Our Top 5 Campgrounds in BC for 2023

Happy New Year, everyone! Yes, we know it's getting late, but Happy New Year! 2024, and it's been a few weeks since we released a video, primarily because I have been sick. I got COVID on Christmas Eve, and so it's taken me a few weeks to finally feel like myself. And also, it was an unusual December, and actually, you know, sort of partway through January, we had an incredibly mild winter so far, and very little snow. The snowpack is only at about 56% of normal, which of course is concerning. And then we went suddenly from, you know, a very mild winter to probably the coldest winter we've had in a long time as of yesterday. So, quite a change, and we're not likely going to be out camping until it warms up a little. So, like we do every year, we have selected five top campgrounds that we stayed in in the previous year. So, that would be 2023, and we wanted to share that with you in this video. And we also have a couple of honorable mentions. I guess we can call them our all-time favorites as well. Places we stay in regularly. Yeah, so we hope you enjoy this video. And before we actually start talking about the campsites that we've chosen, a couple things. First of all, we didn't actually agree on them this year, so we had to negotiate what we thought were probably our top five, and that makes some sense. And then the other thing we just wanted to note that, you know, when we select our campgrounds, it's dependent on a couple of things. You know, sometimes the weather can be the nicest place, but if it's really, you know, grainy or something, we're not going to really enjoy the trip. Also for us, we tend to look for places that have activities close to or right out of the campground. So, paddling, hiking. Not everyone has, not all of them have that, but that tends to help us rate a place higher if it has those activities. And this year, too, we had a real challenge just because of the weather. I mean, for a good portion of the summer, there was smoke around a lot of British Columbia, so it just meant we weren't going to go there. For a lot of the Okanagan, for example, we went areas where there wasn't smoke and also heat. There were some cases where it was just really hot and we didn't really want to go and camp there, in part because it's that comfortable for us, but it's also, we've got a pet with us, Finch, and so if it's really hot, it can be very uncomfortable for him. So, our campsites were somewhat chosen based on that. Yeah, but still, we managed to go to 23 different campgrounds and we enjoyed Vancouver Island. We went to the interior of BC. We didn't get a chance to go to the north, but we also got to the Rockies. Yeah, just slipped into Alberta for a little bit of the trip. Yeah, so without further ado, we will count down from number five. So, our fifth favourite place this year was Kentucky Aleene Provincial Park. Now, Kentucky Aleene is about 40 kilometres south of Merritt on Highway 5A, or about a three and a half hour drive from Vancouver, and there's a lot of parks in that area, BC rec sites that we've gone to that we quite enjoy. In terms of campsites, there's 79 campsites on two different lakes, some forested sites and there's some lakeside sites. I think of the campsites, roughly 51 are reservable. Facilities there are very basic. There's pit toilets and water taps, and a big plus for us there is just the access to some of the recreational activities. So, you can go paddling, or if you like to fish. There's also some walking trails between the lakes and ponds and a trail that goes around Kentucky Lake. So, very nice area, beautiful drive to get there, and yeah, we just really enjoyed it. We've been there before, which is one of the reasons we went back. Yeah, and the nice thing is since we were last there, they've actually developed a whole new camping area in the forested area near Aleene Lake, and there's quite a few very spacious and looks very private campsites, as well as some nice new brand new pit toilets. So, we haven't really explored that area. We're hoping there might be some trails back there, as well. Okay, so number four on our list is Strathcona Provincial Park in Central Vancouver Island. In this case, we actually were at Bottle Lake Campground. Yeah, one of two vehicle access campgrounds. Strathcona Provincial Park is located in Central Vancouver Island, about 225 kilometers or 140 miles north of Departure Bay Terminal in Nanaimo, and Nanaimo is a 1 hour 40 minute ferry ride from the Vancouver area, and the total number of campsites there is about 85. The facilities are pit toilets and water taps. And really, the real beauty of this campsite and also just Strathcona Provincial Park is just the access to a variety of recreational activities. You can go paddling on the lakes. There's short hiking trails from the Bottle Lake Campground to Darkus and Bottle Lakes itself, and just tons of trails in the park itself that range from beginner to advanced. It's just a beautiful area, you know, in Central Vancouver Island. It's wonderful. Yeah, and actually Darkus Lake, there's a short trail that goes there, and it looks like a beautiful lake. We did walk to the lake, but there's supposed to be a trail around the lake, and also Gordon did actually want to go paddling there, but we didn't really get a chance. It was less about the weather and more about smoke, so the day we arrived it wasn't that great, and then we had, I think, rain, and then we had a lot of wildfire smoke. It was hard to get too excited about going for a paddle on a beautiful lake if there was a lot of wildfire smoke in the area. Yeah, but Strathcona Park itself is beautiful, and the other campground, Ralph River, is also really nice. We enjoyed our stay there quite a few years ago, and the scenery is spectacular there as well, so it's worth visiting both of the campgrounds there. So, beautiful park, and definitely worth a visit. The third on our list, which I think is kind of a surprise, is Sun Peaks Resort. Now, we've been there once before, and Sun Peaks Resort is about a four and a half hour drive from Vancouver, or about 56 kilometers or 35 miles from the city of Kamloops. There's a number of campsites, we guess probably around 50, but they're all in kind of a gravel parking lot, and it's only designed really for self-contained RVs. You can book online, but the site selection is all first come first serve, so you can go and book a spot, you just don't know what spot it's going to be until you get there. Yeah, and Sun Peaks is great because it's got access to the village, and the village has a lot of shopping and dining. It's like a small little whistler. It's like the best part. The restaurants we've been to so far are really good, and so it's nice to be able to just, you know, after you had a full day of hiking, walk to the village and have dinner and have a beer. The atmosphere is great, the people there are great. We just feel like we're in a community, even though it's, you know, the campground's a little bit crowded, and it's kind of like a parking, what it is, a parking lot. It still feels like there's a sort of a community spirit there of like-minded people who all like the outdoors. They're either going hiking up on the mountain or they're mountain biking. So we really actually enjoyed the atmosphere there. Where we camped a couple of times is farther back in the parking lot, so there's a little bit of grass and maybe some trees behind you, so it's a little more pleasant. I don't think we've ever seen so many wildflowers anywhere else than we've seen at Sun Peaks. So we really have enjoyed it there. The other thing, too, is they have nice washrooms for people. No showers, but, you know, proper washroom facilities. They also have potable water for an RV, and they also have a sanded dump. So it's pretty reasonably priced, and we've stayed at least two, sometimes three nights there, and we've really enjoyed it. Okay, so next on the list is number two, Wells Gray Provincial Park. And Wells Gray Provincial Park is located about five and a half hour drive from Vancouver, or about 167 kilometers or 104 miles north of Kamloops on highway number five. We particularly like the campground, which is kind of halfway up the park, Pyramid Campground. And the nice thing about that campground is they have about 50 sites, and they're all first come, first serve. Yeah, which is handy for us because frequently we haven't made plans far in advance, so first come, first serve is usually very helpful for us. And I think we've been there a couple of times, and we've never found it full. Now there are, I think, two other campsites in the park along that road. Yeah, Clearwater Lake and Falls Creek campgrounds, yeah. Which are reservable and I think are pretty well booked for most of the summer. So probably reservations needed more often than not in those ones. Yeah, the funny thing is there's actually a gravel road that connects to those campgrounds, and so it takes a little bit longer to get to, whereas to Pyramid Campground it's a paved road, so it's easy. And there are some activities, Pyramid, there's a hike that's not too far out of the campground, there's a walking trail that goes down to the river and down to Dawson Falls, which is really pleasant. And it's a great park. You've got a ton of waterfalls to see, and paddling, and it's a very big park. The campsites themselves are very big, and many of them are, well, they're just really nice. They're some of our favorite spots to have camped in actually. So yeah, we highly recommend Pyramid as a place to camp at Wells Gray Provincial Park. Okay, so now we get to number one, and our number one pick is Loveland Bay Provincial Park in Central Vancouver Island. Yeah, it's roughly 178 kilometers from the BC Ferry Departure Bay Terminal, which is in Nanaimo, 12 kilometers from the city of Campbell River. Its access is actually on a logging road from Campbell River. At least when we went, the road was pretty reasonable. Now, I drive slowly on some of the forested logging roads. You can usually tell if I'm on a logging road because I am driving slowly, and B, I look really grumpy as I'm going over all the bumps. And Finch doesn't like it either. In terms of the campsite itself, there are quite a few. I think there's 54 sites. 52 of them are reservable, and about half are actually right on the waterfront, which is nice. Yeah, and on the waterfront means like you basically have almost your own beach. You take just a few steps down, and you're on a beautiful beach. Yeah, it's really very, very pleasant. Now, in terms of facilities, there's some very clean modern pit toilets. There's a gray water receptacle, but there aren't any water taps. You need to bring your own drinking water. It's also got great access to recreational activities. Yeah, there's paddling on the water, swimming. Gordon went for a swim. I didn't. I wasn't brave enough. But there's also a nice recreation area adjacent to the campground called Snowdon, Snowdon Demonstration Forest, I think. And there's about 100 kilometers of mountain biking and hiking trails there. Yeah, we really enjoyed it. Now, we actually got a last minute cancellation booking, so we were only there one night, but we really wish we'd been able to stay for at least three. Just, yeah, it was a wonderful spot. Weather worked out well. No smoke. It was just, it was just beautiful. Yeah, it's a very popular campground, so make sure you book early. But again, you can try sort of last minute as well. In addition to our top five, we've also got our honourable mentions. And these are parks that we we really love because we go to them very frequently. And first on the list is actually Greenpoint Campground, which is in Pacific Rim National Park, which is situated basically right between Euculate and Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island. And we particularly love Greenpoint because the campsites are all nicely treed. They all have power. You've got maybe like a quarter of a kilometre to walk down to the beach. And once you're on the beach, you can kind of walk forever. There's a biking trail, a paved biking trail that will go either to Euculate or Tofino. So if you're someone that likes to cycle, it's a beautiful area to be in. We've literally have spent hours walking on the beach, watching sunsets. The sunset walks are just the best. Watching birds. It's relaxing. Scenery is spectacular. And also in terms of services, there are washroom buildings with full shower facilities and garbage and recycling in the campground. You check in at the gate. So there's always staff there. And there is also a Santa dump. So lots of services. And of course, because it's a national park, it can get very busy. So you really need to make reservations early or take a chance and try and find a last-minute cancellation that you can fit into. Or go a little bit shoulder season. Maybe when the season first opens or a little later. The park, I think, closes usually mid-October. And, you know, September, late September, middle of October, we've seen opportunities to camp there. So it might be something you want to consider for that. The other honorable mention is East Sea Manning Park, which is not too far actually out of Vancouver. It's only about a two and a half hour drive. And in Manning Park itself, there are several campgrounds. The two that we probably like the best are Cold Spring and Lightning Lakes. We like Cold Spring because it's a little quieter. If you're lucky, you can, as long as you can get near the river, because you are actually right by the road in many of the spots. But if you can get one of the secluded spots, especially down near the river, it can be really pleasant. There's some hiking trails right from there. You can go along a nice little canyon loop. And then you can go from that as well up to a nice hike called Windy Joe. So very pleasant. Lightning Lakes itself, probably one of the first campgrounds and still probably one of the nicest in terms of great camp spots. It's right adjacent to Lightning Lakes. Several hikes actually you can do right from the campground itself, which is one of the reasons that we like it so much. It's got some nice facilities, shower building, flush toilets. So it's a very nice area. We enjoy it. It's also probably the busiest of the campsites, often booked. Now another more modern campsite close to that is actually the new Skyview campsite, which is really designed more for recreational vehicles, including big rigs. Because it's new and it's a little bit more open, the campsites aren't nearly as isolated. You have to wait some time before some of the forest and trees regrow. So it'll be a little bit more private. But it has pull through sites in the middle for big rigs, which is good because a lot of the big rigs don't necessarily fit into some of the smaller campgrounds. And all the sites are full service. And in addition, it has a very modern washroom and some other toilets that are outside that are flush toilets. So maybe not as remote feeling as some of the other campsites, but it certainly offers additional services. And you're still close to some of this, you know, hiking trails that you might want to go on. Yeah. So it's actually a great option for this kind of off season. Yeah. And we've, if you've watched our videos, you know, we've hiked most of the trails in Manning Park. We'll actually do a video on that in a few months and just putting together a list of all our favorite hiking trails there. And we've also paddled all the lakes. So it's a, yeah, it's just, it's just a great park if you were only to get outdoors and not too far from Vancouver. Yeah. The two honorable mentions, I guess we can call them our two all-time favorites as well. Okay. So that's, that's it for us for our top five campgrounds in 2023. We hope you enjoyed the video. And if you did, please be sure to give us a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel if we haven't done so already. And we and Finch, we'll see you next time. And also make sure we've shared our favorite spots this year. But we'd really love it if you could share, you know, a few of your favorite spots in the comments that are on our channel as well. So with that said, yeah, we'll see you next time. See you next time.