British Columbia's Best Camping Adventures

Kenneth Woollard is a crew supervisor with Transalta Utilities and an
avid outdoor recreationist.

Seagrave, the author of Provincial and National Park Campgrounds in
B.C.: A Complete Guide (1997), wrote this book in response to a demand
for a guide to camping grounds closer to the highly populated southwest
B.C. Mainland and Island—places that are more accessible to those
urbanites with only a short summer weekend in which to travel and camp.

The guide begins with a brief introduction, which contains cogent
pointers on camping etiquette. The campgrounds are divided not just
geographically into Island and Mainland, but also into more
camper-focused categories, including “Family Camp-grounds” (maximal
comfort and facilities), “Hiking,” “Beach,” “Coastal
Marine,” “Free,” and the whimsical “Best Campgrounds to Kiss.”
For each campground within these categories, there is an explanation as
to why it is a “best,” a short history of the area, and information
about location, access, and facilities. Interspersed throughout the book
are black-and-white photos taken by the author’s partner Andrew
Dewberry.

Among the campgrounds featured are the rude and rustic B.C. Forest
Service sites, Cultis Lake (a semi-wild Valhalla), Ruckle Park on
Saltspring Island, Newcastle Island, and Porteau Cove.

A novice camper bound for Southwestern B.C. armed with Seagrave’s
book is well on the way to discovering the pleasures of the “wild,”
even from the confines of an R.V.