Draw a ten-minute circle around the resort on a map. Inside it: the Kananaskis Visitor Information Centre at Barrier Lake, 7.1 km away by my router check, and Barrier Dam, 9.2 km, where Prairie View and Jewell Pass begin. Draw a thirty-minute circle: Heart Creek, Grotto Canyon, Kananaskis Village with Troll Falls, Nakiska, and the edge of Canmore. Draw an hour: Banff, Upper Kananaskis Lake, Highwood Pass when the road is open.
Now do the same around a hotel in Canmore. The thirty-minute circle covers Banff and the Spray Lakes road, and loses most of the Kananaskis Valley. Neither is better in general. One is better for a particular trip.
The morning advantage
The resort is east of the mountains' busiest towns. On a summer weekend, people driving out from Calgary to Kananaskis turn south at this junction. Sleeping here means you turn south before most of them have left home. I cannot measure traffic, so I will not put a number on the head start. I can say the drive to Barrier Dam is about ten minutes, and that is short enough to be first in the lot if you want to be.
The evening cost
The same junction is empty at night. The resort has The Ridge until 9 pm and Sidelines later; Travel Alberta lists a Tim Hortons in the on-site travel centre. Anything more is in Canmore, 33 km away. I think that is fine for a hiking trip, because a hiking trip's evening is a pool, a meal and bed. It is not fine for a trip where the evening is the point.
What the junction gives drivers
Free parking, free RV and truck parking after registering, a gas bar on the property and a straight run back onto Highway 1 in either direction. If you are crossing the Rockies and want to stop before the passes, not in them, this is a sensible place to break the drive. The RV rules are worth reading first: no generators are mentioned, but no external speakers, no fires and no jacks on the pavement are.
The view from the parking lot
I have not stood in that lot, and I am not going to describe the view as if I had. The resort's own words are mountain views and sunrise views, depending on the room. The hotel publishes both options for every standard room type; my thoughts on choosing are on the rooms page.
Last checked against the linked sources: 31 October 2026.