12 Dog-Friendly Backpacking Trips near Vancouver

June 27, 2026June 26, 2026 / Maria / Leave a comment

Welcome to the final post in my dog walking series! My last two posts focused on dog friendly hiking trails, both easy trails and epic (not so easy) trails. For this blog, I want to highlight some trail options for backpacking with your dog. There’s a mix of trails on this list, some of which are easy and some of which are more challenging. Remember, when camping with your dog, be prepared to meet all of their needs, as well as your own. Please make sure to follow all park rules, including keeping your dog on leash and picking up after them. Dog poo is not natural and carries lots of harmful bacteria that has been proven to lead to e.coli in waterways.

Here’s some of my favourite backpacking trails to do with my dog!

Three Brothers Mountain / Heather Trail

Location: E.C. Manning Park (East of Hope)
Season: July – September
Terrain: 3 Brothers (21km, 500m gain), Heather Trail (40km, 850m gain)
Leash rules: on-leash
Permits: Reservation required. $25pp, per night from camping.bcparks.ca. Book 3 months in advance.
Description: This is a great trail for 1-night or multi-night trips. If you’re just doing 3 brothers mountain, stay at Buckhorn Campsite for a night. If you want to do the entire Heather Trail, stay at Kicking Horse or Nicomen Lake Campsites.

Poland Lake

Location: E.C. Manning Park (East of Hope)
Season: July – September
Terrain: 16km, 500m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Permits: Registration required. $5pp, per night from camping.bcparks.ca. Book 2 weeks in advance.
Description: I’ve only hiked this trail in the winter, but it’s a great camping option year round and is one of the less popular trails in Manning Park. Park at Strawberry Flats for this hike. In the winter you will need to hike up along the edge of the ski resort, as you’re not allowed to hike across it.

Lightning Lakes Chain Trail

Location: E.C. Manning Park
Season: May – October
Terrain: 14km, flat (22km if you go all the way to Thunder Lake)
Leash rules: on-leash
Permits: Registration required. $5pp, per night from camping.bcparks.ca. Book 2 weeks in advance.
Description: This would be a fairly easy trail since it’s mostly flat, but it’s not well maintained and there is a lot of blowdown. Be prepared to be climbing over trees fairly regularly. The campsite is located just past Strike Lake at 7km. It can be busy in the Spring and Summer, but there are a lot of tent pads and room for overflow camping. Continue another 4km to visit Thunder Lake, which is the end of the trail.

Falls Lake

Location: Coquihalla Summit Rec area
Season: year-round, but snowshoes are required in the winter
Terrain: summer (2km, 70m gain); winter (4km, 100m gain)
Leash rules: on-leash
Permit: None required
Description: This is a short trail that can be completed in the winter with snowshoes. However, the access road is not plowed in the winter, making the approach twice as long. There is a small campsite located on the back of the lake.

Tikwalus Heritage Trail

Location: North of Hope, off Highway 1
Season: May – October
Terrain: 12km, 750m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Permit: None required
Description: Tikwalus Heritage Trail is an easy but steep trail located just past Hells Gate on Highway 1. Most of the hike is in the forest, but there’s a nice view from the campsite.

HBC Heritage Trail

Location: Hope to Tulameen
Season: July – September
Terrain: 80km, over 3000m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Permits: None required
Description: This is an advanced trail for advanced hikers and dogs. This is not a trail that you try backpacking on and your dog should have lots of backpacking experience before attempting this trail as well. If you regularly hike challenging trails together, this is a great multi-day thru hike option. There are very few hikers are this trail and you’ll likely have it all to yourself. There are several campsites along the trail that you can choose from.

Lindeman Lake / Greendrop Lake

Location: Chilliwack Park (Chilliwack)
Season: year-round to Lindeman Lake, spikes are needed in the winter
Terrain: Lindeman (4km, 200m gain); Greendrop (12km, 400m gain)
Leash rules: on-leash
Permits: Registration required. $5pp, per night from camping.bcparks.ca. Book 2 weeks in advance.
Description: This is a short but steep trail to a beautiful lake and campground. It is very busy year-round and the parking lot has been targeted for theft, so plan accordingly. If you want to continue on to Greendrop, it is a much longer hike and the view from the campsite isn’t as nice, but there will be less people.

Viewpoint Beach / Half Moon Beach

Location: Golden Ears Provincial Park
Season: June – October
Terrain: Viewpoint Beach (9km, 150m gain); Half Moon (20km, 350m gain)
Leash rules: on-leash
Permits: Reservation required. $25pp, per night from camping.bcparks.ca. Book 3 months in advance.
Description: This is a popular trail near Vancouver with lots of space for camping. The trail to Viewpoint Beach is fairly easy, but the trail to Half Moon Beach is much more technical, so be prepared for a longer hike.

Semaphore Lakes

Location: Semaphore Lakes Rec Area (west of Pemberton Meadows)
Season: July – September
Terrain: 5km, 350m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Permits: None required
Description: This is a short hike, but it is fairly steep. The trail has become very popular in recent years for its easy access to beautiful alpine landscapes and two lakes. The trail is primarily in the forest until you reach the lakes, from there you can explore further around the surrounding alpine. I believe this site has an outhouse, but I’m not sure if it has a bear cache, so plan accordingly.

Sunshine Coast Trail

Location: Upper Sunshine Coast Trail
Season: June – October
Terrain: 180km, thousands of metres of gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Permits: None required
Description: This trail is easy than the HBC Heritage Trail, but substantially longer. This trail is for experienced backpackers and dogs only. Dogs do not have the same endurance as humans to hike day after day, so training is essential. However, there are lots of options to do shorter sections of the trail with your dog, such as the fairview loop or Manzanita Bluffs. Dogs are not permitted in the huts, so bring a tent.

Landslide Lake

Location: Strathcona Provincial Park (Vancouver Island)
Season: July – September
Terrain: 10km, 500m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Permits: Registration required. $5pp, per night from camping.bcparks.ca. Book 2 weeks in advance.
Description: This is a nice forested hike up to a beautiful alpine lake. You cannot camp at the lake, but there are two campsites along the way, Butterwort Flats and Upper Gravel Bar.

San Josef Bay

Location: Cape Scott Park (Vancouver Island)
Season: year-round
Terrain: 6km, flat
Leash rules: on-leash, highly recommended due to the presence of wolves
Permits: Registration required. $5pp, per night from camping.bcparks.ca. Book 2 weeks in advance.
Description: This is the only part of Cape Scott Trail where dogs are permitted. It’s a short flat walk to the beach where you can camp or explore the sea stacks. Check the tides and visit at high tide to walk around the sea stacks to the second beach. It’s a beautiful place to camp and you can tent right on the beach.

A Weekend on Quadra Island

June 20, 2026June 8, 2026 / Maria / 2 Comments

I mostly write about camping and hiking on this blog, but every now and then, I like to do a more comfortable trip. This year for Easter, Seth and I decided to spend the weekend in a nice cabin on Quadra Island, where the goal was more about relaxation than adventure. We invited two of our friends to join us and we ended up having a really nice couples weekend in a place none of us had ever been before.

Quadra is located in the Discovery Islands, which is the region between Vancouver Island and mainland BC. The closest point to Quadra Island is Campbell River on Vancouver Island. In order to get there, we took the ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo on Friday morning, followed by a smaller ferry from Campbell River to Quadra Island. We spent two full days on the island before returning home on Monday.

We decided to make a nice trip out of it on the way there, so we stopped to visit the Oyster River potholes, which are located ~30 minutes outside of Campbell River. I think these are quite popular in the summer, when the river is low and you can swim. It was a bit of a rainy day when we visited, so we were the only people there and the river was definitely too cold and too high for swimming. We parked on the side of the highway where the trail starts and it’s a short 5 minute walk down to a viewpoint of the river. Even in marginal conditions, it was really beautiful.

We had dinner in Campbell River and then took the ferry over to Quathiaski Cove on Quadra Island. Quadra is a decent sized island, but there’s not a lot happening. There are a few businesses in Quathiaski Cove and a few more in Heriot Bay and that’s about it. We stayed at a nice little log cabin in the woods between the two; it had a wood stove and an outdoor bath, which made for a cozy experience. We took our dog Sadie with us, but had to be careful letting her off leash as there are wolves on the island.

On Saturday morning, we decided to start the day with a visit to the farmers market in Quathiaski Cove. It turned out that we were too early in the season for the farmer’s market, but there are still a lot of cute shops along the main road. I was extremely excited to discover a bookstore, so I spent a lot of time exploring there, as well as a surprisingly promising thrift store. Finally, we stopped in to a really nice cafe that had tons of delicious drinks and treats. We liked it so much that we went back twice.

Then in the afternoon, we drove to Heriot Bay to visit Rebecca Spit Provincial Park, which is basically a long spit extending around the harbour. You can walk along the beach and through the woods to the end of the spit and it’s very scenic. we had really nice weather and logged ~5km walking to the end of the park and back to our car. It looked like there was a frontcountry campground located here as well, so it would be a nice place to camp in the summer. There’s not much on the island for restaurants, but we ate at The Clove on Saturday night before going back to the cabin to share some wine and enjoy the outdoor tub.

On Sunday, the goal was to do a hike. The north part of the island is much larger than the south, but there’s really nothing up there except for one road crossing the island and a lot of forestry roads for logging. We drove to the other side of the Island to Granite Bay and did a hike to Newton Lake in Small Inlet Marine Provincial Park. Since it was early April, it seemed like the trail hadn’t received any maintenance from the previous year, so it was in rough shape. There was quite a bit of blowdown across the trail and we took our time climbing over and around dead trees.

I would have liked to hike all the way to the end of the trail at Small Inlet, but that was a bit further than we wanted to go, especially with the blowdown, so we ended up hiking ~6km round trip to Newton Lake, where we stopped for lunch. Newton Lake wasn’t the most scenic lake. I thought it might be a good place to swim, but it’s a bit overgrown and it’s hard to access the water, so we just ate our lunch in the woods before turning around. Sadie had a great time though! Since it was Easter Sunday, we didn’t try to go out for dinner and instead had a big BBQ at the cabin and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

On our last day, we took the ferry back to Campbell River and killed a bit of time there before our ferry back to Vancouver. We went to Meera Bakery Cafe, which had the most delicious assortment of pastries, and to my delight, I discovered a second bookstore called Coho Books. I love visiting independent bookstores and I’m consistently impressed with how easy they are to find in BC, even in small communities. Places like Quadra Island, Tofino, Pender Island, and Sechelt all still have bookstores even though they don’t have large populations. So I always make a point to visit the local bookstores.

Overall, it wasn’t the most exciting trip I’ve taken, but it was the right trip for the occasion. I would still like to go back to Quadra Island because it’s home to Main Lake Provincial Park, which is supposed to be fantastic for kayaking. I would have liked to bring the kayaks on this trip, but since we were with friends and had Sadie with us, we opted not to. But that’s okay, because we still had a really nice trip and now we still have a reason to go back again!

12 Epic Dog-Friendly Hikes near Vancouver

May 30, 2026June 10, 2026 / Maria / 1 Comment

My previous post covered 12 easy hikes to explore with your dog near Vancouver, but if you’re looking for something a little more adventurous, there are lots of epic hikes to do with your dog too! Remember, while all of these hikes are dog-friendly, they have varying on/off leash rules, please make sure to respect them, they exist for many reasons. In addition, please also make sure to pick up after your dog. Dog poo is not natural and carries lots of harmful bacteria that has been proven to lead to e.coli in waterways. Here’s some great trails within a few hours drive that make for a fun hike with your furry friend!

Three Brothers Mountain

Location: E.C. Manning Park (East of Hope)
Season: July – September
Terrain: 21km, 500m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: Skip the climb by driving all the way to the top of Blackwall Road. From there, it’s a scenic hike through alpine meadows, culminating with a ridge walk to the peak of First Brother Mountain. This is a popular trail, be prepared for it to be busy, especially when wildflowers are in peak bloom.

Snow Camp Mountain

Location: E.C. Manning Park (East of Hope)
Season: July – September
Terrain: 18km, 900m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: The trail leaves from Strawberry Flats on the Skyline II Trail. Start with a 5km hike uphill through the forest before arriving at the most scenic viewpoint of the trail looking towards iconic Hozomeen Mountain. Continue on to climb to the top of Snow Camp mountain, a great place to see wildflowers. This trail is less well known than Three Brothers Mountain, but gaining popularity.

Flatiron

Location: Coquihalla Summit Recreation Area (north of Hope)
Season: July – September
Terrain: 10km, 850m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: This is a steep hike through the forest until you reach the junction for Needle Peak. Needle Peak has several rope sections and is not recommended for dogs, but continue past it to the small lake below the Flatiron and climb up to the large plateau with phenomenal views.

Zoa Peak

Location: Coquihalla Summit Recreation Area (north of Hope)
Season: Year round
Terrain: 8km, 650m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: This is a great trail to explore all year round. In the summer, drive to the parking lot for Falls Lake and follow the trail up an old forestry road and then through the forest to views at Zoa Subpeak and Peak. In the winter, park at the highway pullout and snowshoe the road to Falls Lake. Continue up the forestry road, but follow the winter trail through the woods. Do not go past Zoa Subpeak without avalanche safety training and equipment, as the final peak is in challenging avalanche terrain.

Zupjok Peak / Ottomite Peak

Location: Coquihalla Summit Recreation Area (north of Hope)
Season: Zupjok: July – September; Ottomite: Year round
Terrain: 10km, 700m gain; 8km, 350m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: Zupjok is a steep climb through the forest in the summer, but offers fantastic views from the summit, where you can continue along the ridge to Llama and Alpaca Peak, if desired. Zupjok Peak is not recommended in winter due to challenging avalanche conditions, but Ottomite Peak can be accessed year round. Follow the trail at the branch for an easier day of hiking or snowshoeing.

Elk / Thurston Mountain

Location: Chilliwack
Season: June – October
Terrain: Elk: 8km, 800m gain; Thurston: 16km, 1100m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: This is a popular trail located east of Chilliwack. Hike uphill through the forest until you reach the fabulous viewpoint at the top of Elk Mountain. From there, you can continue along the ridge to Thurston. The trail dips in and out of the forest, with some of the best views before the peak. There is no view at the actual peak.

St. Mark’s Summit

Location: Cypress Provincial Park
Season: June – October
Terrain: 10km, 550m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: One of the most popular trails on the list, this hike attracts locals and tourists. Park at the main Cypress lot and get a free backcountry tag from the lodge to attach to your pack. Hike through the forest to an incredible view of Howe Sound from the top of St. Mark’s. It is essential to keep your dog on leash at the summit as there are very dangerous drops. Some people do this hike year round, but avalanche safety training and equipment is highly recommended.

Mount Strachan

Location: Cypress Provincial Park
Season: June – October
Terrain: 7km, 550m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: Park at the main Cypress lot and get a free backcountry tag from the lodge. This is a nice loop trail that circles around the ski resort. The trail hikes up Collins run to the top of the Sky Chair, and then you can take the trail down Christmas Gully to merge onto the Howe Sound Crest Trail back to the parking lot of the ski resort.

Diez Vistas

Location: Belcarra Regional Park and Buntzen Lake Rec Area
Season: Most of the year
Terrain: 14km, 650m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: Hike to the top of the Diez Vistas trail from the Buntzen Lake parking lot to get *up to ten* views of Indian Arm, then hike back down to Buntzen Lake and circle back on one of the lakeview trails on either side of the lake. You will need a free parking pass for Buntzen Lake, which release 2 days in advance.

Crooked Falls

Location: Sigurd Creek Conservancy (northwest of Squamish)
Season: April – November
Terrain: 6km, 450m elevation gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: This is a forested trail north of Squamish that hikes up to a large waterfall. Best viewed in the Spring when run-off is high. Make sure to keep dogs on-leash near the waterfall as they could easily be swept away.

Brandywine Meadows/Mountain

Location: Whistler
Season: July – September
Terrain: Meadows: 6km, 550m gain; Mountain: 16km, 1500m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: These hikes are accessible from the end of the Brandywine FSR, west of Whistler. They are both incredibly scenic, however, they do involve a very steep trail up through the forest to access the meadows. If you have 4×4 and high clearance, you can cut 400m of gain from the trail profile. Camping is no longer permitted at this location. Just hike to the meadows if you want an easy day, but if you want a challenge, head up towards the peak.

Semaphore Lakes

Location: Semaphore Lakes Rec Area (west of Pemberton Meadows)
Season: July – September
Terrain: 5km, 350m gain
Leash rules: on-leash
Description: This is the shortest hike on the list, but no less epic than the others. This trail has become very popular in recent years for its easy access to beautiful alpine landscapes and two lakes. The trail is primarily in the forest until you reach the lakes, from there you can explore further around the surrounding alpine.