Golden Ears Camp Grounds (Closest GOOD camp ground to vancouver civilization)
 

I personally find this better than cultus just because cultus has less forest, closer camp plots, and is too family oriented to have a decent night of fun and partying. Also, this is ideal for if you have women or girls in the group that require manditory flushing toilets and hot water showers.

Here is some info if you are interested.

Cost: $24 per night for 4 ppl + 1 car. If you have a 2nd car, its allowed to stay for $12 per night.

Thus for eg, if u happen to get a double plot as explained below, for 8 ppl, and 4 cars, for the weekend (friday night and saturday night) it will cost $144 total.

$24 per plot x 2 nights = $48
$12 per extra car x 2 nights = $24

double that because you have a total of 8 ppl, then u get a grand total of $144 cost for the weekend.

Golden Ears Provincial Park is located out in Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows area.
Easiest way to get there is Lougheed Hwy to Dewdney Truck road (not the first one right after the pitt meadows bridge, but further down near the cineplex odeon), then from Dewdney thru Haney (a small subsection of Maple Ridge/pitt meadows), to 232 street. Follow the road signs and you wont get lost, but its hard to get lost. Once you hit the first gates, its about another 15mins til you hit the camp grounds, so yes its far enough away from society that there is no cell phone signal. There are more fun routes to take to drive there. Yes, its safe for lowered cars. i went camping this year with my GS, i just took the front lip off but other than that, it made it through.

There are 3 camp grounds in golden ears. You got Allouette Lake, Golden Creek, and North Beach, all are less than 5mins from each other, but all branch off from the main road. North Beach is currently closed as they are filming Harry Potter there. If u look around it will look awefully familiar because well, lots of movies filmed there. Xmen III, i think even that new vampire movie that all the little girls scream about.

Anyhow, Allouette Lake and Gold Creek is what you want, and even though they got like 150-250 plots each camp site, it still gets filled up on summer long weekends and any weekend.

Lets talk Allouette Lake since i managed to snap a shot of it the map this time.


http://www.revscene.net/SorrGwa/Camping09/IMG00018.jpg <-- link to original pic size
Lower Map we stayed at 46A and 46B, double connected camp plots
http://www.revscene.net/SorrGwa/Camping09/IMG00018a.jpg


http://www.revscene.net/SorrGwa/Camping09/IMG00019.jpg <-- link to original pic size

Upper Map
http://www.revscene.net/SorrGwa/Camping09/IMG00019a.jpg

I gotta agree with !SG, of all the campgrounds around the lower mainland, Golden Ears is the best. Granted the last time I was there, a campsite only cost about $14 so that can tell you how long it's been lol. My family and relatives used to camp there all the time when I was a kid. Fully functional facilities, plenty of trails and beaches to go hang out. There's also rentals for canoe's and what not at the lake.

I was even out there for a high school camp trip. Played games like capture the flag, that's one big ass area to cover...lol. Those were good times.

hm kinda off topic.. but does cultus lake camp site have fully functional toilets? I honestly don't care, but other ppl that I'm going with might.

hm.. I might plan a 1 night, 2 days stay with a small group of friends.


also, is there a place where I can rent a massive tent? LOL

Honestly Id just buy one. There's sales everywhere for them and it's dirt cheap. I just bought a new 4 man from Candian Tire for $80, the 2 man was only $50.

I think I'm just gonna show up there instead of reserving. Thanks for the review.

Maybe I just had a bad experience last year, but me and my friends were at Gold Creek campground and the park rangers were complete assholes to us.

It was 11pm and we knew that we were supposed to be quiet, so we were literally keeping our voices down to a whisper, but the rangers continually came over to our site and told us to go to bed! It was ridiculous.

Didn't help that we had families with kids all around us as well.

This year we are going back to Sasquatch Provincial Park. No flushing toilets or sinks, but from what I remember, the plots were a bit more spread out, and the rangers more forgiving.

err.. a 4 man tent usually doesn't actually fit 4 men. We want to rent a big tent (8-10ppl) for the 4 of us, and by renting a tent we don't need to decide on who keeping the tent afterward.

so any idea of where and how much it's going to cost to rent a tent?

Buy it, then return it after. :p

Ahh ok I was just under the assumption you needed a tent for a few people. In this case I'm not sure about places that rent.

Any other camp ground in LM besides Cultus and Golden?

On a side not Golden Ears camp ground when reserving says each campsite is for up to 4 people max. Anybody know if they are strict on checking to make sure you don't bring more?

people pay for camping?

ppl pay for spots on the camp site. You can camp outside your own house for free.

there are plenty of other camp grounds

roley lake

porteau cove (though i dont like the fact that ur camping next to a working railway line)

alice lake up past squamish before whistler


but for convinence and being close to civilization (which is grocer stores and stuff) golden ears is probably the best.

^ Sweet! MORE BACON!

GE is pretty good for sure, huge lake with the fish....

i also find alice lake to be pretty good as well. not as good as GE of course but nice to get away from the city.

I called in and was told if you don't reserve and you just show up, you can place eight (8) people on one (1) campsite. First come first serve bases.

so what's the point of making a reservation? lolz

Reserving ensures you a spot a 100% where as showing up doesn't. That is the advantage and disadvantage or showing up and reserving.

i brought 2 big packs of bacon for each day of the trip... and i always run out cuz everyone loves bacon!

Oh and they usually don't count the number of people you have in your group, just the amount of cars. Last year at GE we had a group of 14 people on 2 connected sites.

interesting thanks for the information

are we allowed to start a camp fire at golden ears? I know this is a rhetorical question, but I'm asking just to double check.

so far no fire ban, BUT the fire hazard is set to "high" right now.

since a few years ago, you need to bring or buy ur own wood. they DO sell firewood at golden ears. i think its 6 bucks a bag or 15 bucks for 3.

GE was great when we went. make sure to bring a max of 2 cars or you'll have to park at a remote spot away from the campgrounds. break ins galore.

we were up till 3-4 am no one hassled us. remember at 12am in a forest even a whisper is loud.