Camp That Site: Enjoy BC with the right site the first time

Whistler, British Columbia is one of my favourite places to visit in the summer. There is so much to do and so many people to watch that it is impossible to be bored. As mentioned in my review of Riverside Campground, we spent 3 nights in Whistler with 2 other couples all camping in RV’s.  We planned to hike, bike and enjoy the beach during this trip and we were not disappointed.We arrived at 1:00 on our first day and spent a couple of hours getting set up. If you are heading to Whistler be sure to take along your bikes. The trails around the town are beautiful and with parking a challenge they are the easiest way to commute. We all had our bikes so once set up we rode into town to have dinner and check out the village. The ride into the village was paved, well treed and lit if we needed to return after dark. You cannot ride within the pedestrian village area but there are plenty of bike racks around so it was easy to find a place to park our rides. We spent the evening wandering around the village, had dinner on a patio that over looked the mountain bike park and checked out the various shops.

The next day we were up early and drove over to the Trans Canada Trail to hike the Sea to Sky portion. We had been told about a Ghost Town in the area that was just off the trail so we headed out looking for it. The hike proved to be a bit challenging in that it was not very treed on the Trans Canada Trail and Whistler was in a heat wave with temperatures well above what we West Coasters are use to. Combine that with the added difficulty of locating the Ghost Town and we had ourselves a 3 hour hike. Once we located the trail to the Ghost Town we were able to enjoy some shade while we stumbled upon our destination. I wouldn’t say the Ghost Town was worth the hike but we were determined so in the end we were glad we found it and had pictures to show for all our sweat.

We had headed out for the hike early so we were back just after lunch and all decided we needed to cool down. We loaded up the kayaks, beach floaters, and towels and headed into town. We planned to head to Lost Lake but didn’t realize it had lost any form of a parking lot. With the only parking a few kilometres away we realized this was not going to work for us and quickly searched for a lake with a parking lot. Off we went to Alta Lake which, by this time of day, was very crowded. After finding a small plot of grass to set up in we hit the water, kayaks and floating beds in hand. It was a nice afternoon and a great way to escape the heat. Whistler has a wide range of visitors and locals so the best entertainment was people watching from our towels.

The next day was to be the fourth day in our 7 day hike challenge. 1)Joffre Lakes, 2) Nairn Falls, 3) Trans Canada Trail and now day 4….. Well it was so hot that we collapsed the hiking plan and changed it to walking, shopping, drinking and sight seeing. We had read about these famous Bacon Donuts so that seemed like a great idea. To relieve our guilt of not hiking we took the 30 minute walk into the village. The women wanted to do some shopping and the men thought a patio and some beer sounded great. After a few hours we met back up and headed out to find the infamous donuts. These are sold at the Chateau Whistler but once arriving we were informed you must get them by 10:00 or they are sold out. Save that for the next trip. We completed our day with a walk back to the campground and an evening at our sites. The men went to the campground putting green and we sat around and relaxed. It was a perfect end to our Whistler adventure. Tomorrow we were heading to Squamish.