Provincial government to build three backcountry huts in Castle area
The Alberta government is putting forward $700,000 to construct three backcountry huts in Castle Wildland Provincial Park.
The huts will be operated by the Alpine Club of Canada and will create new recreational opportunities and bolster tourism in the southwest Alberta area, Environment Minister Shannon Phillips said Monday as the province announced the plan at Calgary’s downtown MEC store.
“This is part of the vision of people being able to access the backcountry, which we know people are doing in increasing numbers,” she said.
“It will attract new visitors and meet the growing demand for this experience here in Alberta.”
The Alpine Club, a registered charity, runs 33 back-country huts, almost all of which are located in the mountain national parks.
These will be the first huts within Alberta’s provincial park system.
The huts will be built about 10 kilometres apart, with one located close enough to roads to be accessible for people using wheelchairs. They will be open this fall and accessible year-round at a cost of $40 a night.
Alpine Club president Neil Bosch said the organization has been in the backcountry hut business since 1927 and jumped at the chance to work in the Castle area when approached by the province.
“These new, simple but elegant hut designs will allow access to a wilderness experience in a part of the country that not many people have access to,” he said. “The Castle watershed is a special place.”
The NDP government created two provincial parks out of the Castle wilderness area last year, pledging $20 million over four years for access routes, camping facilities, trails and other upgrades.
Phillips said the province is poised to soon make a final deci- sion on its draft management plan for the parks and there will be an announcement on issues such as off-highway vehicle use before this year’s camping season gets underway.
The government has said it will phase out the vehicles and random camping in the Castle wilderness over five years, but how that phase out will occur is yet to be determined.