Thursday, August 4, 2016

cabackroads destination--Meziadin Provincial Park Campground, British Columbia, Canada



cabackroads destination--Meziadin Provincial Park Campground, British Columbia, Canada.

dates stayed: July 22-24, 2016

This is the first Provincial Park Campground as you head north on the highway. It is a very popular spot with fishermen, RV'ers and 
anybody else that is traveling the Stewart-Cassier Highway.
We pulled in a about noon on a Friday and were stunned to find only ONE campsite available. That night it appeared that many 
people were turned away, but by Saturday there were plenty of sites available. So plan ahead with an alternative plan just in case.

The campground is $22 Canadian. No dump station, no sewer, no connected water. Slow internet is $5 for the entire length of stay.

The lower “suite” of campsites are waterfront and quite popular with families and fishermen. Most of these look like extended stay 
folks. The third tier is where most of the larger RV's end up.

The very upper “suite” of campsites are almost hidden in plain sight. This is where we found our campsite.
Roads are steep and then there is a final flat pitch for the RV. In our case, there were significant drops on both sides of the road 
making backing the Casita an adventure.





We stayed three nights. The road to Stewart (Highway 37A) and the Fish Creek Bear Viewing area makes this campground almost a
mandatory three night stand. If you are headed for Stewart anyway, I would consider camping in the Stewart area since good cell 
service is available, stores, and of course the bear viewing area. See posting for information on the Fish Creek viewing area for 
additional information.

There is a restaurant, gas station and other services at the junction just outside the campground but we found that they were 
more geared towards providing services to workers in the area than tourists at the Provincial Park.

A couple of comments. My observation was that the best spots were designated Provincial Parks. There are some BC Forest Service 
sites that are not as scenic, but much cheaper. Then, of course, there are the BC Forest Service roads that are just overnight 
boondocking sites in most cases. So you can see that for most folks they will make the stops in the Provincial Parks simply because 
that is where the best scenery is found.

Nice campground, well run for the traveler. My bet is that you will spend three nights here.





4 comments:

Sondra said...

What suggestions do you have for someone (me) who is visiting Canada for the first time, and I plan to camp in P.Parks and when possible Crown lands? I read there is a pass non residents can get to camp on grown lands for abt $9 per night. Did you exchange your money and is it normal to find parks full? I plan to visit Ontario, next week is my planned arrival in CA. Thanks for any info.
Sondra

Vladimir Steblina said...

We got a credit card with no foreign exchange fees for use in Canada. We also got about $500 in cash in Canadian funds. At the Costco in Kamloops, they did not take VISA only MasterCard which we did not have. So we wrote a personal check. I would use all three strategies for traveling in Canada.

In most parks, there were vacancies. We have found full parks twice so far on the trip.

The crown lands in Canada are owned by the Provinces, not the Federal government. So the laws, regulations, and fees vary by each Province that you plan to visit. Yes, I have heard that there are passes available, BUT in BC and the Yukon you needed to be a resident of Canada to qualify for the pass.

There are lots of places to camp for free on crown lands. But be aware that the most scenic lands are in Provincial Parks. At least they are in BC and the Yukon.

So it is not like the US where you have Forest Service and BLM lands that rival the National Parks.

Good luck with your trip. Hope this helps. Oh, in BC get the Backroads book series mentioned in the blog. Great resource for backcountry travel.

niko the wolf said...

You changed your type font. Any reason?

Vladimir Steblina said...

No cellular data connection and very slow internet. So I went ahead and composed off-line and did a copy and paste. I forgot to change the font to match the blogger format.

We have not had a cellular connection in about 500 miles.