Weekend Camping Trips from Vancouver #1: Fintry Park

Camping season is here (though you might not be able to tell by looking out your window), so here's the first in a series of posts on weekend camping trips you can take from Vancouver. All the camping trips listed will be to sites within a day's drive of the city, and all will be at provincial campgrounds. If there's a particular site you'd like reviewed, please reply with a comment to this post!

Fintry Park is located 34 km north of Kelowna or 49 km south of Vernon, so it's not a super-short trek from Vancouver, but definitely do-able in a day. I'd recommend leaving in the morning, rather than trying to get in a morning of work and making an afternoon departure, as I did. That way you'll avoid rushing down a very windy road trying to make it to the campground before the gates close at 11 p.m. ;-)

Fintry's best feature is that there are campsites right on the lake. The best morning of the trip for me was waking up one morning and looking through the window of the tent to see a double sunrise, as the sun was reflected in the lake. There's also a nice waterfall to walk to and take some pictures, and good lakefront walking. The lake was too cold to swim when I was there, but on a hotter weekend, it would be worth a try.

A nice bonus is that there are hot showers, flush toilets, and even a dish-washing station with hot running water -- a luxury I've only ever seen at Fintry.

Another neat feature is that one waterfront site has a yurt available for $65 night. Yes, a yurt -- a round, covered structure right on the campsite. It has a single/bottom double bunk bed, small table and chairs, picnic table and fire pit, but you have to bring your own sleeping bags or sheets and blankets.

The thing I wasn't expecting when I got to Fintry was that the campsites are very open. It's almost an open field with campsites dotted across it -- not the treed wilderness experience that I was expecting. There are a few exceptions, but don't expect a lot of privacy at Fintry.

You can find out more about Fintry park here.

Stay tuned for more ideas for weekend camping trips from Vancouver!

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Weekend Camping Trips from Vancouver #1: Fintry Park

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