Harrison Lake

The main focus of this blog is definitely backpacking, which is one of my favourite summertime activities. But I also spend a lot of time kayaking and have slowly been working my way around the easy paddling trips near Vancouver. My husband and I own two sea touring kayaks and for this post, I decided to compile some of our favourite day trips near the lower mainland! It’s easy to rent boats for a lot of these trips, but there are a few where it’s easier if you have your own.

Jug Island / Twin Islands

A kayaker paddles towards Jug Island on a sunny day with calm waters in Indian Arm. Jug Island is located near Belcarra Regional Park in Vancouver, BC.

Jug Island is by far our most frequented kayak day trip. It’s located near Belcarra Regional Park and can be accessed from either Belcarra or Deep Cove. We always choose Belcarra since we live in Coquitlam, but it’s a ~5km round trip from both starting locations. There’s a large beach where you can land your boat and an outhouse, so it’s a nice place to stop. It usually takes us ~45 minutes to paddle there from Belcarra and we’ll often take a break and then continue on to explore Bedwell Bay or Twin Islands. Twin Islands makes for a longer day, as it’s a ~9-10km paddle, but it’s very beautiful there and it’s fun to swim from the south island. If you’re renting, you can choose from Deep Cove Kayaks or Takaya in Belcarra. Alternatively, you can also rent from Cates Park for a slightly longer paddle.

Barnet Marine Park / Rocky Point

A female kayaker wears a lifejacket and holds a paddle while smiling next to her yellow Boreal storm kayak on the rocky beach of Barnet Marine Park with the ocean and mountains in the background in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.

There are a few options for where you can paddle from Barnet Marine Park. I usually just use it as an alternative access point for Jug Island since it’s located in Burnaby and is sometimes a closer drive, but you can also paddle between Rocky Point and Barnet Marine from either location. Rocky Point is located in Port Moody and is a very easy access point. The annoying thing about Barnet Marine is that they now limit parking to 4 hours, which is difficult if you’re looking to do a longer trip. If you leave from Rocky Point, parking is also a challenge in the summer, but it’s easier to rent boats from Rocky Point than Barnet.

Buntzen Lake

Buntzen Lake is located super close to the city, in the town of Anmore. It’s the perfect place for beginners because the lake isn’t that long, but it’s big enough to make for a nice paddle to the end and back, roughly 10 kms. Plus you can also explore around the river and hang out on either end of the lake. A day pass is needed in the summer, which is free, but must be obtained 2 days in advance from BC Hydro. There are often canoe rentals available along the south beach.

Whytecliff Park

Whytecliff Park is located in West Vancouver near Horseshoe Bay and is one of many paddling options in West Vancouver. You can launch your boat from Whyte Cove, which is located in the park, or from Batchelor Bay or Horseshoe Bay. If you don’t mind a longer paddle, you could also launch from Eagle Harbour, at the beach next to the yacht club. There are no rental options from this location that I am aware of, but it’s a fun place to explore. Watch out for ferry traffic if you are paddling around Horseshoe Bay.

Bowen Island

I haven’t actually done this trip myself, but I’ve heard Bowen Island is great for kayaking. The best option is to walk on the ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Bowen Island and rent boats from Snug Cove on the other side. From here, you can paddle around the edge of the island. I recommend heading north as there are more beaches to land at in this direction. I believe more experienced paddlers will cross from Horseshoe Bay on their own, but I don’t recommend this.

Keats Island

Keats Island is a great destination from Gibsons. You can launch from the marina and paddle across the straight to Keats Island. Follow the coast north past the Shelter Islets until you reach Plumper Cove Marine Park, which is a great place to hang out for the day or to camp overnight. It can be windy crossing the straight, so I recommend doing this trip early in the morning. Rentals are available from the marina in Gibsons.

Widgeon Creek

Widgeon Creek is a very popular summer paddling destination in Pitt Meadows. Park at the main lot on Pitt Lake and paddle across the Pitt River to Widgeon Creek, which is a leisurely 6km paddle to the campsite. From there you can do a day hike to Widgeon Falls. This area is very busy in the summer, but head out in April or May to avoid the crowds. Be careful crossing the Pitt River, which can have strong currents, and leave early to avoid the wind. You can rent boats from Katzie in the summer, or through independent operators that deliver the boats to the lot.

Alouette Lake

Golden Ears Park is most popular for paddlers in the Gold Creek area, especially for SUP. But I think all of Alouette Lake is a great option for paddling. The easiest location to launch from is the boat launch at South Beach, and then you can head north on either shore of the lake. But pick one or the other because it gets windy on the lake and it’s not easy to cross back and forth. I regularly like to go out for a few hours and paddle up to Gold Creek and back. You can usually rent canoes on South Beach in the summer.

Harrison Lake

Harrison Lake is somewhere that you need to be really careful paddling, but can make for a fun trip in the right conditions. It can be very windy at the lake, so my recommendation is to stick to early morning paddling and stay near to the edge of the lake. We camped at Bear Creek on a rainy weekend in June and stumbled into premium kayaking conditions. It was dead calm on the water and mystical with the cloudy skies. But exercise caution on a nice day.

Lightning Lakes

Lightning Lakes is a pretty safe place to kayak and is incredibly scenic. It’s located in E.C. Manning Park, east of Hope, and comprises two lakes connected by a small creek. It is possible to navigate between the two lakes, but it is narrow, so exercise caution. The views are beautiful and there’s no power boats, so it’s a great place to explore and enjoy the water and the mountains.

I don’t go on a lot of frontcountry camping trips these days, but every now and then I like to do something a little bit easier than a backpacking trip, or I’d like to hang out with more of my friends, in which case, a little bit of car camping is much more accommodating. Despite living in the lower mainland for 12 years, I’d never actually been to Harrison Lake. I’ve been in the general area for other reasons, but this trip was my first time recreating on the lake. I did this trip a year ago, in late June 2025.

There are lots of campgrounds on Harrison Lake, but I didn’t know very much about them. My impression had always been that they were first come, first serve rec sites. For this reason, I never bothered to visit them because I don’t like having to rush to get campsites on a weekend, I’d rather just book them. But I decided I wanted to go to Harrison for my birthday and Carolyn did a lot of research and we learned that most of these campsites are actually reservable! They’re just private campgrounds rather than BC Parks sites.

If you spend some time zooming around on google maps, you’ll see that there are a half dozen of campsites on either side of the lake. Fortunately, the campsites all seem to be managed by two separate entities known as East Harrison and West Harrison. There are 3 campgrounds on the East side of the lake, Cascade Peninsula, Bear Creek, and Cogburn Beach. There are 2 campgrounds on the West side of the lake, 10 Mile Bay and 20 Mile Bay. Both entities also manage a number of other campgrounds not located on the lake, as well as group sites, and you can find those on their websites too.

Most of the campgrounds have a mix of both FCFS and reservable sites, except for Cogburn Beach, which appears to be all FCFS. You should spend some time researching the road conditions before visiting. All sites are accessible via gravel road and from my experience, you don’t need any special kind of vehicle to visit the campsites on the east side of the lake. I haven’t been to the west side of the lake. The website says that 4 wheel drive is not required, but roads can be rough.

The campground we chose for my trip was Bear Creek Campground. It’s located on the east side of the lake. It’s approximately 15km along gravel road and is a mixture of FCFS sites and reservable, some of which are in the forest and a few of which are along the beach. Ours was a drive in site, but I think there are a few walk in sites too. Even though we went in late June, the weather wasn’t great, so the campsite was not full. However, the camp caretaker told us that on a nice weekend in the summer, all the campsites are usually gone by Friday afternoon. So unless you’re visiting on a weekday, it may be challenging to get a site.

The rain wasn’t enough to deter us and we set up a couple of pop-ups and spent two days hanging out and having campfires. Seth and I brought our kayaks since the campsite is right next to the lake. Harrison Lake has a bit of a reputation for wind if you’re boating and I definitely recommend to exercise caution in the area. However, sometimes when it rains, it completely kills the wind and that was the case on the weekend that we visited. The water was like a dream all weekend and even in the middle of the afternoon on Saturday, it was dead flat.

It didn’t rain the whole weekend, just on and off, so we had a lot of opportunities to enjoy the boats. We took them out for sunset on Friday night, and then several times on Saturday. We didn’t paddle too far, just a couple of kilometres along the shoreline, but the lake was empty on this particular weekend and we had the unique opportunity to go skinny dipping in Harrison Lake, not the easiest feat since it’s usually quite busy!

Otherwise, we didn’t do a lot on this trip aside from hang out on the beach and walk up to the road to see the Bear Creek waterfall, but it was still a fun trip. We all took turns in the kayaks, went for a cold dip in the water, and enjoyed BBQing and hanging out around the fire. The activities at Harrison Lake definitely center around the lake, so it makes for a good summer trip. I’m not sure when I’ll be back again, but I would love to explore the west side of the lake in the future!