Camping & Hiking · Fishing · Alberta
A family campground on Cow Lake in Alberta with a beach, playgrounds, mini golf and boating and fishing access. Sites are open and close together, and outhouse toilets draw repeated complaints.
Cow Lake Campground is a laid-back family spot on a small Alberta lake, with open green space, a beach and good views over the water. Visitors mention seeing beavers and hearing plenty of wildlife, and one family's kids enjoyed searching for the cows and rocks around the grounds.
Staff are generally described as friendly and easy to joke with, and they patrol for noise at night. Campers note they're strict about the speed limit. Unserviced sites have run around $25 a night, with power available on some sites and a paid dump station on the way out. The shower house uses tokens for about $2 for four minutes, with hot water and good pressure. Firewood comes in large pieces, so bring an axe.
It suits families with trailers and boats. There are two playgrounds, including one by the beach, a sand volleyball court, mini golf, hiking trails and an ice cream truck, and staff have run movie nights, Halloween activities and a fireworks show. The lake is set up for boating with boat parking. Opinions on the water are mixed: one visitor found it warm for swimming, while another called it muskeg and didn't recommend it, and one noted few people seemed to catch fish.
Toilets are the main complaint. There are no flush toilets, only outhouses, and several campers found them smelly or slow to be cleaned on busy weekends. Sites near the playground are open and close together, so ask for a treed site if privacy matters. Dogs have no lake access, and bugs can be bad.
Summarised from visitor reviews on Google Maps. Based on 214 Google reviews. Details change — confirm hours, prices and bookings with Cow Lake Campground directly.
