Returning Yellowknife residents forced to get creative with no vacancy in High Level, Alta.

Yellowknife residents planning to return this week are finding alternative accommodations as hotels in High Level, Alta., are fully booked up. 

The community of about 3,000 serves as a gateway to the N.W.T. — many northerners travelling from the southern part of the province spend the night there before completing the drive home. 

Thomas McGarrell said the hotels he called informed him they were booked for the month. 

"So we went the non-traditional route, looking for campgrounds and cabins and so forth," he said. 

McGarrell said they found a cabin, which he is alright with. 

"As long as it's got a roof, a toilet, or a bathroom and a bed, then it doesn't matter, I just need a place to put my head down," he said. 

Janice Lee is an evacuee staying in Edmonton who will be flying home with her three-year-old daughter. 

But her husband will be driving, and because he can't find accommodations in High Level, he'll be driving 11 hours from Edmonton to Fort Providence in one shot. 

"Definitely a long day," Lee said. 

Crystal McAteer is the mayor of High Level. 

She wrote in an email that there is zero vacancy at any hotel in the community and they have been at capacity for the past week. 

A website set up by the government of Alberta for N.W.T. evacuees says that the High Level evacuee centre is at capacity and is no longer accepting new evacuees. 

Adding to the pressure if the fact that the community, like many in northern Alberta, is housing other N.W.T. evacuees from Hay River, Kátł'odeeche First Nation, Enterprise and Fort Smith.  

Grande Prairie is in a similar state. 

Mackenzie Koep, an information officer with the Grande Prairie Regional Emergency Partnership, said the municipality does not have the resources to take on any more evacuees, including those travelling through back to Yellowknife.

"We're just unable to provide at this time," she said. 

Despite the limited options in High Level, CBC News (not CBC North) managed to book three hotel rooms for staff on Sunday and then four rooms on Monday for four different staff members.

Chuck Thompson, a spokesperson for CBC News, said in an email that of the seven employees travelling through High Level, two live in Yellowknife.