Astotin Lake Campground in Elk Island is the night, unserviced gravel pads with showers and a dump station on the loop, out Highway 16 East. Book it before you book the van. The season runs from the May long weekend through Thanksgiving, weather permitting, which is a short enough window that the campground picks your dates rather than the rental.
Bison have the right of way on the park road, and you stay in the van while they use it. On foot the rule is 100 metres, more in May and June when calves are around, and more again through the rut from late July into early September.
After Thanksgiving those loops close. The gates stay open for day use, skiing, and the dark-sky nights, but a first-night van has no business on that gravel in the snow.
The Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village sits on the same Highway 16 East approach, a short stop before the south gate, and Sherwood Park is the suburb you pass on the way out. If you need more sleeping space than a van holds, RV rentals in Edmonton is the other page.
Cooking Lake-Blackfoot
Cooking Lake-Blackfoot is a trail day and then a drive back to Astotin to sleep. The trails run through spruce-poplar wetland and beaver ponds, with loops out to Lost Lake and Neon Lake for walking, bikes, and horses in summer.
Parking is at Waskehegan on Range Road 210, or at Blackfoot Lake staging on Range Road 195 just south of Highway 16. There is no camping here, which is the whole reason the night stays at Elk Island.
Wabamun Lake
Wabamun Lake Provincial Park, off Highway 16A, is where you go for a swim. Treed loops run down to a beach, with a day-use boardwalk and sailing if you want more of the water than a swim.
The park sits about 60 km west of Edmonton. Some sites carry 15 or 30-amp power, some are unserviced, and Alberta Parks takes reservations up to 90 days ahead. The campground season runs late April through the end of October, as of August 2026.
Keep west on Highway 16 and the road turns into the long run to Jasper.
Miette Hot Springs is the pull-off east of the Jasper townsite, an outdoor mineral pool set against the Fiddle Valley. Parks Canada caps vehicles at 7.5 metres, about 25 feet on that road. The night goes at Miette Campground near the bottom of it, not in the springs parking lot.
Other Alberta starting cities sit on the Alberta campervan map.
