One mid-November weekend, our typical non-stop rain eased up for a weather forecast of sunshine. Sunshine on a weekend in November! Sunshine on a weekend in November, in Vancouver!!! *Insert exploding head emoji* Acting on a delirious high at the prospect of a sunny outdoor weekend in November in Vancouver, Jens and I decided to roll the dice and try to see if we do some winter camping in Porteau Cove even though we did not have reservations. “It’s November” we thought. “How busy could it be?”. A little foreshadowing here – never underestimate how keen Vancouverites are about camping. And definitely get reservations – even if it’s November!
Our beautiful campsite at Porteau Cove.
Perched next to the ocean along the Sea-to-Sky highway, just 38KM north of Vancouver is Porteau Cove Provincial Park. This stunning marine park is home to some first-class oceanside camping – with 44 campsites with electric hookups, and an additional 16 walk-in sites. The waterfront sites are some of the best oceanside camping you will get within a one hour drive of Vancouver. Accordingly this beautiful campground is in very high demand, and reservations at www.discovercamping.ca are strongly recommended. Unfortunately, spots can still fill up completely in seconds, and be booked up months in advance.
Porteau Cove is open for camping year round. Fees for campsite with a vehicle is $43CAD per night and walk-ins (no vehicle) are $20CAD per night. Between November 12 – February 28, some services are reduced, and camping fees drop to $26CAD per night for a campsite with vehicle access and $10CAD for a walk-in campsite. Aside from being one of the closest oceanside campgrounds to Vancouver, Porteau Cove is popular for a number of other reasons. The campground is also equipped with many frontcountry conveniences such as a restroom with flush toilets, shower building, an outdoor kitchen, a propane fire rental service and firewood for sale. There is also a public day-use area and two boat launches. Porteau Cove is also popular with divers who are able to go diving right off the shore.
Now getting a walk-in spot at Porteau Cove is near impossible during the Spring and Summer, but given it was mid-November, we figured we had a chance. I mean how busy could it be in the middle of November? Newsflash: Very, very, surprisingly, disconcertingly, busy. As it turns out. By some miracle however, we found a beautiful oceanside site suspiciously empty, and pulled our vehicle in to reserve the spot and inquire with the park ranger whether we could stay there for a night.
After parking and enjoying a stunning sunset at the campsite, we went to pay for the site, and the attendant told us the site was already booked for the night. Our hearts sank, and we were also a bit confused. Usually when sites are empty, it means the site is free, the party has left early, or have decided not to come – especially this late in the day on a Saturday – but the attendant insisted everything was just booked solid, so we resigned ourselves to make other plans. Before we left, I had to stop at the restroom, and Jens went to the ranger hut to check one last time, and this time he found a different attendant, who actually checked their records and found that indeed, the person who had that one site had actually left early, the site was ours! YAY!!!
Jens quickly paid for the site, and we bought some firewood from the ranger – who also kindly gave us some kindling, and we were happily off to set up our beautiful site for the evening. We built a fire and had a delicious meal by the campfire, and revelled in how lucky we were enjoy these simple pleasures in such a beautiful place, under the stars.
We slept in the Eurovan – which has been camperized to include a bed. The next morning, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast of bacon, eggs and coffee by the ocean and plotted what to do next before returning to the city. There are no shortages of activities in the area, but we were looking for something relatively short before we headed back to Vancouver. We settled on going to Murrin Provincial Park – a mere 10 minute drive away from Porteau Cove – to hike the Murrin Park Loop along with the Jurassic Ridge Trail.
Established in 1962, Murrin Provincial Park is a 24 hectare park between Porteau Cove and Squamish that is a magnet for rock climbers. Browning Lake – which is located next to the parking lot, is regularly stocked with rainbow trout – making the lake a popular fishing spot.
Jens and I decided to do the Murrin Park loop along with the Jurassic Ridge Trail. The route is just 2.4km long and ascends 290m. Expect to take about 1.5 – 2 hours to do the hike. Note that the Jurassic Ridge Trail can be considered more advanced level hiking due to some sections where you need to scramble and use trail-provided ropes to get up and down. Please have good footwear with good traction – especially when the ground has recently been wet as the rocks can be quite slippery. The views on this trail were absolutely stunning. In some parts you can see how the glaciers have smoothed down the surface of the rocks. For such a short trail kilometre wise, I was surprised it took us nearly 2 hours to do the hike (mostly because I was afraid of slipping and falling on some of the steeper descents).
We got incredibly lucky with our impromptu weekend of winter camping in Porteau Cove – the weather, getting a campsite without a reservation (by a total fluke of luck). For future reference, I would recommend trying to get a reservation if you’d like to camp, even in the winter months. Be prepared with alternate plans if you arrive without a reservation in case the campground is full. Definitely check out Murrin Provincial Park if you’re in the area. The Murrin Park Loop with the Jurassic Ridge Trail offers breathtaking ocean, mountain and forested views. If you want a slightly less technical trail, you can skip the Jurassic Ridge Trail and just do the Murrin Park loop trail.