One of the warmest lakes in Greater Vancouver is Sasamat Lake, located near the village of Anmore and city of Port Moody, British Columbia within the Belcarra Regional Park. At the north side of the lake, you can discover White Pine Beach, one of the most popular beach destinations in the lower mainland, which has seasonal transit services provided by TransLink.
White Pine Beach is very popular for swimming, as it features clean fresh water, surrounded by the vast beauty of greenery that has been preserved by order of the Belcarra Regional Park. Sun tanning on the white sand shores of this beach is a frequent sight with huge crowds of people visiting the beach during almost any sunny summer day.
There are two shoreline sides to White Pine Beach, the north end and the south end. Shaped like two crescent moons, the north side is the bigger of the two, while the south side is a quarter of its size.
On the north side, there are public facilities, which include a concession stand and water fountains along with public washrooms. The shoreline on this side has beautiful shallow sandy beach waters for people to explore quite easily by foot.
The south side of White Pine Beach takes a deep dip fairly close to shore. This is usually the side where brave recreational swimmers go forth with swimming across the Sasamat Lake.
The south side of White Pine Beach is where you will usually find more young families with small children. There you will find an abundance of umbrellas, buckets and shovels, and picnics.
South Side of White Pine Beach at Sasamat Lake
One of the favorite pastimes during the hot summer days is to float around the lake on inflatable boats or air mattresses. It is not unusual to see several or even dozens of people floating along in groups.
Around the entire Lake of Sasamat are hiking trails, officially known as the Sasamat Lake Loop Trail that directly connects with White Pine Beach. Often times, hikers will take a dip into the waters of the lake no matter where the beach is met in their hiking route, whether at the beginning, middle, or end. The trail follows the shoreline quite closely and in some cases it directly mirrors the shoreline. Along the hiking trail though, there is another location where you can take a dip, and that’s when you cross one of the most unique sections of the trail, the floating boardwalk bridge at the south end of the lake.
Sasamat Lake Loop Trail
Located along the walkway of the floating boardwalk bridge are two small docks for fishing and swimming. The bridge is directly linked with the hiking trail the surrounds the entire Sasamat Lake, which typically takes around 60-90 minutes to complete.
Although there are plenty of parking spots located on the higher grounds above the sandy beach, it is usually wise to plan a trip to White Pine Beach as early as you can, just because of how popular this beach is; parking fills up fast and it is closed by park officials at the park entrance when full. This forces people to park on the roads leading up to the park and walk a fair ways in.
When White Pine Beach is completely full though, there is another nearby beach at Buntzen Lake that you can go to; however, the water is considerably colder as it boasts “glacier water” from the melted snow on nearby mountains. The sunshine is equally warm at both lakes though.
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