Plan to Visit Marble Canyon Provincial Park in British Columbia’s Cariboo Region
The dry interior of the province is one of our favourite camping destinations. Marble Canyon Provincial Park, located along Highway 99 between Cache Creek and Lillooet, fits the bill for everything we like.
The campsite offers 30 high density, first-come-first-serve sites and on a sunny weekend afternoon, it is pretty much guaranteed that the campground will be over capacity between the campers and the day-trippers. As the afternoon wears on, some of the day users will depart, and there is a chance that late arrivals may find a campsite in one of the parking-lot style sites. For those lucky enough to snag one of the premium lakefront sites, the busyness of the park melts away.

The campsite at Marble Canyon Provincial Park is bookended by Crown and Turquoise Lakes. When the water is high, the two lakes merge and visitors can kayak or paddle board between both lakes. A full circumnavigation of the two lakes is about two kilometres. For those looking for a longer paddle, just up the road is Pavilion Lake (watch for the next blog published soon), a gorgeous lake home to extremely rare freshwater microbialites studied by NASA!

One of our favourite things to do when visiting Marble Canyon Provincial Park is to hike to the waterfall on the opposite side of the lake. From the campsite, walk or drive to the north end of Crown Lake. From here, follow the trail along the non-highway side of the lake for about three quarters of a kilometre. The trail skirts along the lakeshore in places and climbs the hillside in others. Before long, visitors will arrive at a beautiful waterfall. In the winter, this waterfall freezes and is hilariously referred to as Icy BC (and a variety of other thematic route names including Body Shop and No Deductible) by ice climbers.

Marble Canyon Provincial Park protects a dramatic landscape of steep limestone cliffs and lovely lakes. It is extremely busy during the summer with campers and day-trippers alike, but it makes an excellent shoulder season destination as well. The first time we ever visited Marble Canyon Provincial Park was the last weekend of September – warm sunny days but certainly below freezing overnight. Our trip was instigated by a desire to climb a few of the many rock-climbing routes in the area. While it has been almost a decade since that climbing trip, Marble Canyon Provincial Park is a place we keep going back to – and keep finding new things to explore when we are there.

If you are looking for widely spaced campsites and a moderate climate, Marble Canyon Provincial Park is probably not the place for you. The campground is undeniably squishy, but for us it works, as when the small beach is busiest, during the heat of the day, we prefer to be on or in the water. During early mornings, late afternoons, and evenings, Marble Canyon Provincial Park can be a peaceful and beautiful destination for a weekend getaway.
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For other camping opportunities in this area and throughout BC go to the Camping Map
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Published: July 21, 2022
Last Updated: April 26, 2024
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