parking lot, or some other practical solution...until that time it will continue to be a place to JUST AVOID! Maybe, eventually, if usage of the park starts to dwindle due to rampet crime, the lack of revenue will wake someone up.

Please if the Dept of Parks and Rec is reading this...DO SOMETHING!!! Until that time I reccomend to just avoid this absolute GEM of a location...its a very high risk game of Russian Roulette....you may get lucky, but you nalso may get hit. Considering the large number of people I personally know who were not so lucky, Ill be...

Gross shower houses that didn’t get cleaned/maintained. You will have one hook to use in your shower stall. Not helpful when helping children shower and have multiple things to keep dry. You have to walk from a small parking area to the shower house. It’s a very dark path so you will need a flashlight when showering at night. We thought maybe because we showered later, it was dirtier. But we went back during the day and the same clumps of wet toilet paper was still there. Many campsite shower houses have hours posted when they clean. This one didn’t.

The loops, are far from each other. The campground is spread out.

Small rocky beach area in day use area. There is a small playground and an outhouse. The water was great. Nice and clear, sandy, shallow for kids.

Roads in the camp grounds are very narrow and some sharper turns (for towing). We had to back up and go onto another road to let a camper pass. The sites have trees and decent privacy. Other than that, will not stay here again. A friend raved about the facilities at Cold Lake but maybe they stayed at the municipal campground.

We toured the municipal one. The sites were not as nice, smaller and less private, but it was walking distance to the main beach. There were some water front (even more open). The main beach has a concession, flush toilets, and change rooms, and lots of nice sand for sandcastles. There are not many trees for shade but there are shaded picnic areas that are semi shaded on the concrete just before you enter the beach/sand area. There’s a spray park, a playground and a free zip line into the water. The grass and grounds were beautiful and well maintained. Lots of goose poop, but there was someone there picking up garbage.

The water was nice and clear, the sand in the swimming area has some rocks as you enter but then it cleared out and the sand was beautiful. There were two docks to jump off of, there was a barge.

Cold Lake itself is beautiful. Lots to see paddling, the water is gorgeous. The sand is amazing. The distillery was great. Will be back but not at the provincial campground. Will take chances at the...

We live for camping but I honestly have to say this is the worst provincial campground we have stayed at. Everything is so far away, the showers are dirty, the road in and out is absolutely terrible, it’s so washboardy. The actual sites are pretty nice but really all the good I can say about this campground and the trails. It needs a major overhaul before we would come back again. Sewer would be nice too, the dump station is so far away and as I said the road is horrible so can’t even tow the sewer tote to dump it. Most provincial campgrounds are nice, sorry can’t say the same for this one. Update 2, Well I was pretty quick to judge, after walking the trails and settling in, it feels much better. Although I still think it needs lots of work but it does have potential for sure. Maybe for a few days would be good but not more than that with the issues of sewer dump and road conditions, but the trails are amazing for sure. So if your driving 600 km for more than a week you may want to consider another campground but for only a couple of days, fantastic. Sorry I can’t give more that 3 stars unfortunately. Update 3, last full day here and honestly going in and out on this road is so frustrating, shakes the truck, shook the trailer coming in but if you have to go in and out of the park I don’t know why they can’t put a grader through to smoothen it out? The outhouses, what can I say, it’s an outhouse but they could hose them out every now and then. So many spider webs and bugs as though hasn’t been cleaned all season, absolutely filthy. Other than the facilities and the road, a nice place but I won’t be back any time soon. They really have to fix this road, even that would be a huge improvement. Thanks and...