BC roadtrip – Chilliwack and Manning Park, BC

Back in August, we decided to go on a 18 days roadtrip throughout BC and the Rockies. As we had to change our travel plans for the summer, we figured staying home and discovering our own backyard would be a great option. We literally looked at a map and put Xs in the areas where we had been before, and brainstorm on all the other places we heard about. I was lucky enough to manage booking a few nights in Assiniboine Park mid-August, and we decided to make our way slowly towards Canmore, AB over about 10 days from Victoria.

We left Vancouver Island on our first night and stopped in Chilliwack. We typically didn’t book our campsites ahead – with the camper it has become much easier to sleep and camp in random spots, so we decided to take our chances!

Our first full day, we stopped in Manning Park (it was my first time!). We hiked the Three Brothers trail through the Heather Trail. We only did 13km round-trip that day, as we always had to be mindful of the time we had to drive to find our next camping spot in the evening. My friend and I both being teachers in a time of Covid, we were mindful of making this a relaxing trip before starting the new school year.

The Heather trail starts quite high in altitude, and can be completed as overnighter if you would like to camp (there are multiple options). We had first hoped to make it to the summit of the Three Brothers, but we decided to turn around after a few hours so we could do a few hours of driving.

The great thing with this hike is that you start with a 360 view and it gets better as you keep moving forward. It was the perfect way to stretch our legs and get our bodies back in shape before our bigger hike later that trip.

After this first hike, we drove a few more hours towards the Okanagan, where we were planning on spending about 2 nights. Arriving on a Friday night, it was definitely harder to find a place to stay that wasn’t already booked, and we ended up finding a small place to park overnight in Oliver (no luxury!).

Stay tuned!