May long weekend: 5 southern Alberta campgrounds with vacancies

The May long weekend is days awayand Alberta's provincial campgrounds are once again almost fully booked up.

• Albertans' obsession with RV camping

TanyaKoob, afamily campingblogger,says someCalgarians headout as early asWednesdaynight to set up camp and then return on Friday.

"I would not say Parks Canada or Alberta Parks endorses this practice, but it's pretty much one of the only things you can do to get anon-reservablesite for a long weekend," she said."People are desperate. There's just not enough campgrounds for the amount of people nearby who want to camp."

Here arefive places in southern Alberta where you might still be ableto pitch your tent or park your RV this long weekend. Be sure to pack a tarp thereisrain in the forecast.

Wyndham-CarselandProvincial Park

This large campground on the Bow River, about an hour's drive southeast of downtown Calgary, has lots of first-come, first-serve campsites.

Water is not available in the park.Reserved sites are already full.

Lake McGregor Provincial Recreation Area

This is a first-come, first-serve campground with 100 sites southeast of Calgary.Water is not available in the park and the showers are closed.

Swimming is allowed in the reservoir, but the water is cold at the best of times, never mind May. This Prairie campground is a great spot for bird watchers.Among the feathered friends are white pelicans and double-crested cormorants, who forage on the reservoir at this time of year.

Bow Valley Provincial Park:Willow Rock

Willow Rockcampground has158 first-come, first-serve campsites. This is in Kananaskis, west of Calgary, so expect cooler nights. This campground has showers, shelters and flush toilets and lots of hook-ups for RV users.

While Willow Rock is the largest of the first-come, first-serve campgrounds in the park, there are a few more: Bow River, Bow Valleyand Three Sisters.

Peter Lougheed Provincial Park:Lower Lake

Another Kananaskis campground with 104 first-come, first-serve sites. It has a playground and running water.There are two more campgrounds in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park that take last minute campers.

Interlakes campground has another 48 sites and Canyon campground has 50 sites. There is also walk-in tenting at Mount Sarrail campground.

Cypress Hills Park

In southeastern corner of Alberta, there are still some empty campsites that can be reserved in the stunning Cypress Hills. It's a huge park with 600 campsites across two provinces.

A few campgrounds in the park are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Although at 423 kilometres from Calgary, it's a long way to drive only to find out the park is full.