10 Easy Day Paddles near Vancouver

July 28, 2026 / Maria / Leave a comment

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.

14 Free Backcountry Campsites in BC

July 27, 2025July 15, 2025 / Maria / 1 Comment

Welcome back to the second part of my 2-part series to help you get camping with minimal advance planning, in any season! Part 1 focused on permitted campsites (that don’t require reservations) and Part 2 focuses on unpermitted (free) campsites!

Camping is incredibly popular in BC, especially near Vancouver. The popular campsites require reservations that release 4 months out and being coordinated to plan so far in advance can be a real challenge for people. It might seem like all the good campsites are booked, but there are lots of great options that don’t require advance bookings!

Why do some campsites require a permit and others are free?

The simple answer is that a lot of free campsites are located on crown land or in BC recreation sites (also considered crown land). The land doesn’t have park status, so it generally receives limited maintenance or it is maintained by users and volunteers. As a result, free campsites are often more rustic than traditional permitted campsites. There are lots of campsites located on crown land that are privately managed, either by for-profit or non-profit groups, and those campsites will usually have a campsite fee to go towards ongoing maintenance, though some non-profits will fundraise for the upkeep of facilities, like on the Sunshine Coast Trail.

That said, there are still some free campsites located in provincial parks, especially the further you get from the lower mainland. I don’t know the exact reason why some campsites have permits and others don’t, but I think it’s likely related to the popularity of a park and how much maintenance the park gets. For example, I visited South Chilcotin Provincial Park last year for 6 nights and didn’t pay any camping fees, but the park is very remote, has limited infrastructure, and several of the places we camped were considered wild camping (no outhouse or bear cache). When sites become more popular, permits will often be introduced.

If you are visiting a free campsite that does not have bear cache facilities or an outhouse, it is absolutely essential to practice bear safety and leave no trace practices. You must hang your food or bring a bear bin. In addition, you must be prepared to dig catholes or use a wag-bag, and pack out your toilet paper, pads, and tampons. It is not acceptable to poop in the woods without burying it, or to leave your toilet paper around the backcountry. We are so lucky to have access to incredible backcountry in Canada and we need to respect it.

Campsites Near Vancouver

Hanging Lake

Hanging Lake is located in Whistler, sharing a trailhead with the Rainbow Lake trail on Alta Lake Road. Rainbow Lake is Whistler’s water supply, and as such, it’s a protected watershed area, so you’re not allowed to camp there. But if you hike a few more kilometres over Rainbow Pass to Hanging Lake, you can enjoy a nice view from the pass and a relaxing night at the lake. It’s a 10km trail to the lake, but the real challenge comes from climbing 800m of elevation along the way. There’s a fair bit of space for tents at Hanging Lake and there is an outhouse and a bear cache. You can also access this trail from the Rainbow Madeley trailhead near Madeley Lake.

Tikwalus

In my opinion, Tikwalus Heritage Trail is an underrated trail along the Fraser Canyon. To access it, you take Highway 1 past Hope until you pass Alexandria Bridge Provincial Park. The Tikwalus Heritage Trail has been used by indigenous peoples for generations, and in more recent history, it was used by fur traders. It’s only 6km along a semi-loop trail to the campsite, but you’ll climb almost 800m in elevation, so it’s steeper than Hanging Lake. Most of the trail is in the trees, but there are some beautiful mountain views from the campsite. There’s lots of space for tents, as well as an outhouse and a bear cache. There’s no water source directly at the campsite, so fill up at the creeks on the way up to save yourself having to backtrack.

Brunswick Lake / Deeks Lake

Deeks Lake and Brunswick Lake are both located on the Howe Sound Crest Trail, but are accessible from the northern trailhead at Porteau Cove if you’re not doing the 30km thru hike from Cypress Mountain. Both lakes are beautiful and offer an easier alternative to the strenuous Howe Sound Crest Trail. It’s 6.5km to Deeks Lake (which is the smaller site) and 10km to Brunswick Lake, however there’s almost 1200m of elevation gain along the way. Most of the elevation gain is in the first 6.5km to Deeks Lake, making this part of the trail the steepest on my list. Of the two lakes, Brunswick is the most scenic and has more room for camping. It’s also important to note there are no facilities at either site, so be prepared to hang your food and dig catholes.

Flatiron

Keeping in theme with the previous trails, the trail to Flatiron is just as steep, climbing over 800m in ~5.5km, with most of the elevation gain in the first 3.5km. It’s located in the Coquihalla Summit Recreation Area off Highway 5 and shares a trailhead with Needle Peak. The first section of the trail is a huge slog through the forest, but the views are incredibly rewarding. Once you pass the junction for Needle Peak, there’s a small lake where you can camp. You can also camp at the summit of Flatiron, but there’s no water source up there. There are no facilities at either site, so be prepared to hang your food and dig catholes.

Brew Lake

Brew Lake is less steep than some of the other trails on this list, but still a big hike, covering 900m of elevation gain over 8.5km. However, if you have access to a 4×4 vehicle, you can reduce some of that distance along forestry roads. We parked along Brew Creek FSR, at the entrance to Branch 50, and hiked the entire trail from there, including 3.5km along other FSRs. This isn’t a very popular site, so it’s a nice place to go to escape the crowds. There are no facilities, so be prepared to hang your food and dig catholes.

Fairview Bay / Manzanita Bluffs

We have finally arrived at some options that are not super steep! Both of these sites are located on the Sunshine Coast Trail, which has lots of possibilities for backpacking trips. The whole trail is 180km long, but there are lots of sections that can be done over a day or two. The campsite at Manzanita Bluffs, located on the north end of the trail, is especially beautiful. I also really like the campsites at Fairview Bay and Rainy Day Lake, located on the south end of the trail. All campsites along the trail have outhouses and most of them have bear caches or huts. They do not all have water sources, so plan accordingly. While these sites are free, I do recommend a donation to qPAWS if you opt to stay in one of the huts.

Campsites Accessible by 4×4 Vehicle

Tricouni Meadows

Tricouni Meadows is a popular campsite located northwest of Squamish. The trailhead is located on Branch 200, off of Squamish River FSR. If you can make it all the way to the trailhead, the hike to the campsite is just over 3km, with 250m of elevation. However, there was a large wash-out on Branch 200 when I did this hike in 2022. If you park at the wash-out, it adds 3km to the trail. In 2022, some vehicles could get through, but I’ve heard it’s gotten worse, so play it safe. There are 3 lakes near the meadows, with the campsite located at the middle lake: Spearhead Lake. It’s not a large campsite, so I recommend getting there early. There are no facilities, so be prepared to hang your food and dig catholes.

Blanca Lake

Blanca Lake is another campsite located northwest of Squamish. In general, I would say this road is in better shape than the road to Tricouni, but it’s further away. The trailhead is located off E300 on the Elaho Mainline. The trail is 4.5km, with almost 500m of elevation gain. It starts off pretty steep, but then levels out along the middle. The view from Blanca Lake is incredible and there is tons of space for camping. Give yourself extra time to explore around the alpine once you get to the lake. There are no facilities, so be prepared to hang your food and dig catholes.

Conglomerate Flats / Manson Ridge

Both of these campsites are located on the HBC Heritage Trail that runs 70km between Hope and Tulameen. Manson’s Campsite is located on the Hope end of the trail (off Peers Creek Road), so you don’t need 4×4 to access this site, but if you want to access Conglomerate Flats for a night, then you need 4×4 to get the trailhead at Jacobson Lake Rec Site (off Tulameen FSR). Both sites are beautiful, though Conglomerate Flats is the more stunning of the two. It’s 6.5km and 600m of elevation gain to Manson’s Camp from the southern trailhead, and 2.5km and 150m of elevation gain to Conglomerate Flats from Jacobson Lake. Both campsites have outhouses and bear caches.

Winter Campsites

Falls Lake / Zoa Subpeak

Both of these sites are located in the Coquihalla Summit Rec Area off highway 5. Falls Lake is a great site for beginners because you only have to snowshoe 1km along the road (which isn’t plowed in the winter) and 1km to the lake. Zoa subpeak is a bit more challenging as it’s 550m of elevation gain over 4km. Both trails are located in simple terrain, but make sure to stop at Zoa Subpeak – if you try and snowshoe all the way to the true peak, you will be entering challenging avalanche terrain. I’ve never actually been to Falls Lake, but I believe there is an outhouse. There are no facilities at Zoa Subpeak.

Ottomite Peak

Ottomite Peak is also located in the Coquihalla Summit Rec Area off highway 5. The trailhead is at the Zopkios Rest Area. It’s a 4.5km trail with 300m of elevation gain to get to the summit. It was completely empty when I camped there, but the general area is popular among ski tourers, so you may see people along the trails for the day. The trail is in simple terrain, but always exercise caution – in general, I always recommend taking an AST1 course. It’s not a challenging trail, but there are no facilities.

Water Access Campsites

Widgeon Creek

Widgeon Creek is located near the lower mainland and is extremely popular on summer weekends. It’s a ~5 paddle across the Pitt River and up Widgeon Creek to get to the campsite. You can rent canoes or kayaks at Pitt Lake. There are lots of campsites and great facilities, including a large bear cache and 2 outhouses. But I recommend getting their early on a nice weekend to beat the crowds. From the campsite, you can do a day hike to Widgeon Falls.

Twin Islands / Granite Falls

Twin Islands and Granite Falls are two campsites located in Indian Arm, so they are very accessible from the lower mainland. As a result, they are very popular on summer weekends, attracting paddle boats and motorized boats. You can rent kayaks from Deep Cove. It’s only 5km to paddle to Twin Islands, so this is the easier campsite to access. You’re only allowed to camp on the north island, but it has an outhouse (no bear cache since it’s an island). Granite Falls is at the far end of Indian Arm and is an 18km paddle from Deep Cove, so you should be an experienced paddler if you want to do this trip. It has 2 outhouses and a bear cache, but it’s severely undersized. Be prepared for northern afternoon winds.

Nine Mile Point / Kunechin Point

A photo from Kunechin Point in Sechelt Inlet on a kayaking trip, with the water and mountains in the background on the Sunshine Coast in BC.

Nine Mile Point Beach and Kunechin Point Campsite are both located in Sechelt Inlet on the Sunshine Coast. There’s a kayak rental place at the end of Sechelt Inlet Road, where you can launch from. It’s ~6km to paddle to Nine Mile Beach and ~10km to paddle to Kunechin Point, but the latter involves crossing the arm of the inlet, which can get windy. Both are beautiful sites and have outhouses, but no bear caches.

Widgeon Creek Paddling Trip

June 8, 2025June 4, 2025 / Maria / 2 Comments

I’ve written about Widgeon Creek in the past when I visited as a day trip with my kayak, but this year I made an overnight trip to stay at the campsite! I only paddled the creek for the first time last year, but it’s quickly becoming one of my favourite paddling locations in the lower mainland. It makes for a great day trip or overnight objective. The campsite is large and hiking to the waterfall is a great side mission!

But let’s start from the top. I did this trip with my Girl Guide unit, and I specifically call it a paddling trip because they all travelled there in canoes! I intended to canoe too, but one girl got sick at the last minute, so I ended up taking my kayak since we had an odd number of people. This was my first time doing a trip like this with the girls and we’re lucky to have a very experienced canoeist Guider in the unit to lead the trip.

While I love my kayak, canoeing does seem a bit more quintessentially Canadian and I was happy to finally learn some canoeing skills. We did two training sessions on Deer Lake before this trip so that the girls could get used to the paddling strokes. Widgeon Creek isn’t a hard objective, but it does require crossing the fast moving Pitt River, and it was important for everyone to feel comfortable and confident paddling. I found canoeing to be a bit harder that kayaking because of the coordination required with your partner. There are more paddling strokes (at least, that’s how it felt) and I initially found in confusing which stroke to use to correctly change direction. But eventually it clicked and I had fun learning a new skill!

If you want to visit Widgeon Creek yourself, you can park at Pitt Lake. The first part of the trip is crossing the Pitt River, after which it’s a 4.5km paddle up the creek to Widgeon Campsite. You can bring your own boat, or once they open for the season, rent right at Pitt Lake. Fortunately, we were able to borrow enough boats for our group, so we were could go a little before rentals opened for the season. We only had a small group of girl guides, but they were enthusiastic and very good spirited!

We started our paddle early in the morning to avoid the wind and arrived at the campsite in time to set up our tents and eat lunch. The paddle takes ~90 minutes and we made one stop at a pullout along the way for a snack. It rained on us pretty consistently, but no one complained and I noticed that the campsite was considerably less busy than on a sunny day. We were the first to arrive and we were only joined by one other group later in the day.

The campsite is fairly large and has lots of bear caches and picnic tables. I imagine it gets busy in the summer, but there are quite a few tent pads and space to spread out. We started by setting up a tarped area to hang out in so that we wouldn’t continue to get wet from the rain. Fortunately, the rain died off after lunch and we opted to hike 6km round trip to Widgeon Falls. It’s a nice trail through the forest that took us around 2 hours, with a snack break to enjoy the view at the falls. Be careful when it’s wet though, the rocks near the waterfall can get very slippery, so we exercised a lot of caution looking for a place to sit have our snack.

There’s no campfires allowed any time of year at Widgeon Creek, so we returned to the campsite to make dinner and play some games instead. In the morning, we got lucky with nicer weather and we were able to pack down the tents in dry weather. We had a nice paddle back to Pitt Lake, but the wind always comes up in the afternoon and it did pick up just before we crossed the Pitt River at 11:30am. The Pitt River can have a fast moving current, especially in the Spring, around freshet, so we planned accordingly by paddling along the edge of the river, upstream of where we wanted to cross, and then crossing to the boat launch. The current did knock us back a little bit while crossing, but everyone made it without too much issue.

Timing is an important consideration for visiting Widgeon. The creek and the Pitt River are tidally influenced, so they can be a bit high in the spring, but get very low in late summer. I’ve heard that sometimes the creek gets so low you have to walk your boat in places. But it is a very manageable location to visit if you plan around the tides. I’ve been 3 times now and always had a great time! Most of the paddling is located in Widgeon Marsh Regional Park, but the campsite itself is in Pinecone Burke Provincial Park. There’s no permits required to camp there and it is free to visit. It’s a great paddling trip close to Vancouver. We had a great time visiting as an overnight trip!