Review: E.C. Manning Provincial Park - Lightning Lake Campground

View from Cascade Lookout -
many of the distant peaks are located in the US

Location: 3 hrs from Vancouver or the Okanagan
Website:  BC Parks
Map: Campground Map or Google Maps
Camping Facilities: Car camping at this campground, backcountry available elsewhere in the park
Grade: B
Stargazing: Very good, if you can make your way to the lake at night
Summary: A nice campground in a fantastic park.

Thoughts: It was a good start to our camping experience - a great horned owl positioned itself just above our picnic table to get a better look at what we were doing.  It was too dark for photos, but the memories will suffice.  Not that these owls are in any way rare, but having one calling out, sitting at the fringe of your campsite gives you a sense of wilderness (even if he was just cruising for scraps).  E.C. Manning park is beautiful spot that is probably well-loved by Vancouverites during the peak season, and fairly well attended by visitors in low season (the campground was probably half full on this Saturday night in late September). A fun fact - Lightening Lake campground is just 10 km from the US border.  There is no shortage of backcountry camping sites in Manning, and hiking opportunities abound.  There is also a beautiful drive you can take to the Cascade Lookout, then further on to the Subalpine Meadow trail, which offers some spectacular views.

Why is there a trail running through
these sites?

The Lightening Lake campground succeeds where many car camping parks have failed in the past. They do a pretty good job of providing good understory to improve privacy and sites are reasonably well spaced out.  The staggering of sites isn't perfect, but if you try hard enough, you can probably position yourself so that you aren't peering into other peoples sites. One interesting feature is that there seems to be a trail running behind the sites in the southern part of the larger loop; good for connecting parties requiring multiple sites, but I can't figure out why else they would do that. I'm sure most people don't want strangers traipsing through the back end of their campsites, so it's a bit odd.

The shore of Lightening Lake

If you can make your way down to Lightening Lake at night, you might be able to catch a good glimpse of the stars.  Otherwise, I'm not sure how much success you'll have; there is also a trail around the lake (the Lightening Lake Loop Trail, imaginatively enough) but it looks dreadfully boring since you're just circling the lake. There are plenty of great trails to be discovered in this part (unfortunately, due to time constraints, not by me), why would you waste 2 hours circling the same view?  The Lake does seem to have a nice picnic area, and might be a nice change of pace to set up for breakfast, watch the sun rise, stuff like that.

Map of Subalpine Meadow Area

What I can highly recommend is the drive to the top of Subalpine Meadow, which has one short loop (for those in rush) that can give you a taste of the scenery in this park.  If only there were enough time in a 2 week tour of the western mountain ranges to fully enjoy a place like this.  But I must say, my friends, 2 weeks is probably not enough time to spend in this park alone, given the hiking and camping options available here.  For those who are just searching for a fun weekend in the outdoors, you're sure to find something that suits your desires in Manning park.  For those who plan on staying longer, I envy you.

Review: Bear Creek Provincial Park

Bear Creek, the campground's namesake

Location: 10 minutes north of Kelowna
Website:  BC Parks
Map: Google Maps and BC Parks Campground
Camping Facilities: Strictly car camping
Grade: B-
Stargazing: Forget it, too close to Kelowna
Summary: A reasonably good suburban camping experience
Thoughts: As you travel through the Okanagan wine region, whittling away your savings on wine, it's best to try to save your money where you can.  After all, accommodations are secondary to the real attraction (the vino).  After being directed to the grass-spattered parking lot that is Willow Creek Family Campground ($32 for that!?), we consulted the BC Parks website on our phone and found this little spot just north of the city.  A remarkable improvement (for the same price) over our friends at Willow Creek (sorry guys).

The dense understory provides plenty of privacy

Bear Creek has everything you need - hot showers, cheap accommodations, well-placed understory between most sites, decent fire pits and a loop layout.  There is a trail along Bear Creek that flows through the park, as well as a waterfront trail accessible at the northern side of all loops. There is even a pretty expansive trail on the west side of the road (the Dave Brewster Trail, named after it's designer).  But you must remember, this is car camping.  Decent car camping, but car camping, nonetheless.  And it's situated just outside a city of 140,000 people.  There is also a huge lawn with an irrigation system (this part of the province can be dry, so it's necessary) that keeps the grass green late into the season. This aspect might remind you of typical suburban scenes, with the RVs parked one after another along the road, backing on the greenery fed by spitting sprinklers.

Okanagan Lake from Bear Creek's waterfront trail

(aside: It might sound like I'm complaining about nothing here, but there's something offputting about a campground with an irrigation system, striving for a perfect lawn.  I imagine it's great fun for families to have a nice open space for the kids to run around it, but to me it's just a little too much backyard ambiance.  And if that's the impression it gives, then why go camping in the first place - unless these are the Vancouver condo dwellers come to see what open space feels like. There are plenty of nice public parks in cities all over BC, do we really need to sleep in one?)

Irrigation in full-effect

Okay, that rant is probably disproportionate to the actual amount of enjoyment that is lost by staying in such a setting.  Bear Creek is in fact a very nice car campground, probably some of the cheapest real estate in the Okanagan and is very well designed overall.  Thumbs up!

Free Camping in BC!

I kid you not, there are in fact plenty of free camping sites in Beautiful British Columbia.  It's a wonderful thing too; considering just how much natural beauty there is in this province, you could easily fritter away a fortune on park fees trying to explore it all. The free camping is found in the province's Recreation Sites - from what I can tell these are all over the province.  Just head on over to this website, search by activity (camping, of course) and start planning/dreaming.  You can also search by region, which will bring up a handy table where you can see exactly which Recreation Sites have fees and which are free to use.

For example, Little Bear Bay a "great place to watch orcas and cruise ships roll by", has free car-access camping. Does such a thing really exist?  Apparently it does.

Screen capture of the "Search by Activity" feature on the BC Recreation Sites webpage
- Select the "Camping" activity alone if you want to find some free backcountry options