We love to travel in BC. It’s easy, it’s not particularly expensive, and it’s gorgeous. Since we’re road trippers and campers at our house, we were psyched to be invited up by BC Camping to go exploring. The idea? A circle tour that starts and ends in Vancouver with a lot of big nature and a few small towns in between. If you’re thinking of heading to Vancouver for TBEX next summer and are planning to add a road trip to your agenda, the route we took is easy to follow and full of all kinds of stuff to do.
It’s always best to have your own gear, but if you’re jetting in from some far away place, this might not be practical. You can pick up the basics at just about any big box store, though there are a handful of places in Vancouver that will outfit you with everything you need. I poked around a little and found some interesting options. For example, Canada Adventure Tours offers a bundled rented minivan and camping kit for two. FraserWay RV has smaller rigs you can drive that come completely kitted out. We’re lucky, BC is just up the road for us. We stuff the car with gear and head north, knowing that if there’s anything we’ve forgotten, we can always get it while we’re underway.
We took about ten days to complete our tour, you could do it in less than that by making only one night’s stop at each place. That would be a shame, though — you’ll want to time to go up the mountain at Whistler, or to take in the view from Goat Lookout at Birkenhead Lake or to soak two or three times a day at the hot springs in Harrison. Plus, who knows what road side distraction will slow you down. Never mind, never mind. You should see what you can, and if you only make it out of Vancouver for one or two days of camping, you’ll still have a sense of what BC’s big nature is like.
Here’s our route, in brief.
Overnight in Vancouver. We stayed at the Cassandra, out on Kingsway, rather then downtown. We took the Skytrain to the end of the line to do our sightseeing and touristy stuff, then we headed back out to our neighborhood for dinner. I loved being in this multi-ethnic and interesting location, just walking down the block was like a trip around the world. The hotel was just okay — squirrely wifi and not the best of beds, but a better deal than your typical West End or downtown properties, and with free parking. Also, it was really quiet. I was amazed by that.
Three nights in Whistler: It doesn’t have to take you half a day to get to Whistler, but we kept stopping to gawk at the scenery and to detour in to cute little towns. That Sea to Sky Highway, well, it’s just a stunner. There’s just loads to do in Whistler, and good lord it’s gorgeous up on the mountain. While there, we camped about a 15 minute drive out of Whistler proper at the brand new Whistler RV Park. They’re nice folks and they run a clean camp, with free wifi.
Dorky Traveler with Snow Graffiti
Three nights at Birkenhead Lake: This is a pretty a spot as you’ll ever want to camp. There are some nice hikes and a lake for swimming with a sandy beach and warm enough water for sissies like me. There’s a boat launch and you can fish if you’re so inclined. Heads up — it’s a bit of a haul back to any kind of shopping, though there’s a funky little campstore stand on the dirt road that runs into the campsite. Still, bring supplies — you’ll be happier.
One night at Skihist: Skihist is just outside the tiny crossroads town of Lytton where they’ve got the friendliest visitor’s center I’ve ever visited. There’s not a whole lot to do in Lytton — at least not when it’s in the midst of a blazing heat wave, but it was a conveniently placed stop and, as promised, the temperatures dropped at night to return to perfectly tolerable levels for sleeping out. We sloped around town, ate at a local diner and hung out in our campground listening to the pines snap in the heat and watching birds.
One night in Hope: Hope is a lively mid-sized town at the junction of two rivers. There are lots of motels, old fashioned two story places with good deals, a few in city campgrounds, shopping to replenish your ice chest, and a few nice cafes. We booked a hotel — after a week of shared facilities, we were ready for our own bathroom just for one night, and we went out for Greek food. Hope has gone chainsaw carving crazy, if you stop by the visitor’s center you can get a walking tour map of all the sculptures or you could just poke around on your own. In the morning, we drove out to the Othello Tunnels — there’s a walking path on an old railway bed and, oh, it’s super cool, you should make time to do that.
Three nights at Harrison Hot Springs: We started a road trip by camping in the pouring rain in Harrison a few years back and have great nostalgia for this little town on the edge of a very pretty lake. It’s really a lovely spot, it almost looks alpine, and some of the businesses have caved to the kitschy appeal and gone with that wacky faux Bavarian style architecture. We bought a multi-visit pass for the public pool so we could soak away any remaining bits of camping dust. There’s loads of camping out at Sasquatch and a few commercial sites closer to town, a nice little cafe, a sushi bar, a few places to get postcards… it’s kind of touristy, but I like it there all the same.
Back home! It’s only about an hour, maybe an hour and half back to Vancouver. We continued to Seattle, crossing the border at Sumas, then stopping at our favorite bagel joint in Bellingham before continuing south towards home.
In between all of these stops we went on short hikes to waterfalls, found bakeries in a variety of qualities, breakfasted in small town diners, got distracted by roadside oddities, you know, all the stuff that isn’t on the itinerary but is an essential part of what makes road tripping fun. And this is a great itinerary, you see a lot of different landscapes, you can be in a new ecosystem daily — or even a few times in one day depending on how much turf you cover. You’re thinking about — I know — how you can get some of our epic Pacific Northwest landscape in your eyeballs when you come out to Vancouver next summer. A road trip. That’s how. You know you want to.
Our trip was partially sponsored by Camping BC — they paid for campgrounds and fuel. All other expenses — meals, hotels, etc, we paid for ourselves. And it’s worth noting that any prior whining about our campground neighbors has in no way diminished my affection for BC. It’s a great place to travel.