Lucerne Campground

Lucerne Campground is a relatively small campground nestled on the far eastern end of Mount Robson Provincial Park on the shores of Yellowhead Lake. This campground is the perfect place to camp for any tent camper to Mount Robson or nearby Jasper National Park in Alberta, especially for those looking to avoid the crowds at the busy and cramped campgrounds in the latter park. Even on summer weekends, Lucerne Campground's first-come, first-serve spots do not fill until the afternoon, and the campsites are all quite spacious and spread out. The scenery is spectacular at the campground; however, do note that trains on a very busy freight line on the opposite side of Yellowhead Lake can be heard anywhere in the campground when they pass through, and some sites are located close to the Trans-Canada Highway.

Located five minutes west of the border of British Columbia and Alberta, Lucerne Campground is roughly equidistant from the visitor center of Mount Robson and the city of Jasper (although there is an hour time zone difference between the two). Half of the campsites are reservable at Lucerne, including all the lakefront sites as well as the two walk-in sites, which are amongst the most scenic in the region. The other half are first-come, first-served. These are full nearly every night in the summer, but they tend to not fill up until late in the day, including on weekends. This is because when the campgrounds are full in Jasper National Park, the staff will refer visitors to the "overflow campground" and not to the more distant campgrounds on the Icefields Parkway or to campgrounds such as this one.

Compared to the other campgrounds in the Canadian Rocky Mountains Heritage Site, Lucerne is very primitive. A handful of outhouses and two water wells are the only provisions in the campground. A horseshoe pit is located at the campground entrance, and a boat launch to the main part of Yellowhead Lake is located 2 kilometers to the east. The campground does NOT accept credit or debit cards, only cash; however, there is usually a BC Parks host/ranger on duty, and they tend to be more laissez-faire about collecting payments than a national park campground would be. They are also able to make change and sell a decent-sized tub of firewood for $10 CAD upon request (roughly two bundles worth if one were to buy wood from a store or service station). The Labrador Tea Trail, located near the campground entrance, loops east to the main part of the lake and then to a beach area near the two walk-in sites on the far end of the campground.