Pierre Grey's Provincial Park is 577km from Calgary travelling along the Icefields Parkway to Jasper, and then onwards to just before Hinton to the junction of Hwy 40. Turn right on to Hwy 40 and Travel north to just before Grande Cache there you will find Pierre Grey's.
Now this is quite a drive. We definitely did it in stages, with stops at Rampart creek and Jasper.
Pierre Grey's is a big campground with four spread out loops and two day use areas. Three of the loops, Moberly, Delorme, and Joachim are reservable with Wanyandie being reserved for first come first serve. Sites can be reserved on Alberta Parks.
A moment on the side of the road while i take pictures of signs. Lorraine thinks I am crazy for doing this but I love the challenge of finding a spot to park the rig. Since there was really no one on the road i stopped at the entrance to the park to take my pics.
The Road system in the park is not to bad. Hard pack gravel roads with few pot holes await your rig. The roads are all big rig friendly as are most of the campsites. The drive from the check in gate to the campgrounds is significant and allows good distance between the campgrounds and the hwy.
The one thing I noticed as we drove into the park and towards our campsite was how green and pretty the drive and the park in general was. Everywhere you looked you found trees or lakes.
Moberly was the campground we needed to find in the park and we eagerly drove to wards our site. Once there we were a little disappointed with how tight the site was in which to fit our rig but once we got set up the view and the ability to spread out from the rig pad made up for the tight maneuvering.
Difficulties aside this was a powered site and we manged to fit and create our glampur paradise. The canopy came in handy as the weather was not the nicest and rains showers frequented our visit.
Lorraine and Annie were really happy to be off the road at this point. Earlier in the day as we drove to the campground we passed it by and drove into Grande Cache to do laundry, take on water, and fill the propane tank. The road to Grand Cache was terrible. They had ripped up 32km of the road and were in the process of rebuilding it. Well long story short while passing in opposite directions with a semi truck, the worst thing possible happened.
As we passed in different directions the Transport truck kicked up a rock from the gravel road and it struck our rear view window directly dead center. Well we heard a huge pop and when we stopped we found the back glass spidered. So out came the duct tape and voila!
So why did we travel so far? To see this! what a magical view of the lake beyond the trees. This view was our's for the next seven days, and since it was end of season we were but a handful of campers in the park.
When you walked beyond the trees you came across this spectacular view of Morberly Lake. One of four lakes in the park.
Even though the day was grey the beauty of the lake shone through. The quite as I stood here and admired the view was deafening. Then out of the distance a lone loon serenaded me looking for his mate.
As you travel the park you will find all sorts of interpretive signage and park maps to help you navigate your way around. as I said this is a big park and in our wonderings we spent three days exploring the many paths throughout the park.
The pathways are nicely laid out and not hard to navigate. the walks are quite and peaceful, and meander throughout the park providing many beautiful sights in which to behold. At points of interest you will find interpretive signs providing you with some interesting fact about the area you're in.
This particular interpretive sign is explaining how the forest provides for its citizens.
One of the hikes we took in the park was to Pierre Grey's old trading post. It was a 20min walk from the Morberly campground on the trail following the front of the lake. following the signs lead us an easy path to the historical site.
The views of the lake and the abundance of natural resources made us realize what a smart man Pierre Grey's was to have setup a trading post in this area, and apparently history agrees with our evaluation.
Again a beautiful forest picture of the lake beyond the trees provides a wonderful view for which to setup a trading post, offering protection from the winds that are prominent on the lake.
Upon reaching the historical trading post you are greeted by your first interpretive sign, the Tack Shed.
Now there is not much left of the original shed but it is interesting to note the size of the original building which appears to be small by today's standards. Notice the log construction and the interlocking corners still exist.
Next on the tour was the Storage Cabin
There was very little remaining of this structure but from the foundation you could see that this was a larger building than the Tack Shed.
Next was the trading post itself. The interpretive sign gave a good account of what probably happened here on a daily basis.
It was unfortunate that nothing of the original building has survived and the area is marked out based on archaeological digs and evidence. Still you get an idea of how big the trading post would of been back in the day.
Finally on a sad note. The tour ends you at an unmarked grave from days gone by. Based on what evidence they know this was a grave of a small female child. Influenza was a problem in the area back then and so was infection. The Grey's themselves died in the great Influenza plague of the 20 Century.
One last look at the lake from the Trading Post and back we head to our Campsite.
On our way back we could not resist a selfie with The wonderful sign to Pierre Grey's Trading Post.
The next day it was off to explore the other campgrounds, but boy did we have a lot of walking ahead of us.
We travelled through Delorme which was next to Morberly. the campground was nice it had power but the views were unassuming. So we continued on to our next campground.
Next on the tour was Joachim. this was a non-powered campground, but it was more on the lake then Delorme. Several sites in this campground had lakeside views.
Here was a site with a view to the lake. Most of the sites throughout the park were generous. Certainly enough space to spread out and get a big rig in.
Joachim has a kids playground and several of the sites backed onto this playground making them sought after by families. When We walked through this campground there were several families with young kids on these sites.
The view of Moberly Lake in this campground is from the end of the lake looking outward.
In Joachim, there was another interpretive sign that talked about the Grey's
The last stop on our day two tour of the campgrounds was at the Desjarlais Day use area. What a wonderful place to spend the day and explore or fish on the lake. there was a boat launch at this day use area and a group cookout house which offered protection from the elements.
Signage, signage Everywhere! Here was another interpretive kiosk that had a campground map and some basic camping and day use area information.
As you walk down the path to the day use area, the path opens up and a bridge appears to take you on to an isthmus jutting out into the Lake Desjarlais.
So we crossed the bridge and walked the trails around the isthmus and explored this out of place but magical strip of land that jutted out to the middle of the lake.
On our return back from exploring the Isthmus Lorraine just had to say Hi.
And so did I
Our trail back to the mainland, it was just such a pretty shot. don't you agree?
On our way back to the campsite. the trail we walked along had this cute little creek running through it. as I have said before you can find beauty everywhere if you just look for it.
The next thing we saw on our way back to the campsite was this Ptarmigan hiding in the bushes. Pretty good camouflage eh?
Wildlife in the park was almost non-existent. We saw the usual Grey Jays, Ptarmigans, and of course squirrels. This one visited our campsite daily looking for handouts.
Although the days at Pierre Grey's were grey ( No Pun Intended) everyday offered its own version of beauty and wonder. On our last day at the campground the sun peaked out and offered this spectacular reflection on the water just before sunset.
Overall this was an exceptional trip to Pierre Grey's campground. The trip in itself was epic and the campground did not disappoint. We would highly recommend the pilgrimage to this Alberta playground nestled on the western edge of central Alberta.
Happy Trails
The Glampurs
Nuts & Bolts
Pierre Grey's is an exceptional campground that offers many ways to glamp up your trip. The trip in itself can be driven from Calgary in about 6 to 7 hours, but we would highly recommend breaking the trip up into segments and enjoy glamping in some of the other campgrounds available along the way. The campground is big rig friendly with no obstructions or tight turns anywhere with in the park and its four campgrounds. A night in the park will cost you $33/night for a powered 30amp site, which is a bargain. Non-Powered sites can be gotten for $26/night. Generators are allowed in the park and hours of operations are 7am to 10pm. Firewood can be bought on site at the check in kiosk at the gateway to the park. Cell Service is non-Existent, a booster can bring in a signal but it is spotty at best. Cell service can be found in Grande Cache or before the muskeg area along Hwy 40. Beyond electrical, there are no services at the park. Sani-dump service and potable water can be gotten at the Grande Cache municipal sani-dump 38km away north of the park in Grande Cache.