Day-by-day guides with the hikes, camping, and driving already worked out, plus the camping notes from trips I actually took.
Guide · 1 day
The best single-day fall drive out of the Lower Mainland: roughly 600 km and 15 hours that trades the Fraser Canyon for the Duffey Lake Road at peak cottonwood yellow. Go in the last week of September or the first week of October, fill up in Lillooet, and accept that the Sea to Sky leg home will be in the dark.
Guide · 3 days
The north-Island trip that justifies the long highway: Nymph Falls and Elk Falls on the way up, Port Hardy, the Holberg gravel, and an easy beach walk at San Josef Bay. Budget two hours for the logging road, a real spare, and cash for camping. Skip the waterfalls only if you are already arriving at Hardy in the dark.
Guide · 3 days
The west-coast Island trip worth the ferry: Highway 4, Ucluelet, Shorepine Bog, Long Beach, and a waterfall on each end. Three days if you want daylight on the coast. Do not treat Radar Hill as the hike. The bog and the beach are the walking.
Guide · 1 day
The best short south-Island day you can attach to a Swartz Bay sailing: Sooke Potholes, the gateway, and the gorge from the official viewpoint. Stay back from that edge. Pair it with Victoria if you have two days. Do not swim the potholes themselves.
Guide · 1 day
The honest Victoria day from the Lower Mainland: one sailing, the parliament buildings while they still have light, downtown streets, and a beach before the evening sailing. Do not treat it as a hike. Treat it as the south-Island city day you attach to Sooke or you do on its own.
Camping
A first-come BC rec site on the jade-green east shore of Lillooet Lake, about 10 km down the In-SHUCK-ch Forest Service Road from Pemberton. Roughly 15 numbered sites, a few right on the beach, cash in an envelope, no water. The road reality, the fee, and why the name confuses people.