Family Camping on Vancouver Island: Preparing for Our Return to Goldstream Provincial Park
Family camping in another country was not originally part of our plans..
Last year, our family visited Goldstream Provincial Park on Vancouver Island with our friends, the Satos. We had already shared their camping experience on The Camping Planner, but seeing it in person was completely different.
Somewhere between the towering trees, campfires, and watching the boys explore around camp, we left with a thought that kept coming up on the drive home:
Next time, we should do this ourselves.
At the time, it felt more like something to say than a real plan. We live in California. We had never owned a tent, let alone built a campsite setup. The idea of organizing a camping trip from another country felt ambitious in that way that things do when you are not quite sure where to start.
But over the last few years, we have found ourselves spending more time in Canada. With the Canadian dollar stretching further for us and travel costs rising just about everywhere else, it has become where we want to put more of our vacation time and money.
We also have family in Canada who offered to let us store some camping bins in their garage between trips. That one detail changed everything. Instead of trying to fly with tents, sleeping bags, and coolers every summer, we could slowly build a setup and leave it there. Suddenly this stopped being a someday idea.
This year we are planning two camping trips on Vancouver Island. The first one will be a return to Goldstream. This time, we are doing it ourselves.
Returning to Goldstream
When we started talking about where to go first, Goldstream came up immediately.
Our visit with the Satos gave us a chance to see the campground without having to think about any of the logistics. The site was already set up. Meals were handled. We mostly got to show up and experience the good parts — the trails, the forest, the slower pace of days where nobody had anywhere to be.
What stayed with us was how approachable it felt. Close enough to amenities that it did not feel overwhelming for a first trip, but far enough into the forest that it genuinely felt like an escape. The boys had space to explore. The hiking was easy to get into. And the setting — old-growth trees, the creek, the kind of quiet that does not exist at home — was completely unlike anything we have around us in California.
We left wanting to come back, and that is a pretty good reason to start there.
Read about our first experience at Goldstream Provincial Park
Why We Decided to Try This Ourselves
The trip stayed with us longer than we expected.
Part of it was what we had actually experienced. Part of it was realizing how much of that experience came from not having to worry about anything. The campsite was set up. The food was figured out. We just got to be there.
On the drive home we started asking each other: what would it look like if we planned this? If we built our own setup and came back with the boys on our own terms?
The honest answer was that we had no idea, because we were starting from zero. No tent. No sleeping setup. No camp kitchen. Nothing in a bin anywhere. But we also had a place to leave gear between trips, and that made the whole thing feel possible in a way it had not before.
So now our evenings look less like experienced campers and more like parents with twenty browser tabs open, comparing tents and asking questions we genuinely do not know the answers to yet:
How much room do four people actually need inside a tent?
Will a dome tent handle the rain better than a cabin style?
Are movie nights at camp a terrible idea or a brilliant one?
How many storage bins is too many storage bins?
This series is us figuring it out.
Building a Camping Setup From Scratch
Since we are flying from California, every purchase has to be intentional. We are planning to buy gear online before we arrive in Canada, build it up gradually, and leave it stored between trips. The goal is not to have everything at once. It is to build something practical that actually works for our family and gets better each year.
We are planning for two trips this season, so every piece needs to earn its place.
The categories we are working through right now: tent, sleeping setup, rain shelter, camp kitchen, storage, lighting, and something for the boys to do on a rainy evening. That last one turned into its own research rabbit hole faster than we expected.
The First Decision: Choosing a Tent
The tent has already become the biggest debate in our house.
As a family of four with two growing boys, we know we need enough room to sleep comfortably, store a few things, and survive a full day inside if the weather turns. What we did not expect was how many directions the research would go from there.
We are currently working through dome tents versus cabin tents, screen rooms, room dividers, built-in lighting, and — somehow — tents designed with projector setups and movie nights in mind. Are those necessary? Almost certainly not. Do they sound like something our kids would love? Absolutely.
Our next article will dig into that first real decision:
Dome Tent vs Cabin Tent: Which Is Better for a Family of Four?
What Comes After the Tent
The tent is the first decision, but it is far from the only one.
We still need to build out a sleeping setup that works for kids — which means figuring out whether air mattresses, sleeping pads, or some combination of both is the right call. We need a camp kitchen, which right now means a stove, cookware, coolers, a plan for meals, and coffee. Especially coffee.
Rain is apparently non-negotiable on Vancouver Island, and everyone we have talked to has said the same thing: plan for it. So tarps, covered cooking areas, and a system for drying wet gear are now on the list too.
And then there is the question of what to actually do when the boys have had enough of the trail and it is raining and dinner is still an hour away. We did not expect entertainment to become a whole category of research, but here we are.
Our Goal for This Year
The goal is not to have the perfect setup. The goal is to have a setup that works, gives us a reason to keep coming back, and gets a little better each trip.
We know some gear will be great. We know some of it will end up in the back corner of a bin, mostly forgotten. That is part of learning, and we would rather learn it on a real trip than spend another year with tabs open and nothing packed.
This series will follow us as we figure it out — the research, the decisions, the gear we land on, and eventually the trips themselves, starting with our return to Goldstream this summer.
First step: we need a tent.
Coming Next
Dome Tent vs Cabin Tent: Which Is Better for a Family of Four?
Camping Gear We Are Buying Before Our Goldstream Trip
Building Our Family Sleep Setup
Preparing for Rain on Vancouver Island
Entertainment Ideas for Camping with Kids 1
What We Packed for Goldstream Provincial Park
What We Learned After Our First Trip
The Ultimate Beginner’s Camping Guide
An Unforgettable Month-Long Family Camping Road Trip Across California
