CANMORE \u2014 It sits on top of the signature coal mine that made the Town of Canmore. But it\u2019s the focus of a glamour-camping fight in a Rocky Mountain community trying to balance quality of life with the driver of its new economy \u2013 tourism.<\/p>\n
John (Jay) Third, a partner and project manager for \u201cTrailhaus,\u201d hopes the area –about an hour\u2019s drive west of Calgary — will eventually become a 74-site glamping campground on almost 10 hectares of private land.<\/p>\n
\u201cBelow us is Canmore mine Number 1 — a coal seam and several other mines so the intention was to kind of play on the historic nature of the property and the community itself,\u201d he said last week while tramping above the mine. <\/p>\n
The project, on the Staircase Lands, was initially named \u201cMiners Camp\u201d and Third said it\u2019s been in the works for a couple of years. He said the land has sat idle for 60 years and the project will be careful to meet all planning and environmental concerns.<\/p>\n
The Canadian Anthracite Coal Company opened No. 1 in 1887 to mine high quality coal used for steam engines before closing in 1916. It\u2019s the mine that turned this community on the lip of Banff National Park from a whistle stop into a boom town.<\/p>\n
\u2018Enough is enough\u2019<\/p>\n
But the coal is long gone and in recent years Canmore has grown \u2013 exploded, actually — into a tourism hub for hikers, bikers, campers, kayakers and more. The growth has put pressure on scarce housing, not to mention the domino effects on parking, infrastructure and the environment.<\/p>\n
Canmore resident Wendy Walker says it\u2019s time to draw the line at Trailhaus. <\/p>\n
Walker, who lives in an established neighbourhood about five minutes away, has launched a petition opposing the construction. She has 2,500 signatures.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnough is enough. Canmore is over-developed and we\u2019re all desperately trying to slow it down,\u201d Walker said in an interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just don\u2019t have the infrastructure. We don\u2019t have the staff. We don\u2019t have the accommodation. Over-tourism is an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glamping \u2013 short for glamorous camping — is essentially camping where you rough it, but it\u2019s not so rough. Campers sleep in tents, cabins, yurts or other outdoor-style shelters, but often there are beds, maybe electricity, in order to experience nature with some of the sharper edges smoothed out.<\/p>\n
Trailhaus would have units build on a wood platform with a traditional hunting or outfitter style canvas tent. They would come with beds, furniture and some would have bathrooms and showers. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe looked at the growing market of glamping, not just in Canada, but throughout all of North America and one of the key aspects was it being on the footsteps of Banff National Park as well as in the heart of the Canadian Rockies,\u201d Third said about the site.<\/p>\n
But Walker says there are big problems: wildlife and wildfire. She says the glampground could see residents run into bear and elk on a nearby wildlife corridor. And if there is a massive wildfire similar to the one that forced everyone in the Rocky Mountain town of Jasper to flee two years ago, there could be a very dangerous bottleneck.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s only one way in and one way out, so in terms of evacuation plans we\u2019re terrified especially after what happened in Jasper,\u201d Walker said.<\/p>\n
Zachary Richardson, the managing partner who owns the Trailhaus property, says he understands concerns from residents.<\/p>\n
Richardson said he spent a year when he was in his 20s driving across North America and got the glamping bug when he stayed in a tent near Morocco in the Sahara.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love camping and I love the outdoors in Canmore. And I just think the two of them just make sense,\u201d Richardson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe location is just too hard to pass up. It gives the feel that you\u2019re secluded in the woods but you\u2019re close to everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Increasing demand for glamping<\/p>\n
McKenzie McMillan, with the Vancouver-based Travel Group, doesn\u2019t book a lot of glamping trips within Canada, but said the Amangiri resort in Utah is popular as well as the Four Seasons in Puerto Vallarta, which comes with tree houses.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a market segment that has increasing demand,\u201d McMillan said pointing to several properties in B.C. that offer glamping.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all get to a certain age where yeah, we don\u2019t want to sleep directly on the ground anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 26, 2026.<\/p>\n
Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CANMORE \u2014 It sits on top of the signature coal mine that made the Town of Canmore. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[525,17,234,226,435,1272,2131,237,3090],"class_list":{"0":"post-20379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-lifestyle","12":"tag-mining","13":"tag-prairies-bc","14":"tag-social","15":"tag-travel","16":"tag-utilities"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}