Since we got our own kayaks, we finally had a reason to check out Barnet Marine Park! I’ve seen it a few times hiking from Belcarra, but had never visited. We decided to check in out during the unseasonably warm weather we got in mid-April in 2021 and loved it!

Barnet Marine Park is located just off – you guessed it – Barnet Highway! It’s behind Burnaby Mountain, at the narrowest part of Burrard Inlet, where it branches and you can either head east into Port Moody, or north up Indian Arm. There’s a lovely sandy beach area that’s popular among picnickers, and it’s only a short paddle across the channel to Belcarra Regional Park.

To date, we’ve mostly been accessing the water from the parking lot in Belcarra, but that is a much smaller lot and you have to get up a lot earlier to secure parking (plus it’s a longer drive). The Barnet parking lot definitely fills up too, but it’s a lot larger so you don’t have to get up quite as early to get a spot. It has more of an urban feel than Belcarra, but I suspect we’ll spend a lot more time here in the future because of its practicality. I wouldn’t recommend it as a starting point for Indian Arm because it will add length to your paddle, but I’d like to return some evening for a sunset paddle, as I think it’s a great location for when you just want to get out on the water for an hour!

The only downside when we visited is that they’ve closed the drop-off loop that goes right down to the beach, so you have to unload the boats at the first loop, which makes for a longer walk down (although that may have changed more recently). We have a set of wheels for our kayaks, so it’s manageable, just makes for a bit more work – I’m glad we didn’t have to carry them though. We went on a hot day and got there somewhere between 9:30-10am and didn’t have any trouble finding parking. When we left around 1pm though it was a lot busier!

We launched out into the inlet and basically paddled back up to Belcarra. You could also paddle along the shore to Port Moody, but it’s pretty industrial, so we paddled over to Burns Point instead and made our way back to the main launch in Belcarra. We stopped at a small beach along the way for a snack and to avoid the busy launch, then we paddled around Boulder Island before heading back. It’s not a strenuous paddle, but it made for a nice 2-3 hours on the water. We definitely could have been faster, but we were in no rush so we just took our time.

It’s definitely a popular place for paddlers though – there were tons of kayaks and SUPs out on the water when we were out there and I imagine it probably gets busier as it gets warmer. Overall we really liked it, and I hope to return this year!