Widgeon
Widgeon's a paradise tucked behind Port Coquitlam. It's not too hard to get to, especially if you have a canoe, or don't mind shelling out the cash to rent one at Ayla Canoe Rentals at Grant Narrows in Pitt Meadows. This is probably the closest sanctioned camping close to Port Coquitlam.
Where the massive Pitt Lake empties into the Pitt River, the pristine Widgeon Slough winds out from a narrow valley behind Burke Mountain. Paddling up through this slough is one of the great experiences Port Coquitlam residents can enjoy within a few kilometers of downtown PoCo; imagine crystal-clear, calm waters between banks of mud and reeds, with the spectacular vistas of the mountains rising from the very shoreline to dizzy heights above their reflections. Widgeon Slough is the largest freshwater marsh in southwestern British Columbia.
At the source of Widgeon Slough, there is a camping area on a grassy bank with copses of trees. A road cuts through the forest from this point, running roughly parallel to the Widgeon River, which drops steeply from the Coastal Mountains' largest hanging lake, Widgeon Lake. (A hanging lake is a body of water effectively hanging above a drop into a valley, caused when a glacier cuts a path adjacent to an existing basin, preserving a natural retaining wall to hold the lake above the valley.)
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