BC Camping: Hicks Lake Campground review

We have just arrived at the Sasquatch Provincial Park and holy it is busy. We're at the Hicks Lake Campground and we are going to show you around so that you can start planning your trip here too. Hicks Lake Campground is found in Sasquatch Provincial Park near Harrison Hot Springs, BC. It's about a two-hour drive east of Vancouver. First come first serve and reserve sites are available. Even though this campground is packed solid it's actually very quiet. Can you hear the quiet? So if you're going to be staying first come first serve and you've never been here before you might as well stop at this little information booth because there's no hut to register or anything. So have a look at the map and then drive around and anywhere you find these green little tags you can just pull in set up and then the officer will stop by and you can pay later. For first come first serve you can only stay one or two nights and the little tag will tell you if it's available for just one night or for two. Okay so first impressions are that the place is busy. This is a Wednesday in April. Not even mid-April. Yeah not even mid-April. Camping season has literally just begun and already we had trouble getting a spot. If you are ever going to be camping in BC you need to book very well in advance. The place is busier than we were expecting. We got a spot. Our spot's beautiful. Yeah honestly I think we got one of the best spots. What is this, site number 61? I think so. Site number 61 has a decent amount of space and like the ones on either side of it also are good. Some of the other sites though are really small. I would not call this park big rig friendly. There were some long ones but they were super skinny. Yeah like they were like almost the width of the trailer. So anyways those are my first impressions. We're going to do some more exploring. We're going to take a look around at some of the other areas of the park, of the campsites, etc. So sites here are $23 a night for a single site or double that for a double. While you're here you have access to your picnic table and fire pit on your site. They also have a water pump. There are outhouses. One of the things that we have noticed while we're walking around is that the outhouses are set back quite a ways from all the other campsites. So really like that about this here. It's nice. There's a boat launch. They have a little mini boat launch and a big boat launch and that's actually I think quite thoughtful because the mini one is wooden and so it won't scratch the bottom of your kayak or canoe whereas this one is more for like a little boat on a trailer that you would back into the water. So it's cool. And a sani station on the way. Oh there are no hookups. Yeah you'll be dry camping, no electricity, no water hookups. And they do have fairly strict hours that you can run a generator. Some in the morning and then a couple hours in the evening as well. I want to say it's 9 to 11 in the morning and 6 to 8 at night. Okay so we have just been around the entire campsite. We've taken a look at all 71 of the sites and we've rated them based on the amount of privacy, the size of them to be able to fit our 25 foot trailer, whether there is any kind of view. So we'll go over that in just a minute. Let's go back to our site first. So pretty much all of the sites are forested. A little bit of sun on each of them so you're getting some shade, mix of sun and shade which was really nice especially for a hot summer day. They all have a fire pit. They all have a good picnic table. The staff seem to really take good care of the park. Very clean. So overall that's really good. And you're always close to a pit toilet. You're always close to garbages, recycling. Yeah you don't have to go very far and for water if you need water as well. Of all the sites we found that there was a little bit of variety between them. Some were quite narrow, some were much wider. But something that we definitely noticed is if you have a really big rig, like over 30 feet long, you're pretty much gonna have to get a double site. There didn't really seem to be any sites, single sites, that were large enough for a really big rig. And of all the double sites, and there are quite a few, we found that four of them were kind of truly good double sites that we would feel comfortable putting two rigs on. Yeah otherwise the other ones you could put maybe a trailer and a tent. Our top favorite sites, my favorite in the entire park actually, site number two. It's got a really nice lake view and to me the only unobstructed lake view in the park probably. In that area there's also a nice double site 4-5 that has a slightly obstructed lake view but also pretty good. That was a nice site too. Yeah number seven is another good single site, perfect lake view and mountain view. Oh and you can even see the mountain there too. Yeah so that one was a nice one. And 14, also very nice, spacious, you know kind of well separated, good privacy. And Mel's favorite is site 71. Yes I really liked that site because it was up on a bit of a hill so you had this beautiful unobstructed view. It was also at the end of a road so yeah it just seemed like a really really nice site. So those are our top five campsites in Hicks Lake Campground in Sasquatch Provincial Park. Holy cow guys we found a 72nd site and which was a bit funny because on the website there it said that there were 72 sites but when we walked around we only counted 71. But 72 is like off on its own and it's like you blink and you miss it. So it's super private. So there's 72 sites. They have a little amphitheater for the interpretive programs they share sometimes in the summers. So here at Hicks Lake Campground there are two trails that you can walk on. We're on the Hicks Lake trail which goes all the way around Hicks Lake. It's relatively flat, fairly easy trail. Takes about two two hours. We're going to check it out and got some nice views of the lake so far. We'll see what else we can see. So I read that the forest around here is a unique second growth forest and there's also a birch tree forest here and we've kind of got a good example of exactly that. So this is the stump of an old old tree and coming right out of the top of it are at least two at least two birch trees. Yeah so for how busy the park is the trail is not so busy. At least we haven't encountered anyone yet. So very very quiet, very peaceful. Lots of room for everyone. Did you hear? It went wee. Look at these tiny pine cones. We may not have found a sasquatch but we found a butterfly. That's too fast. We're gonna go check out the Beaver Pond trail. So we've got Benny. It's all set. Off we go. Let's go see. I've never seen a pond this clear before. Okay so some of the things to do around here. Well there's hiking of course. I've shown you that. And boating. We're sitting lakeside right now and there you can see maybe behind me there's kayakers, paddle boarders, even small motorboats going very slowly. And fishing is an option as well. We have learned that there are rainbow trout, cutthroat trout, and brook char. Of course if you're gonna fish though you need to have a license so keep that in mind. And then cycling. Bikes can go on the trails except there is a notice you cannot take e-bikes on the trails. Yeah it's just a little mecca for outdoor activities. Well thank you for joining us on that tour. We hope you got some value out of that. Please click that like button if you did. And consider subscribing for more camping adventures and tips and ideas. And we'd be honored if you shared this video with your friends. It really helps us grow our community and reach a wider audience. Thank you. And in the meantime, keep on living the life you've imagined. No no Hicks Lake Campground in Sasquatch Provincial Park. Let's start that let's start that again. Hicks Lake Campground in Sasquatch Park Provincial Park, Sasquatch. Frick's sake. I almost fell off. Well that was almost a good blue trigger. And we're going to show you around so that you can plan your...