Weekend Camping Trips from Vancouver #3: Manning Park

This is the third 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!

Manning Park is located in the Cascade Mountains, and is about a 3-hour drive from Vancouver.

There are several campgrounds at Manning, but only the Lightning Lake campground takes reservations. There are flush toilets and running water, plus a great shower facility with hot water.

The Lightning Lake sites are immediately adjacent to the lovely Lightning Lake hiking trail, but by far the biggest attraction at Manning Park is the famous Alpine Meadow.

Unlike other Alpine Meadow hikes, Manning's doesn't involve a major climb, since you can drive right up to the top before starting your hike. It's a short (but steep & scary!) drive from the Lightning Lake campground -- the road up to the Alpine Meadows is directly across from Manning Park Lodge. There are wilderness campsites along the Heather Trail in the subalpine meadows at 5 and 13.5 kilometres along the trail.

When I went to Manning Park last year, it was a bit too late in the season (late August) for the Alpine Meadows, which was pretty disappointing. I plan to make up for it with another trip a few weeks from now, as peak time for the meadows is mid-July through early August, so stay tuned for an update with pictures from the Alpine Meadows! (I didn't want to wait too long for this post and have you make the same mistake.)

You can book reservations here, or visit the Manning Park Resort site here.

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Weekend Camping Trips from Vancouver #3: Manning Park

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