FanVancouver · Local guide
Golden Ears Provincial Park
Golden Ears camping 2026: nightly fees by campground, booking window, facilities and step-by-step arrival. Fees from $51 a night in peak season.
FanVancouver · Local guide
Golden Ears camping 2026: nightly fees by campground, booking window, facilities and step-by-step arrival. Fees from $51 a night in peak season.
Home · BC Camping · Golden Ears Provincial Park
Near Vancouver · Maple Ridge · frontcountry
Where the Coast Mountains pour into a long green lake — and Friday still smells like cedar.
Reserve on BC Parks — peak weekends full months ahead Main season ~May–September (shoulder varies by loop)Golden Ears is the sentence Metro Vancouver writes when it needs trees without a ferry ticket. You leave the grid of lights, climb into Maple Ridge’s green throat, and the park opens like a held breath: fir, gravel, the long silver plate of Alouette Lake.
This is frontcountry done honestly. Picnic tables. Fire rings (when the province allows fire). Showers that queue after dinner. Kids inventing civilizations on the beach while parents finally sit still. It is not Garibaldi’s glacial silence — and it does not pretend to be. The luxury here is proximity: leave the city after work on a Friday and still pitch before full dark if traffic forgives you.
Mornings reward the early. Mist on the lake, coffee that tastes better because the air is cold, a paddle before the first motorboat wakes. Midday belongs to the social park — accept it or hike toward quieter trail spurs. Evenings return the gold in the park’s name: light on water, thrush in the edge timber, the particular coastal cool that makes a fleece mandatory even in July.
Availability is the only drama you cannot romanticize. If the official map is full, it is full. Inventing a pull-out on a fire-ban weekend is how tickets and worse stories start.
| Campground / service | Peak season | Shoulder season | Winter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alouette campground | $51 | $35 | — |
| Gold Creek campground | $51 | $35 | $13 |
| North Beach campground | $33.50 | $23 | — |
| Backcountry — Alder Flats, Panorama Ridge, Viewpoint Beach, Hiker's Beach, Halfmoon Beach | $17 per adult | $5 per child | — |
| Backcountry — East Beach, Moyer Creek, The Narrows, Alouette River, Raven Creek, Osprey Creek | $5 per person | $5 per person | — |
| Group site (base) | $120 | $120 | — |
| Sani-station | $5 per discharge | — | — |
Fees per party per night unless stated otherwise, verified against the BC Parks fee schedule on 2026-08-04. A dash means the campground does not operate in that season or the fee is not published separately. Transaction fees are extra.
Nearest service hub: Maple Ridge / Haney
Fill in Maple Ridge (Lougheed Hwy / 224 St corridor) or Pitt Meadows before the park road — no full-service fuel inside the park. Last reliable pumps are in town; do not gamble on empty tanks for the climb out at night.
Kayak/SUP rentals often available seasonally near Alouette Lake day-use / local Maple Ridge outfitters. Bike and camping gear: REI/MEC-style shops in Metro Vancouver before you leave the city.
Building a kit from scratch? See the BC camping gear guide — tents, sleeping systems, stoves and bear spray.
Coastal temperate rainforest climate: mild, wet shoulders; warm dry-ish midsummer; cool nights even in July. Pack a rain shell year-round. Check Environment Canada for Maple Ridge / Pitt Meadows and the park fire danger rating.
Always re-check the morning you leave: Environment Canada + BC wildfire map + DriveBC.
Store food, garbage, coolers, toiletries and dishwater in a locked hard-sided vehicle or the campground's locker. BC Parks specifically asks you not to hang food at frontcountry campgrounds — that is a backcountry technique, and a badly hung bag simply teaches a bear where the food is. Keep 100 m from bears, wolves, coyotes and cougars, and 30 m from deer, moose, elk and wild sheep. Report dangerous or habituated wildlife to RAPP at 1-877-952-7277.
Open in Google Maps · coords ~49.28, -122.47
Nightly fees range from $51 in peak season at alouette campground, per the current BC Parks fee schedule. Add a $6 per night per site reservation transaction fee, and from May 15, 2026 a $20 per stay fee for visitors without BC residency proof.
3 months to the day before arrival, with new inventory released at 7:00 am Pacific Time daily. Reservations close 8:00 pm two days before arrival at parks without internet connectivity. Note that a booking made on the first day of your window cannot have its dates or length changed later — only cancelled.
Fire rings when bans allow. In drought summers, expect full campfire bans — stove dinners only. Prohibitions change through the summer and are enforced — a violation ticket is $1,150, and a fire that escapes can cost up to $1,000,000 and/or up to 3 years in jail, plus the government's firefighting and damage costs. Check the current ban status before you light anything.
Yes, in the ordinary British Columbia sense. Store all food, garbage, coolers, toiletries and dishwater in a locked hard-sided vehicle or the provided locker — BC Parks specifically asks you not to hang food at frontcountry campgrounds. Keep 100 m from bears, wolves, coyotes and cougars, and 30 m from deer, moose, elk and wild sheep. Report dangerous wildlife to RAPP at 1-877-952-7277.
Planning guidance only — facilities and access change with season, construction and emergency orders. Fees verified against the official BC Parks schedule on 2026-08-04; confirm on the official park page before you travel. Updated 2026-09-27.
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