Castle Provincial Park and Castle Wildland

Two Adjoining Alberta Parks Totalling About 1,040 Square Kilometres In The South West Rockies, Designated In 2017 After Decades Of Campaigning; A Critical Wildlife Corridor Between Waterton Lakes And The Wider Crown Of The Continent · Pincher Creek, Alberta

The Castle is the south-west corner of Alberta, between Waterton Lakes and the Crowsnest Pass, and the two adjoining parks designated here in 2017 - CASTLE PROVINCIAL PARK and CASTLE WILDLAND PROVINCIAL PARK - cover about one thousand and forty square kilometres together. THE DESIGNATION TOOK DECADES OF CAMPAIGNING and was contested throughout, because this country had long been open to logging and intensive off-highway vehicle use and both were curtailed by the parks. What it protects is a CRITICAL WILDLIFE CORRIDOR: the Castle links Waterton Lakes and Glacier in Montana to the wider CROWN OF THE CONTINENT, and grizzly, wolverine, lynx, elk and bighorn move through it. Botanically it is exceptional - the convergence of prairie, montane and alpine here produces a plant list unusual for Alberta. Castle Falls, Table Mountain and the Southfork Lakes are the usual objectives.

Highway 774 south-west of Pincher Creek, Rocky Mountains, Pincher Creek, Alberta, Canada

OPEN YEAR-ROUND WITH NO GENERAL ENTRY FEE, though ALBERTA PARKS CHARGES FOR CAMPING and reservations are through the provincial system. THE MAIN SEASON RUNS ROUGHLY LATE MAY TO EARLY OCTOBER for hiking and camping; SNOW LIES ON THE HIGHER TRAILS WELL INTO JUNE and returns in October. HIGHWAY 774 AND THE CASTLE ROAD give access to trailheads and campgrounds, with gravel sections. OFF-HIGHWAY VEHICLE USE IS RESTRICTED AND MANAGED under the park designations, which is the most contested aspect of the parks and which visitors should check rather than assume in either direction. RANDOM BACKCOUNTRY CAMPING IS PERMITTED IN THE WILDLAND with conditions. WINTER BRINGS SKI TOURING AND SNOWSHOEING in avalanche terrain. This is serious grizzly country. Confirm current rules with Alberta Parks.

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