Squamish, BC
* * *.5 | 3.5 stars out of 5: demerits for some unkempt areas, highway noise, noisy neighbours, cost.
You can reserve a site in advance or take your chances and just show up. Open year round.
Full service RV sites $45 to $50.
Visit Klahanie Campground website for additional rates and fees.
Amenities
groomed campsites
picnic tables
fire pits
plumbed washrooms
showers
fire wood available for purchase
cafe (currently closed due to COVID)
on site office
I have lived in the Greater Vancouver area of BC for 50 of my 54 years and have driven the Sea to Sky Highway more times than I can count. But as is often the case with most of us, I was so focused on my destination I didn't pay much attention to what I passed along the journey. This was the case with Klahanie Campground. I zipped past it on every trip to Whistler, often commenting on it, wondering what it was like/all about. But as I have mentioned in other areas of this website and in our blog, private campgrounds were never much our thing, so we never stopped to investigate.
I will admit that I was surprised by the size of the campground. There are approximately 140 sites of various sizes and levels of accessibility. Many sites have views of either Shannon Falls or Howe Sound, while others are next to a pond and sit along Shannon Creek. It should be noted that many of the ocean view sites sit on the edge of a very precarious cliff so I would be cautious with children and pets.
There also appear to be a number of sites that have long-time residents and the overall condition of these sites varied from kinda' gross to pretty nice little homesteads. This indicated to me that the owners/managers aren't sticklers about the overall appearance of the campground, which was unfortunate, because the few poorly kept sites brought an otherwise nice campground down a few notches.
The biggest complaint we had was our neighbours. The two sites next to us, one of which was a premium view site, were occupied by a group of people in their late 20's/early 30s. The exact age group as our oldest girls so I feel like a bit like an old grump for saying this, but they were annoying. At the peak of their socializing they had a total of 8 vehicles parked in their two sites, this whittled down to 6 overnight. In total there were at least 15 people plus a baby, two toddlers, and a couple of dogs. It seemed to me that they had more people staying on their sites then the campground said it allowed, but there was no one going around checking on anything. They appeared to have a very large tent pitched on a spot on the hill that was the only place other campers could take in the view which denied us and others access to do so. But mostly they were loud. It wasn't music, they weren't obnoxious, and they were all friendly enough when the walked passed our site, but they talked non-stop from the time we arrived at 1:00 p.m. until 10:30 p.m., which was 30 minutes past quiet time. A couple of members of the group were very loud talkers, and they were all congregated at a high spot in the campground, so their voices fell loudly down upon us. At first I didn't really notice, but by about 8:00 p.m I was going a little mental desperately craving a moment of silence. It would have been nice if the campground had staff walking the grounds to keep an eye and ear on what was going on. Especially since all in, it cost $84 to stay the night!
The only other complaint is that there isn't much to do. Only the premium tent sites had access to Shannon Creek for wading, and there were no other activities offered on the campground. You can cross the highway and hike to Shannon Falls, but otherwise you need to venture beyond the campground to find activities - but there are plenty near by as this area is world renowned for its outdoor recreation.
Overall we enjoyed our time at Klahanie Campground, and we did think it would be a great place to have group event. We found it a little pricey, but Ann who worked in the office was lovely and helpful, the facilities we used were clean and well cared for, and it is close to both Squamish and Whistler, both of which offer lots to do. We also like the overall forested atmosphere a lot better than your typical RV Campground. In the end though, it still didn't beat our Provincial campgrounds and recreational sites.
