Purden Lake Provincial Park — Attraction in Area F (Willow River/Upper Fraser)

We made reservations for a camping stall which means we had to pay an extra fee on top of the charge for the stall. We had a long day of traveling and we were happy to know that when we arrived our stall would be ready for us however, because of the incompetence and mismanagement of the park attendant our evening was ruined. We arrived at 5 pm to inquire which stall was assigned to us. The park attendant gave us the number, but failed to inform us that the stall was still occupied. The occupant reported to us that they were informed by the park attended that the stall was free for the night and that they could take their time to leave. The occupant was not prepare to leave and commented to us that they will not be ready to leave until 9 pm. We then had to drive around the camp ground to find Emily the park attendant to help us solve the problem. Her solution was for us to drive around and find our own stall or park down at the parking lot until the stall was free. She was preoccupied with selling fire wood and we were left to chase after her and solve a problem that she created. If the checkout time of 11 am was enforced this situation would not have occurred. The excuse she gave us was that she received the reservation list that day, but she neglected to tell the occupant when she received the information that the stall was reserved for that night. We were very upset at this time, because our reservation fee was not honored and we were running low on gas. When we asked for a refund on the reservation fee, she said it was not possible. She also suggested that we could stay in the parking lot all night. We refused to do that because there was no privacy or a promise of refund for the inconvenience we suffered that evening. We went to the parking lot and stayed there until 8 pm until the park attend arrived to inform us that our stall was now available. We are very disappointed with the reservation system and feel that it failed, because of poor management by the park attendant. We recommend park attendants need better customer service training. We cannot comment on the lake or campground facilities because it was after 10 pm after we got set up and...

This is a great provincial campground. Unfortunately, it needs some work in terms of it's online presence.

Last summer, we decided to go camping here with two parties. One with a tent trailer, the other with a very long fifth wheel trailer. Ours fit perfectly (tent trailer), while the other had an adventure. We reserved a spot and when we did, it asked for the length of the fifth wheel, so we entered and it suggested a certain site. Wrong!

The fifth wheel was not able to maneuver into the assigned spot and unfortunately some damage was sustained to not only the trailer, but to the truck as well. After a very trying 30 minutes, in which time we blocked one way traffic for that time, we gave up.

Now keep in mind, waiting in the long line of traffic, two cars in, was the part attendant. This person sat in their vehicle the entire time and watched as we vainly tried to get the trailer in and ultimately damage it and the truck.

Once it was decided to scrub the mission, we drove off to the park office to ask if there was an overflow or other place to park the fifth wheel. This is where it gets interesting.

There at the park office, was the same attendant who sat in the truck watching our struggles. He knew exactly where the overflow was and even commented that he watched us struggle.

Now, if you were an attendant, whose job is to help campers, what keeps you glued to that seat of the vehicle without offering assistance?

Nothing but sheer laziness.

And if you think I'm making this up, the outhouses resembled something out of the slums of Calcutta.

If you are going to have a booking system, which is exploited by greedy tour operators by the way, ensure that when you say a trailer will fit in a campsite, that it actually fits.

$10K later, we...

I would have had a better experience at the lake if it wasn't for a specific incident that ruined it for me. There was a baby at the lake that had obviously pooped himself as there was feces everywhere. The parents method of cleaning it up was to take their baby into the lake to clean and wash off all the poop. I was extremely disgusted and was no longer in the mood to swim in the contaminated lake. Who would do that? They were in public and there were a lot of people around. I think that is so wrong and very gross. I understand that it's not the parks fault that this happened, but I believe that people should be considerate of others. It's...