Enthusiast III
Enthusiast III
Hello, from California. I'm planning a trip to Vancouver island this summer. Any good dispersed camping spots you would recommend? Spending 3 nights on the island then heading south.
Hello and welcome to the OB crew...great looking Toy and look forward to seeing your build and your adventures.
![[DO]Ron](/forums/data/avatars/m/5/5154.jpg?1711577950){kind=avatar}
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Hey! I also live on VI and know a couple good spots.... though Vancouver Island is very big.... where on the island are you headed?
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So you have multiple options for getting to Vancouver Island from the City of Vancouver. There are two main ferry terminals from Vancouver to the island, Tsawwassen (about half way between the border and downtown Vancouver) or Horseshoe Bay (North of Vancouver). If you are planning on seeing Vancouver before you head to the island you will probably want to take Horseshoe bay, as you won't be back tracking to get down to Tsawwassen. If you are planning on getting to the island as quickly as possible from the border, Tsawwassen is your best bet. If you leave from Tsawwassen you can go either to Victoria, which is the biggest city on the island and at it's very southern tip, or Nanaimo, which is about 1.5hrs driving time north of Victoria. Given that you are taking the ferry from Vic to Port Angeles I would head to Nanaimo and save Victoria for the end of your trip.
Wow, thank you! Lots of good insight. Looks like I'll be heading north for a few hours. Ordered the map too. Following you're adventure on Instagram. If you ever make it to California we have a lot to explore.So you have multiple options for getting to Vancouver Island from the City of Vancouver. There are two main ferry terminals from Vancouver to the island, Tsawwassen (about half way between the border and downtown Vancouver) or Horseshoe Bay (North of Vancouver). If you are planning on seeing Vancouver before you head to the island you will probably want to take Horseshoe bay, as you won't be back tracking to get down to Tsawwassen. If you are planning on getting to the island as quickly as possible from the border, Tsawwassen is your best bet. If you leave from Tsawwassen you can go either to Victoria, which is the biggest city on the island and at it's very southern tip, or Nanaimo, which is about 1.5hrs driving time north of Victoria. Given that you are taking the ferry from Vic to Port Angeles I would head to Nanaimo and save Victoria for the end of your trip.
Another option if you have more time is to get to Vancouver Island via the Sunshine Coast (if you don't, ignore this paragraph, I'm writing this out for anyone doing this in the future). This adds an additional couple of ferry rides before you're on Vancouver Island, however it's a beautiful area to see. To go this route you would take the Horseshoe Bay to Langdale ferry, then head north. The Smugglers Cove/Secret Cove area is beautiful. From there you would take the Earls Cove to Saltery Bay ferry, and finally the Powell River to Little River (Comox) ferry. Comox is located about half way up Vancouver Island.
For all of these ferry routes I would highly recommend getting a reservation before hand. You can usually get reservations fairly easily even a few days out, unless it's a long weekend, in which case you will want to book the reso well in advance. This just saves you a pile of headaches as the ferry's can be quite busy to VI in the summer. A reservation costs about $10 I think, but is totally worth it when you avoid a multi sailing wait. It is also good to have if you have a dog with you, as reservations generally guarantee that your car will be on a higher deck, which means you're allowed to stay in the car with your pet if you want. If you're on the bottom deck you have to go to the upper decks for the sailing. Reservations can be made at www.bcferries.com
Once you're on Vancouver Island and looking to camp you will want to venture north. The southern half of Vancouver Island is notorious for gated logging roads. You'll be happily trucking along and run into a locked gate which ruins your planned route. Anything north of Campbell River is usually pretty safe for avoiding logging gates. Generally speaking the further north you goon the island, the less people there are. There is still plenty of camping on southern Vancouver Island, however you may end up staying at a provincial campground, and be surrounded by more people than if you head north. Probably about 85% of the population on Vancouver island is located on the southern half. Be aware that once you get north of Campbell River there will be virtually no cell service. You can get service in Port McNeill or Port Hardy, but pretty much as soon as you're out of town there's nada.
A fantastic resource if you're exploring VI is the Vancouver Island Backroads Map Book (link below)
For whatever reason amazon.com only has the 3rd edition which is several years old, I believe they are on the 8th or 9th editions now... so probably worth it to order from the Canadian site. You can also pre-download the BC backroads mapbook overlay on Gaia if you're a premium member.
Pretty much everyone I know on VI owns a copy of that book, as it shows most of the forest service roads, and tons of good camping spots.
A great spot to visit on the west coast of the island is Tofino. It's a pretty cool little surfing town with lots of good restaurants and wicked views. I could not recommend Tacofino more. It's a food truck, that hasn't moved in about 20 years, that has the best burrito's I've had north of SoCal. It takes about 3 hours to get to Tofino from the Comox Valley.
This map will help as far as figuring out distances and drive times, however take some of it with a grain of salt. What it's calling "major highways" are sometimes anything but. For instance the "major highway" north of Campbell River is an undivided 2 lane road. It would pass as a rural county road anywhere in the US.
Up at the very northern tip of the island is San Josef's Bay, and Cape Scott. These are gorgeous areas and a long way from any major city, so the only other people you'll run into are more adventurous types. It takes about 6.5hrs driving on paved roads to get from Port Hardy to Victoria, so where you stay all depends on how far you're willing to drive in a day. There are some great lakes to camp by that are rarely busy just north of Campbell River. We've stayed at the Pye Point campsite on Pye Lake (rough google earth coordinates 50.298730, -125.581339) and it was great. Free camping right on the lake with barely anyone around... but that's reasonably common on the north island.
Hope this helps,
-Cory
Sea to Sky Overland
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