Happy Camping in a Tipi

My girls have a keen interest in Aboriginal Culture.  The trips to Writing-on-Stone Provinical Park, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump and the Aboriginal Culture Exhibit at the Royal Alberta Museum have had them talking about tipis and buffalo for the last year.  So when I found out about Tipi Camping at Elk Island Retreat, just 30 minutes from the North East side of Edmonton, I was super excited to bring them.  My expectations for the campground and experience were exceeded and we loved spending two nights in our Tipi, even through a couple of good thunderstorms.

We loaded up after work on Friday and drove out by 5pm. The best part of Tipi camping is your site is already set up. We checked in, found our site, laid out our air mattresses and then made dinner. Tim met us out there after he finished up work a little later that evening and drove out to find a fire crackling, kids playing in the forest and dinner being made (tough life for him, right?). But the resort made it so easy for me to get set up on my own because included with the Tipi rental there is also a BBQ and a propane camp stove at the site. Each Tipi has a large covered space for the picnic table to protect you from the hot sun (or in our case, the constant rain).  They also provided us with a large blue jug of water and a bundle of birch firewood for each night of our rental. We only had to bring our sleeping arrangements (the floor is plywood and off the ground so no getting wet!) and food. We also brought camp chairs for around the fire and our bikes.  But it was all incredibly easy to set up and get settled.

The campground is primarily an RV park, but there is a back section with two “trapper’s cabins” and four tipis.  They can be rented for the evening or just for the day (great idea for birthday parties or a family BBQ). I was a little worried about the fact that there was no playground for our girls- one of their favourite parts of camping is finding the playground and making new friends. However, we enjoyed walking through the beautiful trail system and catching all sorts of bugs and frogs in our nets. The girls also loved finding wild strawberries on the trail to snack on and having free range to build forts and play around our site. We were quite isolated from the rest of the campground in our Tipi and I loved giving them so much freedom to explore the trails around our site. We brought our bikes, but quickly found the trail system wasn’t great for kids on bikes and the roads were primarily sand which was a little too soft on our rainy days to ride on, so the bikes went mostly unused. Our bug nets and plastic bug terrariums were definitely the hit of the weekend, especially with the creek and the abundance of little critters. Another hit was the horseshoe pit. Violet immediately became determined to win a game and we spent a lot of time throwing old horseshoes at steel posts. Who knew that could be so fun for a five year old?? ha!

There was a small camp store at the check in which had a few very basic amenities (plus ice cream and freezies). The park also has loonies showers and two loonie laundry. I loved the fact that for $8 the host, Pat,  will come to your site and make bannock and mint tea. If you arrange it beforehand you can even have someone come to your site to make Aboriginal Crafts for an afternoon.  We also enjoyed our Saturday afternoon at the nearby Elk Island National Park, but that will be another post 😉

Look Forward to-
-being close to the city but it feeling like you’ve really “gotten away”
– the tipi’s being inexpensive at $60 a night
-great hosts that are fantastic to deal with during booking and check in. It’s a family run campground so all the staff we talked to were very nice and helpful.
– being less then 5 minutes away from the lesser-used west gate to Elk Island National Park for an afternoon at the lake
-not actually being inside the National Park, so no park fees unless you choose to go in for the day
– the outhouses being extremely clean (and not smelly).
-even the smallest tipi at the retreat being very spacious for our family of four

But be Prepared for-
-no playground
-the tipi’s aren’t bug proof at all, there is a gap between the canvas and the ground, as well as a small opening in the centre of the roof. I was worried we would be covered in bites during the night. Maeve ended up getting one good one on her head, but otherwise we put on a little bug spray before bed and all was well. I’m sure later in the season the bugs would be much worse though.
– no electrical outlets at sites
-no pets allowed at Tipi sites (not a negative for us as we don’t have one, but worth a mention for lots of families)

Our Insider Tips-
-bring an air mattress unless you like sleeping on hard plywood
-bring a BBQ lighter, it was really hard to light the provided BBQ with matches
-request the single smaller 18 ft tipi if you want extra privacy and have a smaller group. We had no neighbours surrounding us and literally no traffic at our site at all since it was at the end of the road.
-come ready to explore and enjoy nature with your kids. It’s a quiet space perfect for just enjoying your family.

Happy Camping!

Kelsy

Elk Island Retreat-  www.elkislandretreat.com