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A popular provincial park south of Edmonton is getting a major expansion as part of the province’s plan to create 900 new campsites over the next decade.
Alberta Parks has just completed planning for one of its first major expansions,which would add 50 sites to Pigeon Lake Provincial Park. Design work is now underway and work is scheduled to wrap up by the fall of 2027.
“It’s in the top five most popular campgrounds in the province this past camping season,” said Jodi Reade, senior manager for project management and delivery with Alberta Parks
“We want to make sure that we’re putting campsites where they’ll be best utilized.”
Pigeon Lake currently has 250 campsites with a little over half with electrical plug-ins for RVs. However, the current inventory doesn’t meet the demand from campers sites so the new campsites will all includes places to connect RVs with power.
“That will help to alleviate some of the strains that we often have on long weekends and general weekends [when] the campground is fully booked,” said Meagan Lacoste, visitor experience team lead for the David Thompson management area of Alberta Parks
Reade says the new Pigeon Lake sites will be contained within the current park boundaries in a treed area that already has a path cut through the middle.
“We like to play off areas that have already been disturbed,” she said.
“So it makes sense that this would be a road and making sure that we have a good tree canopy for the campsites that we will be developing.”
Jodi Reade with Alberta Parks gestures toward the area where new campsites will be built at Pigeon Lake Provincial Park. (Craig Ryan/CBC)
Alberta’s surge in population is driving the expansion and refurbishment of campground across the province. Pigeon Lake Provinicial Park was established in the late 1960s. Many other parks and provincial recreation areas were established in the 1970s and 1980s.
Todd Loewen, Alberta’s minister of forestry and parks, is overseeing the province’s ambitious expansion plans. The 900 campsites, which include new and refurbished sites, are set to be complete by 2033.
The government plans to consult stakeholders on possible expansions at three provincial parks and two provincial recreation areas.
They include Lesser Slave Lake Provincial Park, Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, Castle Provincial Park, Fish Lake Provincial Recreation Area and Waterton Reservoir Provincial Recreation Area.
Loewen said the focus isn’t solely on the most popular park or in mountainous areas.
“We’re looking at places that we feel Albertans would want to enjoy so that we can have camping opportunities across the province,” he said.
Reade said Alberta Parks is on track to hit its goal of creating 300 new sites by 2028. She said projects usually have a three-year timeframe to move from planning to design to construction.