Hike to Gold Creek Falls, Golden Ears Provincial Park – Maple Ridge

by Coleman

Activity:

Every Father’s Day Dad likes to surprise us with “a new experience.”  This year’s “experience”, Jen and I agreed, took the cake.  I should’ve known it was going to be a long car ride because Mom made me take my homework.  A bad sign.  We left the house at 12:00 PM sharp and didn’t stop driving till 1:20 PM.  For those of you who aren’t good at Math, that’s one hour and twenty minutes!  “Luckily, you brought your Math along,” was what Mom said.  Even before she said that, I knew she was going to say that…maybe not those exact words, but close.  She really is like a broken record when it comes to homework.

By the time we got there, Mom was due for a washroom break…another thing you can count on!  She had her pick of three beautiful brown outhouses.  Not her favorite, but one can’t be choosey when one is out in the wild blue yonder.

The hike up to Gold Creek Falls and back is about 5.5 kilometers long, which Dad predicted would take us between one to one-and-a-half hours.  What Dad, however, didn’t take into account was the M-U-D, great big blotches of it.  I’m not sure that’s the right word, but try to imagine patches of ooey gooey mud so big in some places we had to forge paths in the forest to get around it.  Dad kept asking, “Should we turn around, before it gets any worse?”  “No way,” was what I said.  “This is fun, going around mud.”  Even Jen liked it, until she sank into some quick-sand and nearly lost her shoe.

Aside from the mud, the hike is actually “quite picturesque,” as Mom put it.  What I noticed most was the soft green moss dangling from the limbs of the trees.  The waterfall was exciting.  You should’ve seen all the water going over the edge.  Dad said it wasn’t usually that big and loud.  Maybe it had something to do with the melting snow or all the rain we had the past week.

The walk back didn’t seem to take nearly as long as the one there.  I guess we’d learned a few tricks on how to get over and around mud.  Mom said she’d like to go back when the ground was drier.  Ya see, that’s where Mom and I are different—that mud made my day.  It turned a garden-variety hike into one none of us will ever forget.

Age group:

This is a pretty easy hike that can be done by pretty well anybody in your family.  Nothing compared to climbing the Grouse Grind.

Expense rating:

Free

:

Gold creek is just the right length for me.  Plus at the end of the hike you have the falls… an awesome sight.

:

I don’t think Dad and Mom enjoyed the MUD as much as Jen and I… but they’re party-poopers sometimes.

Details:

Gold Creek is Golden Ears Provincial Park.  About an hour and 15 minutes from Vancouver.  Take the Lougheed Highway, past Pitt Meadows, and turn left on to Dewdney Trunk Road.  Follow Dewdney Trunk road for a few miles until 232nd Street.  Turn left on to 232nd street and drive until 232nd intersects with 132nd avenue, and take a right on to Fern Crescent.  Fern Crescent will take you into Golden Ears Park.  Continue to the end of Fern Crescent which terminates at a parking lot where the Gold Creek Falls trails starts. Website: Golden Ears Park

Area:

Maple Ridge

Season:

All seasons

Educational highlights:

Did you know that the movie Twilight (starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart) shot some of their outdoor forest scenes in Golden Ears park?  Yikes Vampires.

Fun for the adult?:

Hiking in mud is not my dad’s idea of fun outing especially when he’s wearing white runners, but after awhile he lightened up and started enjoying the mud.   

A week of rain resulted in lots of mud

Gold Creek Falls