Swim and paddle Alouette Lake, then hike up Gold Creek to Lower Falls, and you've done a Maple Ridge weekend without leaving Golden Ears. Sleep at the Alouette or Gold Creek campground, both unserviced, about 11 km up the parkway from the park entrance. Book at the three-month window, because in peak season none of the drive-in sites are held first come, first served.
From South Beach and Campers Beach you swim off sand and gravel with the twin granite Ears of Mount Blanshard standing over the reservoir. Marked swimming areas run mid-June to early September, and canoes, kayaks, and pedalboats rent at South Beach through the summer.
The Lower Falls walk is the easy hike, about an hour to where Gold Creek drops through a boxed canyon. The Golden Ears summit above it is a 12 km, 1,500 m climb and an overnight for all but the fittest, with snow on Panorama Ridge into July.
Alouette is the bigger loop near Campers Beach, with hot showers, flush toilets, and a playground by the north shower building. Gold Creek sits closer to the canyon trailheads and stays open year-round when the road is clear, with four paved accessible sites. North Beach is the small end-of-parkway loop, pit toilets and no tap water, and it costs less.
None of the three have hookups, so you're running off your van's own tanks and battery, with a sani-station off the parkway for the dump. Peak nights run $51 at Alouette and Gold Creek and $33.50 at North Beach, plus a $20 non-resident fee on stays from mid-May, as of August 2026.
Getting in means Dewdney Trunk Road through town to 232nd Street, then right on Fern Crescent at the traffic circle and about 11 km of parkway to the campgrounds. Fuel and buy groceries in Maple Ridge first, because cell service dies a few kilometres inside the gate. The reservation map lists each site's length; if you want more room than a campervan gives, RV rentals in Maple Ridge start from the same trip.
Rolley Lake, the quieter lake when Golden Ears is booked
Rolley Lake is a small, warm, no-motor lake in second-growth forest, reached up Bell Street off Dewdney Trunk, and it's the overflow when Golden Ears sells out. You swim off a sandy beach, paddle with no powerboat wake, and loop the shoreline in about 40 minutes. Its 64 sites fill most summer nights and reserve the same way as Golden Ears, so treat a Rolley booking as your backup plan, not a drive-up. It's unserviced too, with hot showers and a sani-station.
Fraser River and the east valley
Down on the Fraser, Derby Reach has riverbank campsites near Fort Langley, and that trip runs from campervan rentals in Langley. Farther east, Cultus Lake and Chilliwack Lake are a Fraser Valley detour better based out of campervan rentals in Chilliwack. For trips in the rest of the province, the British Columbia campervan hub maps the other city landers.