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Gold Creek Falls Trail: Discover Golden Ears Park's Super-Star Hike!

Enjoy EPIC Gold Creek Falls hike – 100% stroller-friendly and wheelchair accessible trail in Golden Ears Provincial Park, Maple Ridge! Roll-in both: your baby and your grandma!

Golden Ears Provincial Park, is one of British Columbia‘s treasure boxes when it comes to inspiring nature experiences. Here you have the beautiful Alouette Lake, spectacular Golden Ears Summit with a number of EPIC viewpoints, and hundreds upon hundreds of wilderness trails to enjoy. Gold Creek Falls trail is one of the very best of easy hikes, awarding the visiting outdoor enthusiasts with one of the most striking waterfalls experiences near Maple Ridge! …and what is completely awesome is that anyone can enjoy the unbelievable scenery on the native BC wilderness hiking Gold Creek Falls trail, as this kids-friendly hike is 100% stroller-friendly and wheelchair accessible! So pack up both: your baby and your grandma and roll them in!

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Here are some video notes from our last visit to Gold Creek Falls. We will certainly do it again very soon 🙂

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Directions

GPS / Google Maps anchor point: North Beach Parkway, Golden Ears Pkwy, Maple Ridge, BC

If you are heading to Gold Creek Falls Trail to enjoy this epic waterfall in Maple Ridge from Coquitlam Centre, it will take you about 45 minutes to get there.

Once you enter Golden Ears Provincial Park, head to the very end of it to the North Beach Campground area. They have Day Use parking lot with plenty of parking for close to a hundred cars.

Come early to get in, otherwise, you can either run out of parking pots, or the Golden Ears Park is notorious for closing gates altogether after it reaches “visitor capacity”. I'd say if you did not get in by 10:00am-10:30am the latest on a sunny summer weekend day – your chances of getting in at all are next to zero…

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Gold Creek Falls Trail, BC Canada – Quick Facts

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The only washrooms they have are located at the parking lot at the Gold Creek Falls trail head – bio-washrooms type, no running water.

There are no food options, nor there are any drinking water locations other than the creek itself. The water from the creek is super-clean, drinkable and actually quite tasty 🙂

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The Gold Creek Falls Trail

Gold Creek Falls Trail is about 7.3km out-and-back trip. It is very easy – even a toddler can do it all the way to-and-back. For our experienced Cosmos this trail was cupcakes 🙂

The whole duration of the hiking path is gravel and very well maintained. The elevation is very gradual and you won't even feel it. There are well-built bridges placed over numerous streams and creeks. Both wheelchairs and strollers can be easily maneuvered. Seriously, there is almost no difference from any city-nature-park…

The Little Beach

About halfway in the trail breaks with a cute stony beach. We've enjoyed a refreshing swim in the clean mountain waters here. The water temperature is quite cold.. and of course, it is cold! The Gold Creek resulted from Gold Creek Falls, which resulted from Golden Ears mountain range ice-cap melting in the sun! We'd rate the waterfall waters one of the coldest near the Maple Ridge area ..but on a hot summer day, I'd say it is perfect! ..well, at least for my boys.

We've seen other families had their picnics, and many kids played stones here too. Some visitors come with dogs, and the dogs don't have to be leashed here.

The Gold Creek Falls hike is 100% stroller-friendly and the trail wheelchair accessible all the way to the bottom of the falls. Yes, we've met probably a dozen strollers and 2 wheelchairs along the way!

To help our active parents who can't seem to figure out how to get their kids to enjoy hiking, we have prepared this post: Five Tried-And-True Outdoor Activities To Get Kids to Absolutely Love Hiking – find many creative ideas, kids outdoor activities, treasure hunts, and nature experiments within!

The Waterfall

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The last 50 meters or so up to the top of the Gold Creek Falls trail is not accessible and rough elevated terrain. If you are comfortable, you can leave your stroller at the bottom and hop up to the top of the waterfall to enjoy the stunning green color of the water pools – it will take you 2-3 minutes to get up.

It is absolutely worth it to climb up to the magnificent Gold Creek waterfalls if you are capable and comfortable of course. We could watch the emerald water-greens forever!

But otherwise, it is as beautiful at the bottom – and you can rest on one of the available park benches even. This is what we love about waterfalls, lakes, and rivers in Maple Ridge – local people and Golden Ears Park staff take really good care of visitors providing above-average comfort 🙂

There is a bio-washroom at the very end of the Gold Creek Falls trail next to the waterfall, but it was locked down when we got there (June 2019).

The whole Gold Creek Falls hike took us a bit over 3 hours, that's hiking with a 3.5yo. Altogether we've spent close to 6 hours in Golden Ears Provincial Park – that includes about 2 hours playing and picnicking at the beach of the Gold Creek and another hour chilling next to Alouette Lake on our return!

Cosmos' favorite entertainment on the gold Creek Falls trail? Humongous tree stumps! Cosmos had so much fun playing fortresses and tree houses with other kids around.

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..a few more photos from Gold Creek Falls Trail visit

Check out our UH-Mazing photos of Gold Creek running through Golden Ears Park, the waterfall, the stunning raw rainforest of Beautiful British Columbia – all have been taken either using a regular iPhone, or our amateur Sony camera. Very minimum to no editing was applied. The colors are truly spectacular!

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Friendly Advice For Your Visit to Golden Ears Provincial Park

Don't be the “Loose Parker”

If I may, I'd like to take this opportunity to vent here a bit, #sorrynotsorry.

Have you ever come to a popular location with unmarked parking, and have found people parking so wide that between their car and the car next to them you could fit in another 2/3 of a car? That's when you find a space with 10 parked cars, but if you reasonably squeeze them together you could fit 14-15 as in a normal mall parking lot?!… Too bad this was exactly the situation here.

We've circled around a few times until we could find a spot (10:15am on a Sunday). Too many cars were very loosely parked, and I honestly wished I had a motorcycle. I mean, please don't be that “Loose Parker” please-please be mindful of other families who'd also want to enjoy the park and the trail.

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Pack Food & Have a Picnic

Definitely bring snacks with you and have a picnic either at the waterfalls or the Gold Creek beach! If you decide to have a swim, the freshwater will make you super-hungry!

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Use Sunscreen

Stay sun-safe and make sure to use sunscreen. On a sunny day, you'll be spending much time next to the water here, and the sun reflecting in the water can do much damage if you are not careful.

At the same time, please consider the fragile environment of the Golden Ears Provincial Park and try to opt-in for natural non-toxic non-spray sunscreens. We've done our investigation on 20+ available baby-friendly sunscreen brands available in Canada/USA – learn which Seven had been given our top rating HERE!

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Watch Your Dogs

Dogs don't have to be leashed here. However, if you bring your dog, please be mindful as there are many little kids hopping the rocks at the waterfalls and playing in the water on the beach. In addition, since the trail is wheelchair accessible, please be mindful of dogs around seniors and visitors using a wheelchair.

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Leave No Trace

We haven't seen any garbage bins other than at the parking lot. Please follow the Leave No Trace principles and pack out everything you pack in.

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Fun Family Outdoor Learning on Gold Creek Hike

Want to have even more family fun outdoors when visiting Golden Ears Provincial Park? Check out our PerfectDayToPlay FREE printable Scavenger Hunt sheets! Let your kids both play and learn while on the trail!

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Other Stroller-Friendly Hikes and Wheelchair Accessible Trails

Great news! We've started working collection of stroller-friendly hikes and wheelchair accessible trails, as we believe that Mother Nature should be enjoyed by everyone! Here are some of our other trail findings and accessible hikes you can enjoy with your whole family (some are fully-accessible and some are partially accessible and stroller-friendly, see details in each post):

• Buntzen Lake – True Zen & Best Swimming Lake Near Vancouver – Anmore, BC
• Fort to Fort – Fun & Easy Bike Trail Near Langley Even a Toddler Can Do! – Langley, BC
• Bird-Lover Heaven! Dazzling Home of Pacific Great Blue Heron – Chilliwack, BC
• Rolley Lake Park – Best Kept Secret Spot for Family Fun in Mission BC – Maple Ridge, BC
• Minnekhada Park: Discover Cool All Seasons Kids-Friendly Hikes & Trails – Coquitlam, BC
• Hidden Gem Stunning Kids Biking & Training Trail Near Maple Ridge! – Pitt Meadows, BC

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Are you an outdoor enthusiast who loves hiking with the whole family? Babies and grandparents included? Do you know of any other stroller-friendly hikes or wheelchair-accessible trails? How about epic waterfalls experiences near Maple Ridge? or anywhere in BC? Share in the comments or send us a message! We'll surely come out to check it out!

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Enjoy!

Cheerfully yours,

Alexandra, Alex & Cosmos

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