Rainbow Valley Park — Attraction in Whitemud Creek Ravine North

We took our toddler for her first camping experience here. She had a phenomenal time.

Some things to note. Most of the tent camping is non-powered, so if you need power for medical reasons, make sure to let them know when you book. My husband has a cpap to help him breathe at night - we could have bought a battery pack, but we hadn't made a decision on a model yet.

The bathrooms are very clean, the playground is large enough for a lot of children to enjoy, the water tap delivers a huge amount of water quickly so there's never a line for filling up water bottles or RVs and the sink for washing kitchen supplies has a deep basin - but you may have to wait as there is only one tap and 3 basins. The store at the entrance has ice cream, a few treats, fire wood, and some basic necessities for a reasonable cost.

There are accessible trails to walk to the ravine and our toddler enjoyed exploring the plants, bugs and bridges along the way. Make sure to bring plenty of bug spray for the walk as the mosquitos are vicious in the summer.

Our family came by to visit us during the day and many families left the camp ground to eat out or go to an activity elsewhere in the city - so the fact that this campground is in the city is definitely helpful.

Lots of kids were biking around the camping site as it's a very safe place to practice. There is a ropes obstacle course that older kids can explore (at a cost) - I believe it is something you could take a whole morning doing. Our toddler didn't engage in either of these activities.

The noise of the Whitemud at night is noticeable, so it can take away from the camping feeling. They have lighted the washroom areas, so it might not be very dark at night...

The sites are a little closer than we generally like but that isn't what will stop us from coming back. The night staff Clayton made the campsite feel like a police state. He chased me through the park when we returned to the camp and aggressively started challenging me on the speed I was travelling. That alone wouldn't stop us from returning (I may have been a km or 2 over the 10km per hour speed) but when our niece said he followed her around the park chasing her out of the picnic area that left us feeling it may be unsafe for younger women if he was around. All and all not bad but this one staff member will stop us from coming back and will stop us from recommending the location. Yes we left a message for the manager upon departure as well as a phone message but they have not returned our call....

Decent place with good trails and beautiful nature (a decent amount of birds, but not much else besides some squirrels).

Pro tip: if you come early in the morning (just before sunrise) and wait about 15 minutes there's a good chance that you will see some deer, beavers or even coyotes. The wild life tends to get scared off later in the day but early in the morning you can see some pretty decent stuff.

Also not far is the rainbow Valley campground, aerial park and snow valley ski hill. Those amenities make it a great place to visit year round be it skiing and snowboarding in the winter or camping and spending a day at the massive +/ exciting multilevel outdoor jungle gym on steroids at...