Table of Contents
- Day 1 – Getting to Haida Gwaii
- Day 2 – Mosquito Lake to Skidegate to Hayden Turner Campground
- Day 3 – OK Tire and Balance Rock to Agate Beach Campground
- Day 4 – Agate Beach Campground to Mosquito Lake Campground
- Day 5 – Mosquito Lake Campground
- Day 6 – Mosquito Lake Campground to Prince Rupert
In July of 2022 we packed our car and took our 4 year old son and family dog on a Haida Gwaii road trip adventure. At this time I was 7 months pregnant with our second child. We spent a total of 5 nights camping on Haida Gwaii with kids, with a total of 10 nights of travel from Vancouver to Haida Gwaii and back to Vancouver again.
Haida Gwaii, previously known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, is located in Canada off of British Columbia’s west coast in the Pacific Ocean. Haida Gwaii is made up of two main islands, Graham Island and Moresby Island, with around 150 smaller islands. Tourists are drawn to the islands for wildlife viewing, fishing, adventure and hiking. The temperate coastal rain forests found on Haida Gwaii are home to many plants and animals found only in that area.
The most common way of getting to Haida Gwaii is by ferry boat from Prince Rupert. All ferries should be booked with BC Ferries prior to travel. This can be done online. You need to arrive at least an hour and a half prior to your sailing time, or risk your reservation being given away. The ferry is approximately an 8 hour trip from Prince Rupert to Skidegate on Haida Gwaii. These sailings only leave Prince Rupert on certain days of the week and certain times depending on the time of year. Make sure to reserve your ferries before looking at any accommodation bookings.
Day 1 – Getting to Haida Gwaii
The Ferry
We arrived in Prince Rupert after dark and set up our camp for the night. We drove from Vancouver, spending one night near Prince George before finishing our drive to Prince Rupert. Our ferry would be setting sail the next morning at 10:00 AM. We arrived quite early and got in line for our ferry. Check in at the gate was smooth. You do need to bring ID for each traveler, including children. A birth certificate, care card, passport or Nexus card will work.
Once we checked in, we used that time in line to pack a small bag to take onto the ferry with us, as well as walk the dog around the ferry terminal.
NOTE: If Traveling with a Dog
This is a 7-8 hour trip across the water on the ferry. Dogs are not permitted in the upper levels of the boat, they must remain on the car deck. You are also not allowed to remain in your car with your dog while sailing as the car decks on this ferry are fully enclosed and it would be a safety hazard to have people stay below in case of an emergency.
You are given a 15 minute window every couple of hours to head down to your car and walk your dog around the deck. An announcement is made over the load speaker while on the ferry, so you will be sure not to miss your window.
Once on the car deck you are free to wander with your dog. There are often a lot of dogs traveling on this ferry, so if your dog is not social with others, be sure to keep your distance. Dogs are welcome to uses the car deck to relieve themselves. If your dog has emptied their bowels on deck, there are bags and cleaning supplies in which to clean it up, however the urine is just left in puddles all over the deck. The car deck is a hard concrete surface with no dirt or grass for dogs to relieve themselves on. If your dog is anything like ours, he/she will also have an issue peeing on the car deck. Our dog did not pee for the entirety of the trip.
Boarding the ferry was slow going. It seemed very unorganized and they even requested that we back our SUV down the ramp and onto the ship. This was not normal for most cars, but they did ask about a half dozen drivers to do this.
The ferry wasn’t overly busy or full. There were plenty of seats available. We brought board games to play during the sailing and set ourselves up at a table near the café. When reserving your ferry tickets, you have the option of reserving a cabin or assigned seating in a lounge. On this sailing we opted not to book any extras. During this daytime sailing, we did not think we needed our own cabin with a bed. The assigned lounge seats also didn’t seem necessary, for us at least.
The sailing went smoothly with no rough waters. We docked at 5:00pm in Skidegate after an 8 hour ferry ride. We had planned to start our Haida Gwaii journey on Moresby Island so we immediately got in line for another ferry to head from Skidegate to Alliford Bay.
The Ferry To Moresby Island
The small ferry that runs between the two is also run by BC Ferries. It is a small ferry with car deck and washrooms only, no other ammenities. The ferry is only a 20 minute ride across so most people just sit in their car but you are allowed to get out and walk the deck. This ferry is non reservable and only holds 16 cars. It holds less depending on the size of the vehicles as well as the weight. Sometimes the ferry can appear to have been half loaded, when in fact it has reached it’s weight capacity.
This ferry runs every hour from each side. Be sure to check the schedule though, as it doesn’t run for a few hours throughout the day. Unfortunately this can be a very busy ferry during the day and you may be stuck waiting for a sailing or even two so be sure to give yourself plenty of time to get where you need to go.
We didn’t have to wait long for the next ferry to leave and we sailed across with no issues on the 5:30pm ferry. From Alliford Bay we made the 40 minute drive to our first campsite. We chose Mosquito Lake Rec Site based on reviews and location. The drive along the mostly gravel road was full of Black Tail Deer. They were around every turn.
Mosquito Lake Rec Site
The Mosquito Lake Rec Site is a small site with only 9 campsites, a boat launch and pit toilets. The lake is not named after the pesky bug, it’s actually named after the aircraft. The Mosquito was the fastest airplane in the early 40’s and the wood used in building the plane was actually taken from the valley that Mosquito Lake sits in.
We decided on one of the first sites as it would have a good view of the lake from our rooftop tent. The campsite wasn’t busy and there was only one or two other campsites occupied. Our son fell asleep in the car on the way to the campsite, so we just left him to sleep while we set up our tent and unpacked some gear to make dinner.
After a small dinner we cleaned up, drank some hot chocolate and decided to call it night. It was now just after 9:00pm and we were pretty tired from a full travel day.
Day 2 – Mosquito Lake to Skidegate to Hayden Turner Campground
Mosquito Lake Rec Site
The next morning we woke around 7:30am. Well, I woke around 7:30am, Alex had actually been up for an hour already trying his luck at some fishing on the lake. He came back to the campsite as the rest of us rolled out of bed so we could all have breakfast (and coffee) together.
After breakfast we cleaned up and went to sit by the lake together while trying out some fishing again. The fish were certainly jumping in the lake. We were able to catch some small trout (Catch and release only) which was fun for Fox.
The lake was beautiful and warm. We didn’t go any deeper than wading in, but we did see some campers across the lake swimming. We did see more than one leech, they loved Fox.
After some fishing and relaxing by the water we packed up our site to carry on our adventure. At around noon, we drove from Mosquito Lake into Sandspit. Sandspit is very small, consisting of what looks like only a few dozen buildings. We stopped at the Visitor Centre (which is actually the airport) to see about grabbing some maps of the area or general information. We managed to find a few pamphlets that were useful. From there we stopped at the local grocery store to grab a few cold drinks and snacks and some ice cream before slowly making our way to the ferry to head back to the mainland.
We didn’t want to arrive at the ferry too late, as we knew the line up could get long and we didn’t want to have to wait one or more sailings. We ended up catching a ferry around 3:30pm. The line was long when we arrived, but many more cars arrived after us. We managed to get on the last ferry before a 2 hour break in ferries. We were lucky!
Once we docked at Skidegate we started our drive west to Rennell Sound Rec Site which was about an hours drive away. We had chosen this site from research prior to coming to Haida Gwaii. It was a quiet spot on the ocean surrounded by tall trees, just our kind of thing.
Heading west from the ferry terminal we drove through Daajing Giids, turned off of Ocean View Drive and onto Mac Blo Road to continue to Rennell Sound. Mac Blo Road was a gravel service road so driving was slow. After only about 15 minutes into our drive something didn’t feel right. Sure enough when we got out of the car, we had a flat tire.
We of course had a spare tire with us, which we ensured was in good working order prior to our trip. In order to gain access to the tire and jack we had to unload almost half of our gear in the back of our SUV. (For reference, we drive a 2019 Kia Sorrento). Alex and Fox got to work and changing the tire.
It was now just after 5:00pm. We now had to decide what to do. Continue on the gravel road with our spare tire to our destination or turn back into Daajing Giids. After some googling we saw there was an ‘OK Tire’ in town with closing time of 5:30 so we decided to turn around to try and make it there before it closed.
We pulled into the parking lot of OK Tire just before closing time to find that the tire shop had already closed for the day. There was someone on site still that advised us to come back in the morning and they could fix the tire for us. At that point we had no idea where we could spend the night. We had not planned on any accommodations in that general area so back on google we went. There was a city owned campsite nearby that had good reviews so we decided to see if they had room.
Hayden Turner Campground
The Haydn Turner Campground had 8 sites with vehicle access, picnic tables, fire pits, pit toilets and potable water. There was nothing notably amazing about our site, but it was available and only $20 for the night. There was also a walkway to the beach nearby. It was already 6:00pm so we set up our tent and made the short walk to the beach before it got dark.
There was no sand on this beach, it was all rocks and mussels. There wasn’t much for our son to play with and even the dog didn’t like it as there was no where for him to comfortably sit or lay down. We spent 30 minutes or so before heading back to our site to make dinner and call it a night.
Day 3 – OK Tire and Balance Rock to Agate Beach Campground
We awoke the next day and packed up right after breakfast so we could get to OK Tire at opening time which was 9:00am.
The shop was open when we arrived so we dropped off the tire and we were advised to come back in a few hours for it. They would have to look and see where the hole was before they would know if they could patch it, and if they could not then we would require a new tire.
We now had a couple hours to kill and had to decide what to do around that area with just our spare tire on. First stop, coffee. Not far down the road was a small coffee shop, The Village Hearth Café. We popped in for a cappuccino to go. There was a very friendly cat hanging around out front so Fox got to play with the cat while I waited for our coffee.
From there we decided to go see Balance Rock, which we were originally going to see on our way back from the North of the island, but figured we would check it off our list while we had time.
Balance Rock
Balance Rock is a large boulder that balances on another rock over a small surface area. The rock is thought to have been in it’s current position for the last 1000 years or more, being placed in its current position by melting glaciers. The rock is not far from the main road and makes for a great rest stop during your time on Haida Gwaii. We spent just over an hour walking the beach and examining the rock.
After leaving Balance Rock we made a stop in at the CoOp to pick up a few grocery items and ice for the cooler. From there we took our chance and drove back to the OK Tire in hopes our tire would be ready and we could continue our journey.
We lucked out at the tire shop, they advised there was a small patch-able hole in the tire that was all fixed. Alex and Fox put the tire back on the car. The total cost to fix the tire was $35.00 (CAD).
We decided at this point that we would skip the gravel roads leading to Rennel Sound Rec Site and drive north to Agate Beach Rec Site instead. Agate Beach was always part of our plan. We were originally planning to drive there after Rennel Sound but decided to alter our plan to avoid the gravel road with a freshly repaired tire.
We took Hwy 16 north. The total drive time to Agate Beach was about an hour and a half . We drove through Tlell which you could have missed completely if you blinked. The town was a few houses and an emergency pay phone as there was no cell service. Just past Port Clements we made a pit stop at Pure Lake Park. We wanted to take a look at the lake as potential fishing spot and stretch our legs.
There were no cars in the parking lot when we pulled up so we parked and got out of the car. I took the family dog out on leash while Alex started getting the fishing rods out. Our son jumped out as well and followed me and the dog. After only about 3-4 minutes of having been there a car pulled in and parked near us, immediately letting two large dogs jump out off leash. The dogs ran right into the lake splashing. They seemed like locals and the dogs knew exactly where to go and what they were there for.
We made the decision to pack up and leave instead of try our hand at fishing with two large dogs scaring all the fish. Despite having a dog, our son was also rather nervous of strange dogs off leash as he had been chased in the past, which was another good reason to just continue on our way.
We carried on through the town of Massett. There was a well reviewed food truck we wanted to try called Charters Food Truck but we decided to try it out when we left the area instead. At this point we drove right to Agate Beach Campground. The road into the area narrowed with the trees now taller all around you. We saw an eagle perched low with his dinner and a few deer scattered about. As we exited the trees the weather changed. It was now windy and light rain drops were falling on our windshield.
Agate Beach
As we entered Agate Beach Campground the wind had really picked up. There were many other campers already set up. Lost of the sites with tent pads had wooden platforms with walls built up to shield the tents, which led us to believe it was often very windy here. We drove through the entire campground once to take note of all the sites available to us before choosing one. All the sites had views of the water so we chose one based on where we could park the vehicle to shield us from the wind.
After setting up the tent we put on our warm clothes and went for a walk on Agate Beach. We had brought a small bucket for our son to collect agate and any other treasure he could find. This beach was well known for finding odd items washed on shore. Despite the strong winds and chilly air, our son was eager to treasure hunt and spent a good hour searching the beach.
The dog on the other hand was reluctant to leave the vehicle at all, and had to be carried out for bathroom breaks. He seldom left the warmth of his bed on the front passenger seat.
After a warm meal we piled into the tent as it was too windy to do anything outside anyway. We packed up or tied down our belongings so they didn’t get blown away. All night the wind pushed against the side of the tent. A light rain also fell all night. Being heavily pregnant and often having to pee at night, it was not pleasant having to climb down from the rooftop tent in this weather to relieve myself.
Day 4 – Agate Beach Campground to Mosquito Lake Campground
In the morning we made coffee but decided against a big breakfast as it was too windy for the stove and we didn’t want to hang around to clean up more than we had to. After packing up and piling into the car, we had some snacks for breakfast and headed for North Beach.
North Beach
North Beach is in Naikoon Provincial Park on the North Eastern tip of Haida Gwaii. When the tide is out you can drive along North Beach all the way to the Rose Spit. The Rose Spit can be accessed only at low tide and at your own risk as you can quickly be caught up in the rising tide. When the tide is in, the spit is under water.
Appropriate vehicles can be driven on the beach, or you can park and walk. There are also ATV’s or dirt bikes you can rent from a few private companies. Our family car, a Kia Sorrento, was an all wheel drive vehicle and was allowed on North Beach. We went to North Beach knowing the risks with the intent on just seeing how it goes with the conditions we found ourselves in.
The weather on North Beach was much better than on Agate Beach. We drove onto the beach and made our way farther east for as long as we felt comfortable. There was a small wrecked boat we stopped at to get out and assess the beach on foot and take a small photo opp.
We searched the area for a short time looking for treasures before getting back in the car and continuing east. Not far into our journey the beach sand was disappearing and it was turning into large round rocks. Having had tire trouble already we didn’t want to carry on driving on rocks just in case we caused more issues so we made the decision to turn around at that point.
Tow Hill
The Tow Hill viewpoint was at the end of a short hike so we decided to give it a try. The first portion of the walk is along wooden boardwalks that are well maintained inside the trees along the beach. Myself and the dog did half of the hike, while Alex and our son continued on to the high viewpoint.
I was getting quite warm at that point, and the dog being a senior was not up for long walks much anymore so I sat with the dog at the lower viewpoint on a bench holding all our cold weather coats and hats while they continued higher.
The views at the top were well worth the climb up the stairs if you’re physically able.
After our hike we were hungry. We had only snacked for breakfast so we thought this a good opportunity to drive back into Massett and try out that food truck we had read about. At the food truck we ordered some tacos and fries. We took the food to go and ate in the car while driving. It was worth the stop.
Our plan for the day was to try out Rennel Sound Rec site again. From Massett, the drive to Rennel Sound was about 2 hours south through Port Clements. This time, the drive was uneventful. No issues with our tires.
Rennel Sound Rec Site
As we pulled into Rennel Sound Rec Site, we saw lots of cars parked at the front. As we continued through the site it was filled bumper to bumper with vehicles and boats. We had never seen a campsite as full as this one and had a hard time finding a place to turn around, it was so packed.
We pulled in beside a truck to try and turn around to leave but decided to ask what the crowd was for. The fellow we spoke to advised it was that start of the fishing season and due to the amazing weather every fisherman on Haida Gwaii had come to the area to hit the waters before the weather turned. Usually the weather on the west side of the island makes the seas stormy and unpredictable.
It turns out that Runnel Sound is the only area on the west coast of Graham Island that is accessible by vehicle, so it is a popular destination during fishing season.
We immediately left the area, a little disappointed after all the effort to get there. It looked like a beautiful site had it not been so busy. After some though, we made the decision to head back to Mosquito Lake Rec Site as we enjoyed it so much the first night.
Day 5 – Mosquito Lake Campground
When we awoke in the morning, we saw we had a flat tire. It was the same damaged tire and must have deflated over night. After having some breakfast we unloaded the car yet again to pull out the spare tire and put it back on.
We spent the day fishing and playing board games. The lake was beautiful. It was so calm and was never busy. Our original plan was to find another campsite somewhere but we decided we would spend the day and night at Mosquito Lake again and rest for the long trip home.
Day 6 – Mosquito Lake Campground to Prince Rupert
On the morning of our last day on Haida Gwaii we had to pack up and leave right away. Our ferry tickets back to Prince Rupert were on the 1:30pm ferry but as we had another flat tire, we had to try to get it repaired again. We hopped on the earliest ferry back to Skidegate after changing the tire yet again.
OK Tire was great and immediately looked at the offending tire. The manager advised that the previous worker didn’t seal it correctly and it would be done properly this time, at no charge to us. We didn’t have to wait long before they had our tire sealed once again. We were quite worried how it would fare for the long journey back home.
With our repaired tire back on we were on our way to the ferry terminal. We checked in and waited in line for the ferry back to Prince Rupert.
Stay tuned for details on our ferry back to Vancouver, including the inside passage route.
