Getting to Powell River

This year we decided to venture to the Northern part of the Sunshine Coast to Powell River! Last year we stayed in the Southern part – you can read all about our adventures last year here.

It takes about a day to get to Powell River. First, you’ll to drive to Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal in West Vancouver, then you take the ferry, drive some more, about and hour and 15 minutes, take another ferry from Earl’s Cove to Saltery Bay. Can you guess what we did when we got to Saltery Bay??? YEP! We drove some more – another 30 minutes to Powell River!

  • Yummy ice cream while waiting for our ferry in Earl’s Cove.

Where We Stayed

We camped at Willingdon Beach Campground which is adjacent to Willingdon Park and the Willingdon Trail. Our campsite was sort of small, with no trees or shade but it was on the beach, so we spent most of our time there, with our shade shelter – the Gazelle!

The only thing I didn’t like, was that some people thought our campsite had public beach access and they walked through our PRIVATE campsite, which was annoying.

  • We saw beautiful sunsets!

All the beach campsites had power hook-ups only and no water or sewer. So you need to plan accordingly and try to conserve on water usage, so you don’t run out or you will need to retank. There are other campsites further away from the beach with full hook-ups. Sani-dumps nearby include: Powell River airport and Saltery Bay Provincial Park, just before the ferry terminal. 

View this video to get an idea of what the beach campsites look like:

Inland Lake Provincial Park

One afternoon we biked around Inland Lake Provincial Park, just north of Powell River.

It is a fairly flat 13km trail for walking or biking. There are lots of lookout points, some port-a-potties and most of the beaches we saw were inhabited by frogs

We also toured around Anthony Island, where tenters can stay.

  • We saw frogs
  • …And more frogs
  • BABY FROGIES!
  • Toads?
  • SNAKE!
    This one slithered beneath a bike in transit…

We came across a big blob of brown stuff and at first we thought it was a pile of something else… but upon taking a closer look, the blob was moving! And we noticed that it was a bunch of baby toads! See the video below to watch the baby toads!

Savary Island

Another day we drove up to Lund, the most northern point, approximately a 1/2 drive north from Powell River. Read all about our day on bikes to Savary Island here.

Overall, I would return to Powell River again and recommend camping at Willingdon Beach Campground, whether you have an RV or camp in a tent. They have campsites for all!