The Glossary

Land & Access

PLUZPublic Land Use Zone

A block of Alberta public land with its own published rulebook — where you can camp, which trails motorized vehicles may use, and when. Rules differ between PLUZs, which is why a rule you learned in Kananaskis may not apply in the Ghost.

PRAProvincial Recreation Area

A designated recreation site — usually a campground, day-use area or staging area — run under Alberta Parks. You pay a fee to camp in one, and random camping is banned within 1 km of one.

Crown Land

Public land owned by the government rather than a private owner. Most of Alberta's Eastern Slopes is Crown land, which is why free camping is possible there at all — with a pass and rules.

Green Area / White Area

Alberta's two big land classifications. The Green Area is forested public land (recreation, forestry, grazing) — where you'll camp. The White Area is mostly private/settled land in the south and east.

Wilderness Area

Alberta's strictest protection — only three exist (Ghost River, White Goat, Siffleur). Foot travel only: no vehicles, bikes, horses, hunting, fishing or campfires. Camping on foot is free and permit-less. Easy to confuse with a PLUZ; the rules are nearly opposite.

FSRForest Service Road

A gravel road built for forestry or industry that the public may also use. Expect logging trucks, no maintenance guarantee, and no services.

Forestry Trunk Road

The long gravel spine (much of it Highway 40 / 734) running north–south along Alberta's Eastern Slopes. Sections are seasonally gated. See issue 006.

Staging Area

A parking and unloading area at the edge of a trail network — corrals for horses, ramps for OHVs, room for trailers. Where the road part of your trip ends and the trail part starts.

FPAForest Protection Area

The zone where Alberta's wildfire rules apply. Inside it, campfires are allowed (bans permitting) but any other burning needs a free fire permit between March 1 and October 31.

Designated Trail

A trail explicitly approved for a specific vehicle type and size. In a PLUZ, "not designated" means "not allowed" — and the current map, not last year's, is the legal document.

Camping & Passes

Random Campinga.k.a. dispersed camping

Camping on public land outside a campground, with no services and no site number. Legal in much of Alberta's Eastern Slopes with a Public Lands Camping Pass, subject to setbacks and a 14-day limit.

PLCPPublic Lands Camping Pass

The pass every adult (18+) needs to random-camp on the Eastern Slopes, Grande Prairie to Waterton. $30/year or $20/3-day per person, plus a small fee and a one-time WiN number. Not needed in fee campgrounds. Buy it at albertarelm.com.

WiNWildlife Identification Number

A one-time (~$8) ID number that Alberta's licensing system attaches your passes and licences to. You need one before buying a camping or fishing pass online.

FCFSFirst Come, First Served

No reservations — you drive in, find an empty site, and self-register in the envelope box. Most Eastern Slopes campgrounds work this way, which is why they're still findable on a July long weekend.

The 14-Day Rule

The standard random-camping stay limit: 14 days in one spot, then move at least 1 km for 72 hours. It exists to stop long-term squatting on public land.

Boondocking / Dry Camping

Camping with no hookups — no power, water or sewer. Everything you use, you brought. Most camping in this guide is dry camping whether it's free or paid.

Potable / Non-Potable

Drinkable versus not. Critical out here: most Eastern Slopes campground hand pumps are officially non-potable — the water is for putting out fires, not for you. Bring every litre you'll drink.

Sani-Dump

A station for emptying an RV's black and grey water tanks legally. Rare on gravel; plan them into town stops.

Grey Water / Black Water

Grey is used sink and shower water; black is toilet waste. Neither goes on the ground: grey at least 100 m from water, black only at a sani-dump.

Backcountry Permit

The reservation you need to camp at a designated backcountry site inside a national park (Banff, Jasper, Waterton). Different system from Alberta public land — and required the moment you cross the park boundary.

Kananaskis Conservation Pass

A vehicle pass ($15/day or $90/year) required to park in Kananaskis Country and the Bow Valley. It does not apply in the Ghost, the Castle, or most other public land — a common and expensive mix-up.

Discovery Pass

Parks Canada's annual pass covering every national park. Unrelated to any Alberta provincial pass.

Fire & Safety

Fire Advisory

The mildest tier: conditions are dangerous and new fire permits may be suspended, but campfires are still legal. A warning shot.

Fire Restriction

The middle tier: wood campfires are banned on public land, but usually still allowed in approved campground fire rings. Propane appliances generally stay legal.

Fire Ban

The top tier: no wood fires anywhere, including campgrounds and private fire pits. Check albertafirebans.ca or call 310-FIRE the morning you leave — the status can change in a day.

310-FIRE

Alberta's toll-free wildfire reporting line (310-3473). No area code needed, anywhere in the province.

Bear Hang

Suspending your food between trees, out of a bear's reach — the classic rule of thumb is 4 m up and 1 m out from the trunk. The alternative is a certified canister or your vehicle's hard-sided body.

Bear Canister

A hard-sided, certified container a bear can't open or crush. Required in some parks, sensible everywhere above treeline where there's nothing to hang from.

Bear Spray

A capsaicin deterrent — not a repellent, and never sprayed on gear or people. Carried on your hip, not in the pack, because the moment you need it you have two seconds.

Blaze Orange

High-visibility hunter orange. Alberta has no law requiring it — which makes wearing it in the fall your own responsibility, on you, the pack and the dog.

Sat Comm / PLB

A satellite communicator (inReach, Zoleo) or Personal Locator Beacon — the only way to call for help where there's no cell signal, which out here is most places. Alberta's own PLUZ pages recommend one.

Leave No Trace

The ethic that makes free camping survive: pack out everything, use existing fire rings, camp on durable ground, and bury human waste 60+ m from water. Free access lasts exactly as long as people follow it.

The Rig

Overlanding

Vehicle-based travel where the journey is the point — self-reliant, usually remote, usually camping out of the vehicle. Distinct from off-roading, where the obstacle is the point.

RTTRooftop Tent

A tent that folds out of a rack on your roof. Fast to pitch, off the ground, and hard on your fuel economy and your awning in a 100 km/h gust.

4x4 / AWD

4x4 is selectable four-wheel drive with low range — what gravel hills and fords actually want. AWD is always-on and road-biased; it is not the same thing, and the Big Hill knows the difference.

High Clearance

Enough space under the axles and body to clear rocks and ruts. Where guides say "high clearance recommended," they mean your crossover will be scraping.

Airing Down

Letting air out of your tires (to ~18–22 psi) so they flex over rocks and float on gravel — more grip, less rattle. Air back up before pavement, which is why a compressor lives in the truck.

Traction Boards

Toothed ramps you wedge under a spinning tire to drive yourself out of sand, mud or snow. The most-used piece of recovery gear there is.

Winch

A powered drum of cable on the bumper that drags you (or a friend) out. Useless without an anchor, a tree strap and someone who knows the failure modes.

Recovery Points

Rated, engineered attachment points on the frame — not tie-down loops or a tow ball. Attaching a strap to the wrong thing is how recovery gear becomes a projectile.

Diff Lock / Locker

Locks both wheels on an axle to spin together, so a wheel in the air can't steal all the torque. The difference between climbing out and digging in.

Dual Battery

A second "house" battery that runs your fridge and lights, isolated so you can't flatten the battery that starts the engine.

DC-DC Charger

The device that charges the house battery properly from the alternator while you drive — necessary because modern smart alternators won't fill a lithium battery on their own.

Ford

A place you drive or walk through a river rather than over it. Walk it before you drive it; glacial rivers rise through hot afternoons.

Washboard

The teeth-rattling ripples that form across gravel roads. Airing down helps; speed only pretends to.

Cattle Guard

The grid of steel bars in the road that stops livestock but lets vehicles pass. Often marks the boundary of a grazing lease — and where you should close the gate behind you.

Fish, Hunt & Wildlife

ES1 / ES2 / ES4Eastern Slopes fishing zones

Alberta splits its Eastern Slopes into numbered fishing zones, each with its own seasons and limits. ES1 covers the Oldman and Bow watersheds (Crowsnest, Ghost); ES4 covers the Smoky (Willmore). The zone decides the rules — check before you cast.

WMUWildlife Management Unit

The numbered hunting districts Alberta's seasons and draws are set by. The Ghost is WMU 412; the mountain units run through the 400s. Relevant to hikers because it tells you when the trails get shared.

Catch and Release

Fish, photograph, return — no keeping. On some water (like the whole Crowsnest River mainstem) it's the law, and it's exactly why the fishing there is world-class.

Bait Ban

No natural bait — artificial flies and lures only. Standard on Eastern Slopes trout streams because bait-caught fish swallow the hook and rarely survive release.

Bull Trout

Alberta's threatened provincial fish. Zero limit province-wide — always released. Learn the ID: no black spots on the dorsal fin ("no black, put it back").

Westslope Cutthroat

A native trout listed as Threatened, down to a fraction of its historic range. The reason sediment from trail damage matters, and why some streams are recovery water.

Whirling Disease

A parasite that deforms and kills young trout, present in Alberta since 2016. It spreads on wet gear — hence clean, drain, dry between every waterbody.

Clean, Drain, Dry

The rule for every boat, boot and net: remove mud and plants, empty all water, dry it fully. Stops whirling disease and invasive mussels hitching a ride.

Report A Poacher

Alberta's 24/7 line for poaching and wildlife crime: 1-800-642-3800. For reporting illegal activity — not legal hunting you happen to dislike.

Y2YYellowstone to Yukon

The conservation initiative keeping a connected wildlife corridor along the Rockies. It's why wildlife over- and underpasses get built where highways pinch the mountains.

Weather & Terrain

Chinook

A warm, dry wind that pours over the Rockies and can lift southern Alberta 20°C in hours — melting a snowpack, then glazing everything in ice when it stops. The arch of cloud on the western horizon is the tell.

Braided River

A river split into many shifting shallow channels across a wide gravel bed. Beautiful, and the reason a "road" across the flats is a different road every season.

Scree / Talus

Loose broken rock on a slope. Ascends slowly, descends fast, and eats ankles either way.

Scramble vs Hike

A hike is walking. A scramble needs your hands, tolerates exposure and can kill you — Crowsnest Mountain is a scramble, whatever the trail apps call it. If a guide flags a scramble, believe it.

Treeline

The elevation where trees stop. Above it there's no shelter, no shade and no windbreak — which is exactly where the weather finds you.

Larch

The deciduous conifer that turns gold and drops its needles each fall — mid-September to early October, concentrated in Kananaskis and Banff. The Rockies' biggest annual traffic jam.

Deadfall

Fallen trees across the trail. In unmaintained country it's the main reason a 7 km walk takes half a day — and why locals carry a saw.

Bortle Scale

A 1–9 rating of how dark a night sky is. Calgary is an 8–9; an hour's drive west gets you dramatically darker, though the city's glow still sits on the eastern horizon.

Trekkr Terms

Trail Journal

Our blog — field notes, gear takes and route write-ups, published free.

Field Guide

Our numbered deep-dive guides to a single region. The web version is free and complete; the $9.95 PDF is the printable glovebox copy that works where your phone has no signal.

Conditions Block

The dated red box at the top of every field guide. It's the only part that goes stale on purpose — everything else is evergreen, and the live sources are linked so you can check it yourself.

Source Rating

The honesty label on our trail figures: Official (a government page publishes it), Brochure, Consensus (repeated GPS trip reports agree), or Unverified. Where no good number exists, we say so instead of inventing one.

Rig of the Day

The community build we feature on the home page. Free, always — submit yours.

Readers Rides

The gallery of community rigs and their build stories.

Unclaimed Listing

A business profile we built from public information so travellers can find real local services. The owner can claim it free, take full control, or have it removed — their call.

Featured / Premium

Paid business tiers ($99 / $249 per year) that unlock a gallery, map, contact form, and — on Premium — video and promotions. Free profiles stay free forever.

Example Profile

A demo business page (like this one) showing what each tier looks like. It's our own brand, clearly labelled, and never a real company's details.

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Definitions here are plain-English explanations for planning, not legal advice. Fees, passes and rules change, and the government page always wins — every field guide links the live sources for exactly that reason. Last reviewed 17 July 2026.