The van sleeps at Capilano River RV Park, the one RV pad on the North Shore, at the north foot of the Lions Gate Bridge. It runs year-round with a 14-day maximum in summer, and since it's the only pad on this side of the water, it's the booking to make first. The van comes second.
None of the parks you came up here to walk will take you overnight. Lynn Canyon hangs a free suspension bridge 50 metres over the creek, the Grouse Grind climbs a stair of roots and wooden steps under a closed canopy to a view back over the city, and the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve runs paved trail along the river through second growth.
Metro Vancouver closes the Grind over winter and posts stair-work closures in fall, so check the status before you drive up Nancy Greene Way. Summer weekends fill the lots early, and the District of North Vancouver runs pay parking at Lynn Canyon and Deep Cove from March 1 to October 31, $3 an hour with a four-hour cap. The Seymour Valley trails stay open year-round and free, if you'd rather walk flat along the river.
A van fits those pads without anyone thinking about it. If you need more beds than a van has, RV rentals for the same North Shore stay size up, though measure a tall rig against the Capilano entrance first.
Porteau Cove, Howe Sound waterfront up Highway 99
For a night on the water instead of the urban pad, Porteau Cove sits 38 km north of Vancouver on Highway 99, its campsites right over Howe Sound at the most southerly fjord in North America, with a pebble beach and the old ferry pier looking across to the mountain walls. It's the closest provincial park you'd book from the North Shore, and a rail line runs right behind the sites, so it isn't a silent pad. Fill your water tank before you come, since the drinking water is off for a lead advisory, and Porteau caps you at seven nights a year, tighter than the fourteen most parks allow.
Keep driving and the granite takes over: the Stawamus Chief, Shannon Falls, and the Alice Lake and Garibaldi trailheads are a Squamish trip, covered by the Squamish campervan lander.
More North Shore days
The Capilano Suspension Bridge is the paid version of the canyon walk, 137 metres of swaying deck 70 metres above the river, with the Cliffwalk cantilevered out along the granite. It's a one-time visit; Lynn Canyon is the free crossing locals do again and again.
Deep Cove, at the end of Mount Seymour Parkway, is a half-day of flatwater: rent a kayak, paddle into Indian Arm, and walk up to the Quarry Rock lookout.
Mount Seymour is the alpine day above all of it, with viewpoints and the Dog Mountain trail off the parkway, but vehicle camping isn't permitted up there, so it stays a day trip.
Golden Ears and the ferry to the Island
Golden Ears is the other big provincial park within reach, across the valley in Maple Ridge, and its Alouette Lake sites are the Maple Ridge campervan lander. If the plan is the city or the ferry across to Vancouver Island, that's a Vancouver trip, and the Vancouver campervan lander covers the Horseshoe Bay crossing.