Camping in Canada

[TTMartin]

We are planning a trip through Canada to Alaska this summer. We are looking for advice on what those of you in Canada use to find camping spots. Especially First Come First Serve Public Campgrounds and Boondocking sites.

In the United States we travel without reservations mostly stay at National Forest Service or Army Corps of Engineers First Come First Serve Campgrounds. We are very flexible on our route and length of stays.

For first come first serve campgrounds we know that if we arrive early in the between Sunday and Tuesday there is a good chance we will find a site.

We also occasionally stay at reservation campgrounds that have sites that are reserved on the weekend and are open Sunday thru Friday morning. When we stay at those we just plan on putting in milage days and overnighting at Rest Areas or Walmart for one night on Friday and Saturday. We try to get close to our next planned campground on Saturday evening so we can arrive at the new campground early on Sunday.

What resources do you as Canadians use to find campgrounds in Canada? Any books you recommend, or even online resources though I prefer paper based or pre-downloadable ones as I have no idea how good of cell service we'll have.

A couple of the books we use in our travels in the US are the books Off the Beaten Path: A Travel Guide to More Than 1000 Scenic and Interesting Places Still Uncrowded and Inviting and 50 States, 5,000 Ideas: Where to Go, When to Go, What to See, What to Do. We would love to find similar books for Canada.

On the topic of cell service, do you recommend picking up a prepaid SIM card in Canada? Where would you recommend getting it and which carrier? Rogers?

We plan to enter Canada around June 22 at Sault Ste Marie, Ontario and work our way west, arriving at Denali on July 14th. We want to be back in Ohio in Mid-October, so we may have time on the return trip to see things we didn't have time for heading west.

I know there are many Canadian Escape owners and hope to hear what you use when 'Camping in Canada'.

 

[Ron in BC]

We've traveled across Canada, coast-to-coast without any reservations. That's beyond some folks comfort level but it works for us. Having said that the only area that I wouldn't venture into without reservations during your time frame is Banff etc.

Two things that Canada has the highest of are gas prices and cell service. Fortunately for you all the Provinces that you'll be traveling through have lower gas prices than BC.

For cell service I'd investigate your present or similar US carrier and find a plan that was usable in Canada. It's so much more convenient to have your present cell number and have folks be able to call you without having to notify people of a new number to contact you with.

After years of doing the SIM card routine in the US this year we finally got a plan with unlimited calling and data in the US and it's just so much more convenient. No more hunting down wi-fi spots.

Ron

 

[splitting_lanes]

Kurt & Birdie logged their trip through Canada and Alaska, they will share a copy with you if you like.

I know I found it to be really informative, as they have an Escape 21 and a couple bikes and a really good attention to detail. It’s a couple hundred pages, so you’ll need a link to where you can download it. Kurt used a number of devices for internet, but is a big fan of starlink. He’s got me considering it for our 2025 trip through Canada and Alaska.

 

[iamunique127]

We travel much the way you do re: no reservations and planning for weekends.

We have bought some similar books to what you have: Corps or Engineers campgrounds, BLM camping and State Parks campgrounds for when we travel in your country but we don't have anything like that for Canada.

We usually stop at the tourist information centre near provincial borders on main highways or in cities/towns and pick up the campground guides for that province as well as provincial road maps (which we find much better than the AAA-provided maps). In my experience they are all free for the asking. Similar to the US, the tourist infos are usually designated by signs with a big "i" for "information" or a question mark.

We were especially impressed with the Forestry Site, free campgrounds in British Columbia and we used them as often as we could. Free was nice but not the deciding factor for us. In our experience the sites have no services other than an outhouse so they are less used than other campgrounds. We often found ourselves the only campers. Some of them are off the beaten path a bit, which is what we like to explore. A list of the Forest Service campgrounds can be found on the BC provincial website. I'm not sure if there is a book available.

We also use Google, both Maps and just searches asking about campgrounds near where we are looking.

We both have Rogers cellular plans and are very satisfied with the service we get throughout the country. There is the odd dead spot in remote places but generally we have service when we need it. Sorry, I am not familiar with temporary SIM cards in Canada because we have permanent cell/data plans.

AFAIK, there are two general routes north to Alaska: the Cassiar Highway which you access from BC and what we call the Alaska Highway from Alberta. Each has its own beauty. We've been both ways and loved both. We enjoyed going north in the Yukon and seeing both Whitehorse and Dawson City. From there, Top of the World Highway to Alaska was a highlight.

If you have a preferred route I can give some suggestions of places we enjoyed.

 

[iamunique127]

We've traveled across Canada, coast-to-coast without any reservations. That's beyond some folks comfort level but it works for us. Having said that the only area that I wouldn't venture into without reservations during your time frame is Banff etc.


After years of doing the SIM card routine in the US this year we finally got a plan with unlimited calling and data in the US and it's just so much more convenient. No more hunting down wi-fi spots.



Ron

Definitely. If you plan to visit National Parks, have a reservation or camp outside the park and tour by tow vehicle.

Which cellular carrier are you with? I'd like to do that for US travel but all I've seen at Rogers is $12/day and I ain't paying that.

 

[TTMartin]

We've traveled across Canada, coast-to-coast without any reservations. That's beyond some folks comfort level but it works for us. Having said that the only area that I wouldn't venture into without reservations during your time frame is Banff etc.

Two things that Canada has the highest of are gas prices and cell service. Fortunately for you all the Provinces that you'll be traveling through have lower gas prices than BC.

For cell service I'd investigate your present or similar US carrier and find a plan that was usable in Canada. It's so much more convenient to have your present cell number and have folks be able to call you without having to notify people of a new number to contact you with.

After years of doing the SIM card routine in the US this year we finally got a plan with unlimited calling and data in the US and it's just so much more convenient. No more hunting down wi-fi spots.

Ron

Ron,

Thank you for your reply.

I have T-Mobile and they do have free roaming in Canada for calls, but, they have a limit on the amount of included data. We so I'm more worried about data usage for social media and streaming video. My purchased my wife's phone specifically because it can output directly from the phone to a TV's HDMI port for streaming video. She also likes to post photos she took daily on her Facebook page. So I'm hoping to find a SIM card that offers unlimited phone data in Canada.

 

[Steve Clark]

Kurt & Birdie logged their trip through Canada and Alaska, they will share a copy with you if you like.

I know I found it to be really informative, as they have an Escape 21 and a couple bikes and a really good attention to detail. It’s a couple hundred pages, so you’ll need a link to where you can download it. Kurt used a number of devices for internet, but is a big fan of starlink. He’s got me considering it for our 2025 trip through Canada and Alaska.

Yes, Kurt and Birdie are “Bea”.

 

[TTMartin]

Definitely. If you plan to visit National Parks, have a reservation or camp outside the park and tour by tow vehicle.

Which cellular carrier are you with? I'd like to do that for US travel but all I've seen at Rogers is $12/day and I ain't paying that.

Lyle,

No, I'm not paying that either. I was hoping for more like $50 USD / $75 CAD per month.

This is what T-Mobile that I have shows for coverage. I'm not sure how that compares to Rogers or other Canadian carriers (are there any others?).

 

[iamunique127]

Lyle,

No, I'm not paying that either. I was hoping for more like $50 USD / $75 CAD per month.

This is what T-Mobile that I have shows for coverage. I'm not sure how that compares to Rogers or other Canadian carriers (are there any others?).

View attachment 74082

That $12/day is for out-of-country roaming on my plan. You should be able to get much better with a temporary SIM card.

Rogers, Telus and Bell are the major ones. I'm sure they all have coverage maps. That T-Mobile coverage looks OK in northern Canada.

 

[TTMartin]

Kurt & Birdie logged their trip through Canada and Alaska, they will share a copy with you if you like.

I know I found it to be really informative, as they have an Escape 21 and a couple bikes and a really good attention to detail. It’s a couple hundred pages, so you’ll need a link to where you can download it. Kurt used a number of devices for internet, but is a big fan of starlink. He’s got me considering it for our 2025 trip through Canada and Alaska.

I hope to see the documentation of their trip.

I don't really need Starlink. I'm retired so internet is a luxury not a necessity for us.

I do have T-Mobile 5G Home Internet for the trailer in the U.S..

Before that we streamed directly to the TV from our phones or played pre-downloaded videos on the TV from our phone.

I recently converted many of the DVDs from our personal collection to MP4s. I have a couple hundred DVDs on a 2TB thumb drive that we can plug into and play on our Walmart ONN Roku TV.

 

[TTMartin]

That $12/day is for out-of-country roaming on my plan. You should be able to get much better with a temporary SIM card.

Rogers, Telus and Bell are the major ones. I'm sure they all have coverage maps. That T-Mobile coverage looks kind of spotty in northern Canada. I may be wrong.

Thanks again Lyle.

I'll look for the coverage maps of Rogers, Telus and Bell. Where do you buy their prepaid SIM cards? Company stores, truck stops, etc.?

 

[iamunique127]

Thanks again Lyle.

I'll look for the coverage maps of Rogers, Telus and Bell. Where do you buy their prepaid SIM cards? Company stores, truck stops, etc.?

I'm not sure where to buy SIM cards as I haven't done that. Company stores for sure would have them. Best to check their websites.

 

[Ron in BC]

I'm not sure where to buy SIM cards as I haven't done that. Company stores for sure would have them. Best to check their websites.

7-Eleven has them.

Ron

 

[kavm]

Lyle,

No, I'm not paying that either. I was hoping for more like $50 USD / $75 CAD per month.

This is what T-Mobile that I have shows for coverage. I'm not sure how that compares to Rogers or other Canadian carriers (are there any others?).

View attachment 74082

T-Mobile sells 15 GB of international data USD 50 (30 days), if that would work for you.

 

[Ron in BC]

Which cellular carrier are you with? I'd like to do that for US travel but all I've seen at Rogers is $12/day and I ain't paying that.

One thing that I hate about cell providers, aside from knowing that we pay higher prices than anyone else is the games that they play with prices and plans. Our great new plan, one that we wish that we'd had years ago, is through Koodo, a branch of Telus. But it was sort of a Black Friday kind of thing, here today, gone tomorrow. We've previously spent hours wading through plans etc. and it's kind of annoying. But we got lucky for once.

Oh yah, the 12 buck a day thing. Hated that and we kept the days when we turned the phone on to a minimum.

Ron

 

[TTMartin]

T-Mobile sells 15 GB of international data USD 50 (30 days), if that would work for you.

That is an option, depending on how much a SIM card would cost, it might be worth it.

How fast we are gong through the included 5GB will be a deciding factor.

 

[TTMartin]

7-Eleven has them.

Ron

Thanks Ron

 

[Scambo1]

My wife and I are planning on entering Canada from northern Michigan this summer. Our itinerary is 100% flexible. The intent for us is not to go to cities but to camp/boondock our way toward Maine. Can any of you recommend good places to see/stay , places to avoid and any gotchas? All eastern Canada this summer. Thanks in advance.

Next summer will probably be western Canada to AK.

Cam

 

[HABBERDABBER]

Do some Lake Superior driving

From Michigan, pass thru the Soo (aka Sault Ste Marie) and head along the Queens Hwy 17 east. You'll pass along some memorable and very scenic coastline of Lake Superior. Stop in Wawa for a meal or refreshments. Terrace Bay, for a beer.
I'm pining for a Lake Superior Circle Tour, again.
Just my recommendation, & your route may vary.

 

[Mike G]

If you're interested in train rides, there's the Agawa Canyon tour out of the Soo. Or a longer day trip can be found on the "Polar Bear Express" from Cochrane to Moosonee on James Bay. My parents took me on both of those when I was a child. It's been 40 years since I have been to Ontario, though.


If I were making your trip, I'd probably skip Quebec and go into NY, just because I've read several times that the folks around Montreal tend to act quite snooty toward folks who don't speak French. And I don't speak French, although sometimes I might ask folks to 'pardon my French'. :whistling: