Whitney Lakes Provincial Park — Attraction in Alberta

Worse experience of my life.

Now before you ignore this review I want you to know we are professional campers. We have camped Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas. So much my kids know how to pack their own bags, roll their own sleeping bags, and ask santa for their own camping supplies. So I promise this isn't just a mad women out for blood. I want everyone to know about our experience.

Took my daughter camping for her birthday. Rude park rangers. very unhelpful staff. My daughter was so excited to go camping for her birthday talked about it for months. Even though it was supposed to rain. Had a park ranger go though our tent bc we left an empty beer case by our vehicle. While we took our kids to the park. Our friend who was laying her baby down for a nap saw him. Thus the reason we left with the older kids to the park. I went to check on the tent and it was open. You dont just leave your tent open when you leave. So we asked him about he got an attitude with us and almost ran over my husbands foot trying to drive off because he didn't want to talk to us. Never needed a lock before I guess that has change.

My daughters uncle was also pulled over and arrested for having an owl claw hanging from his mirror and arrested for it.

We left of course and requested our money back. They were very rude about it because it was after 2:00pm. (All we asked for was that night and the next day). Got it back.

My daughter was very upset about the whole ordeal. But she is a very understanding young lady (9 years old) and kept her head high.

On top of that my son got swimmers itch. This also should of been mentioned somewhere.

I will be taking action will the ranger going through our tent.

l will never go back. Packed up and left early. Not going to let someone else ruin my...

Fun visit. The water was very nice for an Alberta lake. Clear pleasant to swim in. It wasn't cloudy or full of algae. The beach was great, the sand was fine and clean. We had great weather and really enjoyed the water day after day. We stayed at Ross lake. I thought the beach was too small. It should be wider and have a larger parking lot. Parking was a challenge if you arrived later than about noon. It was a long walk from some of the camp sites. We had incredible weather so it was probably busier than usual. Fishing was fun. Saw some people pull out perch, nothing big enough that I would have kept. My son and I pulled in a few pike but they were only about 12" and we put them back. Bathrooms were some of the worst I've seen in a long time. Pit toilets stunk horrid. Full of live and dead bugs. Wood structures on concrete pads. The light didn't work in the women's washroom near where we stayed. Lots of ants and mosquitoes, pretty much what you would expect in that part of the province. Camp sites were large and private. Could hardly hear the neighbors though people were on the water very late (until just about midnight every night) as long as it was still light. Their motor sports were noisy. Black bear was poking around the site our entire visit. Spotted him wandering through our camp...

The beach is beautiful! Services are scarce, trucks on the highway are loud, campgrounds and beach are covered in litter and cigarette butts. Water is pristine. Hiking trails are inaccessible for flooding so wildlife viewing is limited. Entire park has a major ant issue to the point of unpleasantness. Scarcity of staffing has meant few campers respecting park rules for quiet times and not leaving things like food at an unattended campsite. Sand is some of the best in Alberta but beach is small. No suitable sites for tenting, all hard packed gravely RV pads. Have mediocre service/data on Telus network. Park itself is not well signed from the highway compared to other provincial parks. Very sad about lack of upkeep from the province for this...