Cultus Lake Provincial Park

Several great hiking trails here! Can’t give nature 3 stars, though. This one is for the Parks board.
Teapot Hill — After doing some research, it seems that park rangers remove the teapots placed by people for several reasons. Broken porcelain can be hazardous and people trampling «rare wild orchids» to place teapots is an environmental concern.
Okay, so collect pollen and germinate these orchids. Furthermore, surround them with gardening wire so people don’t trample them. Because loose dogs and men (needing to pee) will still go off-​trail and pose a threat to the plants.
Also, people shouldn’t be walking in crappy sandals or barefoot, thus increasing their risk of stepping on broken shards. Dogs, to be honest, should be leashed anywhere. Including my own.
Eventually, too many teapots could possibly accumulate but remove a certain percentage and leave the rest behind for people to enjoy. It enhances the experience and adds an element of magic and fantasy to the journey.
Also, add trail markers /​km markers. People like to be updated on how far they have trekked!
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The lake, itself, was great! We had a really warm weekend, despite much cloud and a torrential downpour for 30 minutes. We got sunshine on Day 3. Each day, there were no more than 2 boats out on the water at any given time. And the groups of people remained clustered infront of the kayak/​sup rental shop. They did not venture out past the buoys so if you’re adventurous like me, you will break away from the annoying people, and make it a mission to take your rental to the other end of the lake and back and time yourself! 8.5km in 90 mins… yeah!!!
Clean, clear pathways along the water. I can’t wait to return!

As a backcountry enthusiast, coming to a place like Cultus Lake for a weekend camping trip can be a bit soul sucking. Many of the reviewers have highlighted a variety of issues with the campsites here that contribute to this general feeling. However, for a car camping site, Cultus Lake has some really positive things going for it which help elevate the camp ground experience (compared to a lot of the other car camping experiences that you can get in BC).
1. If you are able to nail down a group campsite (book a year in advance), you essentially get private access to the lake, a giant picnic shelter for cooking food under, and plenty of room for tents (no RV’s here). You’ll need to get at least 15 people, but it is WORTH IT! I was able to experience this a year ago, and everyone in our group had a wonderful time.
2. The toilet facilities really aren’t that bad. I’ve been to some REALLY bad ones at campsites, and these ones are cleaned regularly, and come with showers. This is «luxury» at a campsite. You also rarely see a porter potty around. The majority is full service with running water!
3. Family oriented. If you have kids, this is the perfect place to take them. Not only are there kids all around riding their bikes, and playing in the water, but everyone is very welcoming. Our little one was able to meet some really great kids!
4. Great hikes around!
Like all car camping locations, you’ll always have to contend with RV’s, potential loud neighbours, and the possibility of rocky-​ish campsites. This is the reality and I have yet to find a car camping site that doesn’t have all these issues. However, if you are looking for a safe environment to take your kids, lake-​side access, good swimming and some decent chill out time on the grass, come to Cultus. Just don’t expect über quietness.

I go to the cultus lake docks every summer, so I thought I should try out the Sunnyside campground. It was booked every weekend of the summer, So had to make reservations during the week. and they only allow you to make reservations if you book for more than 1 night. We booked for 2 nights. There was 9 of us and they told us we had to book 2 sites. We set up our tents close together and only ended up using one site anyway. There was plenty of room. Each tenting site has a fire pit and one picnic table. There is room to park your car on your site. They have a site store when you can get camping supplies and snacks. The grounds are mostly dirt and lots of rocks, and tree roots sticking out of the ground making it hard to sleep in the tent. The lake was not far from the site, just a few min walk, and there were volleyball courts close by. We were in an area with a lot of trees, so had to use a lot of bug spray. And it felt darker then normal because of all the trees.
They are very strict and park guards are constantly walking around and checking on you. Quiet time is after 11 pm. Minors (18 and under) are not allowed to leave the site after 11 pm unaccompanied. And you have to be over 21 to book a site. Our group was sitting in our site talking, occasional loud laugh or two and a guard would pop out of nowhere and tell us to keep it down or they would fine us for being loud ! Yet other people were talking louder than us and banging pots and pans together, dogs barking and crying babies, but for some reason we kept being targeted. I don’t know if it was because we were a younger group but it felt intentional. We were also in a separate area not too close to any other sites.
There were washrooms and showers but they were dirty most of the time. They got cleaned once a day and stayed clean for only about an hour. I did like how there were lots of washrooms throughout the campsite though.
There were a lot more RV sites than tenting sites. I think this campground is better if you have an RV. There was a fire ban at the time so only propane fires and propane grills were allowed.
I don’t think I would stay here again, only reason to stay there would be for the lake, but i would prefer to find another campground, where they are not as strict. it felt like there were so many restrictions that we couldn’t have any fun.

Not very impressed with this camping ground. The ground on the site had a lot of gravel and it was impossible to find a soft spot to put the tent on. The noise at night was pathetic, my kids couldn’t sleep. From people shouting, laughing, babies crying and dogs barking forget about getting an early night. The best was the sewer gas smell that came to visit our campsite 2 – 3 times a day. Unbearable! Our site neighbors complained too. Left one night early and won’t be visiting this place again.

One of the worst places I have been to by far in regards to going somewhere for a family outing and here is why I dislike going here (based on the summer time)
* Pay parking even though all BC Parks are now free. The Cultus Lake parks board makes you pay :-(
* Gravel parking lot at the main gate which equals huge dust storm
* Finding a picnic table is near impossible
* Beach is super crowded with people EVERYWHERE!!!
* The little dock is littered with rude 17 – 23 year old rude kiddies who sunbathe on the dock thinking it’s their own
* The smelliest bathrooms in the world as it reeks of urine and wet clothing
* Sea-​doos and power boats flying through the water
I won’t be coming back and rather hit up somewhere else instead

I had not been to Cultus Lake in a very long time because of the zoo that it is during the summer. I decided to check it out though this spring and was happy with the experience to say the least.
If you do not like huge crowds and tons of loud powerboats then do not come to this park in the summer!!! This place is a bloody zoo all summer and a real pain in the but to get too as well as there is only a two-​lane road in (one lane each way). The time to come here is Between Fall and Spring when the fair weather crowd is hiding at home or in a mall or something like that!
If you are into car camping there are 4 front country campgrounds along the lake that are very busy during the summer. All are very pretty and up to the standard of most Provincial Parks. A good stay just depends on your neighbors really so hope you have good ones.
In my opinion what the real attraction of this park is is the hiking. There are some nice trails none of them super challenging above the campgrounds. One trail brings you to what are called the 7 sisters witch are some very old Douglas-​fir trees once numbering seven. A few have fallen over the years but they are still interesteing. Anouther trail leads to what is called Teapot Hill witch has two lookouts well above the lake. Both lookouts give you a nice perspective of the lake far below.
If you do come here in the summer and go for a swim watch out for swimmers itch as it does ususally show up in the hottest parts of the year.