Spray Lakes West Campground - West Side Rd

Excellent place to camp - especially as it is first come first serve. Only downside was no showers. A handful of really good hikes close by.

This is a beautiful area and it is my second time visiting the campground. However I have given 1/5 stars due to the rude campground hosts who ruined our camping weekend. After looking at other negative reviews on google – it appears we are not the only ones who have had a negative experience dealing with these hosts. We camped here for 5 nights for my 30th bday - there were about 12 of us from Calgary AB we occupied three sites. We paid for all the sites in a timely fashion and followed the rules the best we could. we are all mature 30+ professional adults ( I am an Occupational therapist and my fiancé is a pilot for WestJet). From the time we arrived we were bullied from the campground hosts (German couple) until the time we left. The following issues with them included: 1)As we pulled up and were unpacking - they arrived and started to list off all the rules as if we disobeyed them already ( which we didn’t) in a rude tone. Not even a hello welcome to the campground or anything. 2) At first we had 3 vehicles on our main site and they told us no more than two and that it was clearly stated on the registration form (which it was not and I have proof that this is not mentioned anywhere with pictures). Regardless we told them that was fine and we would move one to the nearby parking lot. - As more friends arrived - they would pull into our main site to unload and figure out what site they were staying in and they would literally be parked there for only 10-15 minutes. However, whenever our friends got to our site with their vehicle - the campground hosts would come at the same time and get mad at us for having three vehicles on the site. We told them we understood but our friends just got there, and they needed to unload their vehicle before moving it to the other parking lot. This happened a few times as our friends all came at different times and we could not communicate with them due to no cell service. Once everyone arrived, we made sure there was only 2 vehicles per site and the rest were parked in the far parking lot. 3)Every night we were there we did our best to clean up our site and remove all food for the night or if we headed to town for a few hours. One day we left a cooler with some unopened beer inside by accident when we went to Canmore and when we got back, there was a note saying a peace officer took it. When we called to ask where it was - it was 45 minutes away from the campground at a Rangers station. We decided to not waste a few hours of our time driving to go get and it and just enjoy our last night at the campground. That night a peace officer showed up at around 11pm to deliver it to us (without us knowing) - and he said that the campground managers called them saying we were causing problems and wanted them to come to our site to take the cooler away. He then issued a 170.00 dollar ticket because we were not being bear safe. Also might I add, many other sites had left coolers of drinks left unattended and they did not receive tickets. At this point we realized they were out to get us. 4) It rained almost every day we were there, and some friends left Saturday morning and so we got rid of one of the three sites. We didn’t want to put away the tents soaking wet so we left one in the back of my Fiancés truck to let it dry that day. The campground managers come to our site again to lecture us about the 2 tent rule per site.. even though it was obvious we were not using this tent to sleep in and once it was dry we packed it away before the evening started. In summary - these campground hosts are not lenient in anyway with their rules and they are not the kind of people who should be running a campground. A friendly hi and asking questions ahead of time before assuming people are deliberately trying to bend the rules would go a long way.Even though we had a large group of people, we were respectful of how loud we were, we played quiet music and we cleaned up after ourselves. However, we were treated like reckless teenagers.

Had a wonderful time here! The views are nice and I'm not sure what people are talking about with the rude hosts. The guy I bought wood off was nice and helpful. Some people aren't always going to talk to you with the nicest tone but nothing to complain about there. We found a really good campsite and spent the weekend relaxing by the lake. Would make this a regular campsite.

One of my favorite campsites I have ever stayed at. A bit more primitive camping, and the sites (specifically ours #28) was completely by itself. Couldn’t see any other neighbors at all. Ranger was very kind and they arrange firewood drop off for you. Will definitely come back

Loved this place. Remote but still easily accessible. Campsites are reasonably priced, very well maintained, and were all beautiful. Camp manager was friendly, bathrooms/outhouses were clean, and plenty of hikes and things to do in the area. Only downside is you can't reserve sites and it was clearly very popular (we got the last site for the weekend), cars were driving by alllll weekend looking for an opening. But the sites were huge and it didn't feel crowded at all. I would never hesitate to come back here!

Just an outstanding experience my girlfriend and I got spot 1, it's nice big and open yet still enough privacy imaculant views and great management

Even though it has beautiful lake views, it charges the second tent and has not enough waterpumps and toilets.Above all, all the Alberta campsites with poor facilities are comparatively more expensive than National Park walk-in campsites.

Great spot to camp. Sure it may be a lil pricey, but the spots have great views and are fairly quite and secluded. Bathrooms and water are on site. But would recommend bringing firewood as a bag costs $10. Also cash and credit card are the only way to pay, but it's a simple method in purchasing your spot. First come first serve basis is nice to find a campsite. If you plan on bringing an RV or trailer, know that only a handful of spots facilitate a trailer. #11 is quite big and can spot a trailer or 2 or 3 tents.