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

We recently stayed at Alouette Campground within Golden Ears Provincial Park. It was our annual family trip and we needed a campground close to home where we could get 3 sites.

We have done this camping trip for several years now. Our adult kids come with their partners along with our good friends and their crew.

We are lucky the kids always leave vacation days open to join us for this annual camping trip but now that they are older with career jobs, vacation is tight. For this reason our trips have become shorter and closer to home. Golden Ears worked perfectly and we were able to secure 3 site near each other.

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We don’t typically camp at this provincial park because it is in Vancouver’s North Shore mountains and, although beautiful, typically gets a lot more rain. We lucked out this year and the weather was beautiful so we could appreciated the treed sites while enjoying the sun at the beach.

Campground Details

Golden Ears Campground is made up of 3 reservable areas: Gold Creek, North Beach and Alouette which is split into North and South.

We could only secure a spot in the South Park which is a long way to the beach path. It took 15 minutes to walk to the trail entrance and then another 10 minute walk down a steep path to the lake. This was the biggest draw back of the campground.

My best advice is to try and book a site as close to the beach access trail at the north east corner of the park. Sites around the outer perimeter have the most privacy. Some of the sites in the center area are close to the sites behind but really privacy at this park is one of its best features.

There are also several sites with a sloping driveway but when I compare my notes to the BC Parks Reservation System (Discover Camping) site description the sloping driveway was mentioned in all of them. The sites where I found the road to be steep were listed as ‘moderately sloping driveway’ so read their details before booking.

This campground has over 200 sites so it is impossible to complete a site by site review. This post will just be a campground overview.

Campground Pros

• Private treed sites that allow you to enjoy nature but also allow for limited sunshine (con for some, depending on the weather during your trip.).
• Most sites are very large in size and the booking site clearly describes each one
• Large field for games or group gathering
• Very close to the lower mainland
• Lots of hiking, biking and horse trails
• Beautiful clean lake
• Canoe rentals at the day use park
• Shower houses and flush toilets throughout the park (there are also pit toilets throughout)

Campground Cons

• Extremely long check in line ups. (Our kids waited 45 min to check in on a Friday afternoon)
• Very crowded beach. The beach feeds several parks and was one of the most crowded provincial campground beaches I have ever seen.
• No cell service (a pro and a con, but for communication I have put it in the con column)
• Water taps are not threaded for tanks refilling
• Sani dump hose is not threaded for black water flush
• Very limited recycling bins through the park (likely due to bear control)