Castleview Campground – review

If I underestimated the appeal of Cottonwood Campground, then I overestimated it for Castleview Campground. Fortunately, I chose the former for our May long weekend camping excursion. I rather think I wouldn’t have been happy had I chosen the latter.

Location and Layout of Castleview Campground

Castleview Campground is located within the Oldman Dam Provincial Recreation Area, 12.5 km northeast of Pincher Creek, Alberta. It’s the second largest of four campgrounds within the PRA and just under 2 km from Cottonwood Campground.

The campground neighbours Castle Ridge Estates, a private subdivision of cottages, homes, and permanent trailers. It’s an odd pairing and in a way makes the campground appear private itself.

Being up on the plateau rather than down in the valley, Castleview Campground is unprotected from the wind. As such it’s a bit bleak. There are trees present, spread out one or so per site providing very limited shade. Many of them are rather battered. Even the grass appears shellshocked.

There are 30 back-in campsites found along two straight roads running the length of the campground. Each road has 15 campsites all offering water, sewer, and 15/30 amp power.

 A third road runs along the south side of the campground and offers guest parking. It circles round the east end and joins up with the other two roads creating a bisected loop layout.

Most of the campsites have a gravel pad surrounded by patchy grass. Four of them, however, have a paved pad. Two of these are situated on either side of the bathroom with paved pathways to said bathroom. This suggests they were all intended to be accessible campsites though only one of them is currently designated as such.

Each site comes with a fire pit and a picnic table. Most of the sites also have a two-sided wooden wind break around the picnic table. A necessity, I’m sure.

The picnic tables are concrete based with wooden tops. They’re sturdy but weatherbeaten. The fire pits come in two styles, ones with a moveable grate and ones with a stationary grate.

Bathrooms at Castleview Campground

If Castleview Campground has one redeeming quality, it’s the bathrooms. Though cleverly disguised as a larger version of the Cottonwood Campground pit toilets, this one is fully functional with flush toilets, sinks, and showers.

The interiors are a tad grim. Cinder block walls, concrete floors, and stainless steel sinks give a decidedly prison feel. Still better than pit toilets, I’m not going to be fussy.

The men’s bathroom contains a urinal, two stalls, one of which is accessible, and a single shower stall. The shower is free and uses a unique industrial looking start (green) and stop (red) button controller. The shower stall is rusted and like the rest of the bathroom, not the prettiest thing.

Potable Water and Dump Station

Potable water is available at each campsite. It is also available at the dump station if you’re looking to fill your RV before heading to one of the non-serviced campgrounds in the Oldman River Provincial Recreation Area.

It’s a bit odd that the only campground with sewer service at every campsite is home to the only dump station in the PRA. The dump station would make far more sense down at the much larger Cottonwood Campground where there are no sewers. I imagine most, if not all, the users of the dump station are campers from Cottonwood or the other PRA campgrounds not named Castleview.

Registration, Playground, and Firewood

There is no registration office and so no store or other large park amenities. There is an old registration kiosk on premises. All sites are reservable but I suppose there’s potential for FCFS options here since it rarely seems to be full.

The biggest peculiarity at Castleview Campground is the playground. Or should I say the missing playground.

On the south side of the campground is a sizeable pea gravel area with a few large rocks in it. There’s a parking area next to it and signage indicating the playground is for children aged 5 – 12. Except, there is no playground.

What happened to the playground is beyond my knowledge. This seems to be a similar mystery to the lost electrical sites in Cottonwood. It’s a real pity all these perks are disappearing in the Oldman Dam PRA.

Like Cottonwood, there is no firewood for sale at Castleview. You’ll need to bring your own or purchase some in town. I’m assuming somewhere in Pincher Creek will have some for sale.

Things To Do at Castleview Campground

As for things to do, there isn’t much I’m afraid. The campground is far too small for any trails or hiking or recreation of any sort, really.

There isn’t much to do in the PRA either. Boating and fishing are presumably the biggest draws. Some of the day use areas have beach-esque areas for cooling off in the water or sunbathing.

If you’re up for something more touristy, Heritage Acres Farm Museum is a great place to explore the local history. It’s only a few kilometres north of Castleview Campground and will entertain you for a couple hours with farming antiques and old buildings removed when the dam was built.

Conclusion

We ourselves did not camp at Castleview Campground, but it didn’t take long while walking through it to determine we never would. It’s just not an appealing campground. I’ll give it 2.0 Baby Dill Pickles out of 5.

If you’re visiting family in the area and own a motorhome or large trailer and just need a full-service campground to set up your unit, I suppose this isn’t the worst option around. So long as you aren’t planning to spend much time actually in the campground.

The flush toilets and showers are a plus. The rest? Meh. And the missing playground is just perplexing. Toss in the blistering wind that is surely blasting this campground more days than not and I’d just as soon camp elsewhere.