This is an older thread but
@Tyler_trd your post got it into the "New" section so I figured I might as well chime in since I know this area fairly well. However, full disclosure I have not done much in the winter in this area -- I would suggest for more season-specific information, check out snowmobile or cross-country ski communities as they might know a bit more about good areas to camp in as they would use those areas for staging.
However you've mentioned you've never been in that area at all, so I can give you a bit of info. From what I do know, Hinton through to Cadomin has no shortage of both paid and crown-land camping. Depending on where you go and what side-road you take, you will want to be careful as the mountains are unpredictable, especially in winter. I camped at Ram Falls (A bit south of where you're looking but otherwise identical terrain) one year on my motorbike with my wife, who was in our 4x4. When we arrived it was beautiful, we spent the weekend hiking, reading in the sunshine, and we didn't even start the campfire. On the morning we left...well, a picture is worth a thousand words. Not sure on the photo to video exchange rate, but here you go:
View attachment 2018-09-20_02-24-53.mov
Did I mention this was in mid-summer (July, I think)? The snow accumulated so fast it actually broke parts of our tent before we could pack up and go (Granted at first in the tent we thought it was rain!). By the time we got to civilization I was experiencing early stages of hypothermia, and I still consider it a miracle that I didn't wreck the bike as it was really cold - the snow was combining with the wet, muddy gravel to create a layer of muddy slush that was often interspersed with chunks of ice. To this day it's the hardest bit of motorcycling I've ever had to do -- It made our Prudhoe trip look like a run for a bag of milk (Okay maybe not that stark but you get the idea). Anyway, winter's weather gets even more unpredictable, so the point is be prepared to call for help just in case, and have a few redundancies for getting help -- I would strongly recommend a SPOT or similar. This is of course in addition to any recovery gear you need to effectively self-recover which you've already mentioned you are bringing. The main takeaway is that the mountains are unforgiving year-round, but especially so in Winter, so when in doubt - don't - and think safety.
Once you've got that sorted out, I would look into the Backroad MapBooks to see about roads in the area -- this is what we do In the summer/spring/fall. When we go, we plan it in advance on the Backroad MacBook and pick 5-10 roads we want to explore in a given weekend. We've always stumbled upon beautiful creekside campsites, sheltered areas, and comfy spots to spend a day or three. The other big benefit to those books though is they show you topography as well, so you know the elevation you will be at and perhaps more importantly, the elevation changes around your chosen area; you wouldn't want to accidentally camp in an avalanche bowl, after all. It also can help you re-route if you need to -- snow at XYZ altitude might be 3 feet, but at ABC altitude a littler lower, it might only have a few inches, so you can chart a route around at ABC altitude and avoid XYZ altitude roads.
Hope that's helpful!
