San Josef Bay Backpacking Trip

May 7, 2025May 1, 2025 / Maria / 4 Comments

If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, you might be aware that I first attempted to visit San Josef Bay in 2020. I backpacked both the Cape Scott Trail and the North Coast Trail in June 2020, but thanks to a series of misadventures at the start of my trip, I had to cut San Josef Bay from the itinerary. A few years ago I saw San Josef Bay ranked on a list of the “most beautiful beaches in the world” and it’s been haunting me ever since that I still haven’t been there!

So this was a bit of a redemption trip for me. Over the Easter long weekend in April, I decided it was finally time to tackle San Josef Bay. It’s located on the far eastern coast of Vancouver Island and it is a journey to get there. I left Vancouver on Thursday after work with my husband, Seth, and our anxious Australian Shepherd, Sadie. We had a reservation on the 6:30pm ferry, which was absolutely necessary because the ferry sailings were already completely sold for the whole day by the time we arrived at the ferry terminal. Unfortunately, our sailing was delayed by almost 2 hours, meaning we didn’t get to Nanaimo until almost 10pm.

I’m a hyper-planner when it comes to trips, but this was one of the rare times where I didn’t have a booking for the night. I’ve been trying to embrace the unknown a little bit more and take advantage of FCFS and rec sites. We’d been hoping to drive to Campbell River before finding a place to sleep, but given the late hour, we drove ~30 minutes to Little Qualicum Provincial Park in search of a site instead. We were able to secure the second last campsite and quickly put up the tent to catch some sleep before continuing the journey in the morning.

We were up early to finish the 1 hour drive to Campbell River, followed by 2.5 hours to Port Hardy. Our friend Victoria was also joining us with her friends from Victoria, so she walked on the first ferry on Friday morning and they picked her up on their way north. They were a little bit behind us, so we stopped for a nice lunch at Cafe Guido in Port Hardy. It was an excellent choice because they also have a bookstore and artisan craft shop in the same space! So we picked up some souvenirs before finally meeting our friends and their Australian Shepherd, Daisy, to continue the journey.

We already had 4 hours of driving behind us, but we still had the most challenging part of the trip ahead – the Forest Service Road to San Josef Bay. Considering that Port Hardy is on the east coast of Vancouver Island and San Josef Bay is on the west coast, it’s pretty impressive that there’s a 65km gravel road extending the entire width of the island. Despite it being a gravel road, it’s not in terrible condition – you can do the entire drive in any vehicle, you don’t need 4WD or high clearance. That said, the road isn’t in great condition either! If you want to avoid the drive altogether, there is a shuttle that runs from Port Hardy.

The last time I did this road, Brandon was driving way too fast and got a flat tire 30 minutes in. This wouldn’t be the end of the world, but his mechanic had put the wrong lug nuts on his tires, so it left us entirely unable to change the tire. This devolved into a 24 hour expedition involving hitchhiking, sleeping on the FSR, and paying a mechanic to break all the lug nuts off. I really wanted to avoid any flat tires this time around, so we drove pretty slow. The first 30km of the road are in reasonable condition, but the last 35km have a continuous stream of potholes that make gaining any kind of speed risky. I’d say we averaged ~30km/h along the road, so it took us around 2.5 hours to get to the trailhead parking lot – with no flat tires!

From the parking lot, it’s a 3km hike along a well-maintained trail to San Josef Bay. Me and Seth backpacked, but Victoria and her friends had a very special “Swagon Wagon”, which they used to transport some more luxurious camping equipment! The first 1km of the trail is a shared route into the park, after which there is a branch. If you go right, you can hike 23km to the Cape Scott Lighthouse, or 60km to the end of the North Coast Trail. This is the trip I did in 2020. But if you turn left, it’s another 2km along a leisurely trail to San Josef Bay, one of the most beautiful beaches in the world!

The trail itself is gorgeous. We had a pretty late start, around 6:30pm, but it only took us an hour (even with the wagon) to hike through the forest to the beach. Along the trail, I was reminded why the north coast of Vancouver Island is such a special place. Like most of BC, it’s second growth forest, but you can still see lots of old growth trees scattered throughout. Somehow, these trees have withstood the test of time and it’s truly humbling to stand beneath their gigantic trunks, so I really enjoyed the walk to the beach. Although my shoulders were hurting – I also took advantage of the short distance to pack a few of my own luxury items!

The beach was surprisingly busy for mid-April, but not overly crowded. San Josef Bay consists of two beaches that are only connected at low tide (although there is a forest trail connecting them). The first beach is very large, so there were a steady amount of hikers camped along the back of the beach, but everyone was spread out and it didn’t feel too crowded. I can only imagine how much busier it must be in the summertime. When I visited in June, the parking lot was much busier than in April.

We set up on the main beach because we couldn’t get the wagon to the second beach. Most people were camping on the first beach and after visiting the second beach, I will say that there is much more limited camping space on that one. There’s more log jams at the back of the beach and the water comes closer to the forest at high tide, leaving limited space for tents. High tide is quite a way back from the forest on the first beach, so you can feel pretty safe camping there.

We were pretty late getting set up, so we enjoyed the sunset over the mountains while putting up our tents, and spent the rest of the evening enjoying a fire on the beach. We were able to collect firewood around the beach (never cut down live wood), but dead wood is in limited supply and I imagine it gets much harder to find later in the season. It rained earlier in the afternoon, so I definitely had my work cut out for me getting the fire started!

You never really get to sleep in when you go camping with a dog (they get up with the sun), but Sadie was more reserved than usual and let me sleep until our normal weekday wake-up time at least. It rained overnight, so my first order of business upon waking was to get a tarp set up. I put up one tarp and then Miranda put a second, so we had a nice tarp city ready for when the rain really started!

If you’ve ever been to the north coast of Vancouver Island, you know the weather is super unreliable! The fog loves to hang around the coast and it’s normal for the weather to oscillate between sun, grey, and rain multiple times a day, sometimes within the hour! I didn’t get a lot of rain when I hiked the North Coast Trail, but I didn’t get a lot of sun either. While visiting San Jo Bay in April, we got a little bit of everything all at once. It didn’t rain for any extended periods of time, but there was a pretty reliable cycle switching from rain to sun and back again, all day long.

It was dry during breakfast and we got ready to go for a beach walk, but then it started pouring, so we decided to wait it out. Low tide was at noon and the rain let up again around 11:30am, so we quickly got ready to go beachcombing. A lot of day hikers showed up around this time, presumably to explore the tidal areas. There’s a frontcountry rec site close to the parking lot, which I think is popular for campers that want to visit San Jo Bay, but don’t want to backpack.

Exploring the beach during low tide is really the highlight of visiting, so definitely plan your trip around it! When the tide drops, you can walk along the sand to the second beach. The low tide exposes a number of sea stacks and caves along the shoreline and you can walk on several of the islands, looking at sea creatures in the tidepools along the edges. We saw lots of sea anemones, sea stars, and crabs along the tide pools, as well as many other marine organisms that only Seth was able to properly identify. We had a great time exploring and ended up walking the beach for several hours!

Our companions took the wagon to the second beach, where firewood is much more plentiful, and me and Seth went in search of the freshwater source. The main consideration in camping on the first beach is that there’s no fresh water. My Gaia noted a water source on both ends of the second beach, but we opted for the source on the far west side. You do have to hike up into the woods for a few hundred metres and the trail is very muddy, but it’s a reasonably nice source – it’s just a little discoloured from the tannins, which I’m used to from Newfoundland. It was running pretty high because of the rain, so it might not be as nice in the dry season (if such a thing exists in this area).

Overall, it was a pretty low key trip and we mostly relaxed for the rest of the afternoon as the rain continued on and off. The downside of going camping in April is that it was pretty damp and chilly. I spent some time in the tent to warm up, and then later in the afternoon, Seth and I walked down to the opposite end of first beach to the estuary. I’m not sure if you can drink this water when the tide is going out, but based on my experience at other estuaries on the NCT, it’s probably very brackish. Though you could likely drink it if you walked much further upstream.

We had a lot of firewood for night 2, which was good because it rained a lot more. We got the campfire going and kept it pretty big for warmth. It sprinkled on us several times, but it was always short lived, so we never got properly wet. We caught a glimpse of the starts on our first night, but it was completely clouded in on our second night.

The rest of our crew took off pretty early on Sunday morning because they had to drive all the way home. Seth and I had an extra day, so we took our time packing down our tent and were rewarded with a beautiful blue sky view of the beach on the way out. It didn’t last long and was soon raining on us as we trundled through the forest, but the sun made a reappearance near the end of the trail, turning the trees the most beautiful shade of green as the sun peeked through the canopy!

So I finally redeemed myself from my first trip and made it to San Josef Bay! I do think it is worth the hype and would be keen to see what’s it’s like in more reliable weather. But I’m thrilled I can finally check it off my bucket list. Tune in next week to learn what Seth and I did with our last day in the backcountry, because the adventure didn’t end with San Jo Bay!

9 Spring Hikes near Vancouver

April 30, 2025April 29, 2025 / Maria / 1 Comment

Spring is one of the most challenging seasons in the backcountry. It gets really nice in the city, which can trick hikers into thinking that it’s a good time to return to the mountains. Any time is a good time to be in the mountains, but you have to manage the risk accordingly. Snow will not melt at high elevations and in the alpine until the end of June and sometimes even as late as mid July. Spring is particularly dangerous because the rapid melt can create unseen hazards under the snow. What looks like a flat snowy trail may have creeks hidden under thin layers of snow that can easily collapse under your weight. So the safest approach is generally to stick to lower elevation hikes. Fortunately, there’s lots of those available in BC as well! Here’s a few of my favourites within close driving distance of the lower mainland.

Jug Island/Admiralty Point Trail

A photo of a yellow kayak resting on the beach in front of Jug Island on a sunny, blue sky day in Belcarra, BC.

Belcarra is a gorgeous coastal location for Spring hiking. If you park at the lot in Belcarra Regional Park, you can do a short, but scenic hike along either end of the peninsula. If you head south from the parking lot, you’ll follow the Admiralty Point Trail along the water, with lots of little viewpoints along the way. If you head north, you’ll hike inland along the Jug Island trail to a beach viewpoint. Both trails are approximately 5.5km long round trip, but Jug Island is more challenging because it hikes up over the headland and then down to the beach. Both trails can usually be hiked year-round.

Hunter Road

Hunter Road is an easy trail in Mission that can be done during most of the year. The trail starts from the end of Roach Street and is an easy hike along an old forestry road (Hunter Road). Eventually the trail loops back around on itself to climb up to the summit of a small overlook where you can enjoy views of Stave Lake and the surrounding backcountry. It’s a there and back trail, approximately 7.5km in length, 250m in elevation gain.

High Falls Creek

A female hiker nears and smiles at the camera from the High Creek Falls Trail with a view of the snow capped mountain peaks and forest of the Squamish Valley in the background, near Squamish, BC.

High Falls Creek is one of two hikes on this list that can be found along the Squamish River. It’s a more challenging hike than some of the others, but is great for Spring when the rivers are flowing at high capacity. The trailhead is located approximately 26km up Squamish Valley Road. The hike can be done as an out and back, but if you want to make it a bit longer, you can turn it into a loop hike by continuing up to Branch 200 FSR and hiking back along the road. The trail to High Falls is a bit technical, with some scrambling over rocky sections, so make sure to go on a dry day. It’s 1km each way to High Falls Creek, but if you do the loop, it’s 9km with 500m of elevation gain.

Crooked Falls

Crooked Falls is the second hike along the Squamish River. It’s a similar distance from Squamish, but you take a left turn over the bridge off Squamish Valley Road and onto the Ashlu River FSR to get to the trailhead. The hike to Crooked Falls is approximately 5km round trip, with 400m of elevation rain. The waterfall is especially impressive in the Spring and makes for a fun day trip. If you want to extend the hike, you can continue along the Sigurd Creek trail to a small outcrop with a gorgeous view of the area. This hike is much harder and is approximately 12km round trip, with 900m of elevation gain. It may not be totally snow free in the Spring.

Woodland Walk/Sawblade Falls

A photo of a forested trail in Pinecone Burke Provincial Park on a sunny day near Coquitlam, BC.

Woodland Walk and Sawblade Falls are two lesser known hikes in Pinecone Burke Provincial Park. They’re super easy to access from Harper Road in Coquitlam and I think they’re very underrated for how close they are to the city. Woodland Walk is a leisurely 7km loop walk through the woods and is great for a rainy day. It only has 200m of elevation gain and makes for a fun forest adventure. It’s easy to extend the loop to also include Sawblade Falls, which is approximately 9km in length. My advice is to be familiar with using GPS maps if you explore this park. There are so many trails through the forest, I usually go and just make my own adventure.

Big Cedar and Kennedy Falls

Two hikers flex their muscles in front of the big cedar tree on the Kennedy Falls trail in North Vancouver, BC.

It’s been a long time since I did this hike, but it sticks out in my mind as a great Spring hike on the North Shore. It’s a bit on the longer side at 10km, and it climbs up and down, so it has a surprising amount of elevation gain (500m). The trail leaves from the Mount Fromme trailhead and is great for variety as it hikes through the forest to a large big cedar tree, and then on to scenic Kennedy Falls. The trail is more technical, with lots of climbing over tree roots, so it’s a good option for more advanced hikers.

Norvan Falls

Another option on the North Shore – Norvan Falls is a classic Vancouver hike. The trail leaves from the end of Lynn Valley Road and is the longest trail on the list at 15km round trip. The trail hikes along Lynn Creek and then through the forest along the Hanes Valley Trail to Norvan Falls. There’s 600m of elevation gain along the trail, but there is an option to do a little loop through the forest along the way to make the hike more interesting. This is a great option in the Spring when the rivers are running full. The waterfall drops to a trickle in the summer and can be less impressive after the Spring snowmelt.

Stawamus Chief

Two female hikers lie back and relax and smile from the top of the bare rock of The Chief's second peak, with Howe Sound and the Tantalus Mountain Range in the background near Squamish, British Columbia, Canada.

I’d be remiss if I left the Stawamus Chief off this list. The Chief was the first trail I ever hiked after moving to Vancouver and it draws crowds at any time of year. It’s a challenging trail, as it’s mostly a stairmaster to the top, with lots of sketchy sections with ropes, ladders, and scrambling. The full trail is 11km, but it consists of 3 peaks, so people rarely hike all 3 at once. I’ve done the first and second peak, but I still have yet to return for the third peak. I recommend the first peak, because it’s the easier option and has incredible views of Howe Sound. This is a real bucket list hike that is worth the hype, but don’t do it on a rainy day or if you’re afraid of heights.

Widgeon Falls

A hiker stands on the edge of a rock next to Widgeon Creek with the forest and mountains in the background on a sunny day

This hike is a little trickier because it includes paddling, but it’s such a fun adventure, I wanted to include it! In the Spring and Summer, you can rent canoes or kayaks to cross the Pitt River and paddle up Widgeon Creek to the Widgeon Falls trailhead. It takes approximately 1.5 hours each way to paddle to the trailhead at the Widgeon Creek Campsite. From there, you can do a 5km loop trail through the forest up to Widgeon Falls. It’s a beautiful trail and makes for a really unique experience. That said, navigating the Pitt River can be a challenge depending on wind and current conditions, so don’t attempt this adventure without the proper research and experience. I have a full blog post on my experience if you’re looking for more information.

Hell’s Gate and Alexandria Bridge Park

April 16, 2025March 13, 2025 / Maria / Leave a comment

A few years ago, me and Carolyn did a 1-night backpacking trip on the Tikwalus Heritage Trail. It’s a ~12km loop train located off Highway 1 past Hope. It’s a nice trail and we had a good time exploring the area, but what was most notable for me was the realization that, in the 8 years I’d been living in BC at the time, I’d never actually driven on Highway 1 past Hope. All of my adventures either take me up the Sea-to-Sky or out the Coquihalla Highway towards Kamloops or Kelowna.

Past Hope, Highway 1 falls the Fraser River upstream to the Fraser Canyon. I’ve been wanting to travel there for several years to go whitewater rafting, but a lot of the rafting companies were impacted by the flooding in 2021. After doing the Tikwalus Heritage Trail, I was determined to spend some more time exploring the area. My timing was good, because my friend Gina works in the tourism industry and got 2 free tickets to Hell’s Gate for summer 2023. We decided to drag our husbands along and make a day of exploring along the canyon.

Hell’s Gate is a pretty cool tourist attraction. I had actually done it before when I visited BC as a teenager with my family, but I didn’t remember it very well, so I was happy to do it again. Hell’s Gate is named because it is the narrowest part of the Fraser Canyon, where the river comes rushing down from Lillooett and is forced through this narrow channel by the steep canyon walls. The canyon is only 35 metres wide at this section and has been an important location throughout history for many different reasons.

Traditionally, this part of the river was an important fishing ground for indigenous peoples in the region. During the gold rush, the canyon was frequented by miners trying to access the gold-rich bars upstream of the channel. Then, in the late 1800’s, the Canadian Pacific Railway constructed the first rail line against the bank of the channel. The railroad still passes through the canyon today, but it is much more easily accessible as a suspension bridge has been constructed at the base on the canyon, and an airtram transports hundreds of tourists from the highway down to the tourist centre.

It’s a cool site to visit, but it definitely has a dark history. A rockslide into the canyon in the early 1900’s, greatly impacted the fishery in the area by destroying salmon habitat. Today there are many fishways that have been constructed to assist in Salmon migration up to Adams Lake and there are several historical exhibits at the base of the river – including about the natural environment, the gold rush, and the many Chinese workers who perished constructing the railway.

So from a historical perspective, I think it’s a good place to visit, but it definitely needs some updating. The storyboards and information in the museums has clearly not be updated in years and I found it to be overly focused on colonial history and many of the terms and language used around the site are no longer politically correct. It might be a small criticism to some, but this is a site that a lot of tourists come through and I think it’s a bad look to be using updated terms and ideas in a place where people come to learn about local history.

As a natural phenomenon, the site is really cool and I loved the engineering aspect of it. There’s a beautiful view of the canyon from the tram and the bridge is a very cool structure. The bridge floor is just a grate, which means you can see all the way down to the river, so hold on to any lose items and hold on to your hat since it can get windy through the canyon!

We spent a few hours at Hell’s Gate and had lunch in the cafeteria. We decided to visit Alexandria Bridge Provincial Park, which is located nearby. It’s a very small park, but is the location of another suspension bridge. Like Hell’s Gate, this location on the Fraser River is also a traditional fishing ground for the local first nations and important for conservation. The bridge was first constructed in 1861 to connect the Anderson Brigade trail (according to BC Parks). I couldn’t find much information on this trail online, but I believe it is an extension of the Tikwalus Heritage Trail, which was used by the Hudson’s Bay Company as part of the fur trade in the mid 1800’s (but developed by the Nlaka’pamux).

It was cool to visit because I’ve now done the Tikwalus Heritage Trail, the HBC Heritage Trail (from Tulameen to Hope), and Alexandria Bridge. So there’s a lot of history and culture in this area and I’ve learned a lot over the past 2 years about the fur trade and the gold rush.

For more information on the trail, this is definitely just a road-side stop (not a whole day affair). There’s a parking lot on the side of the highway and it’s ~1km each way to hike down over the bank to the suspension bridge. The trail ends at the end of the suspension bridge, where it enters Nlaka’pamux Tribal Council land. It’s an easy trail – there are some shortcuts through the woods, but you can just follow the road down and it’s easy walking, but still a good work-out thanks for the elevation gain on the way back.

Our final stop of the day is probably familiar to anyone who’s driven out to Hope – Bridal Veil Falls. The Falls cascade down from Cheam Peak all year round and there’s a nice picnic area and walk up to the viewpoint. It’s only ~1km round trip, so another good roadside stop on a day out.

There’s no shortage of places to explore in BC. I tend to gravitate to some of the “big view” trails, but it was really nice to have a lazier day and explore some of the roadside stops and smaller attractions in the area, plus learn more about the local history. Even better if your friend has free passes for the airtram!