Hayward Lake Recreation Area — Attraction in Mission

This is a great place to enjoy a sunny day. It's a bc hydro maintained site and the gates open at 08:00 am sharp where you see an "unofficial" line right at the street In front of it... It's a shame as cars passing by won't respect the line so this could be improved a bit. Anyways.. at 08:00 I joined the line where the cars filled the 1st parking lot quickly... People rushed to grab the best spots at the beach as if the world would end... So at 08:15 the beach is all taken..

Around 08:40 or when the 2nd parking lot fills up , they'll close the gates leaving you the option to use the "overflow"parking area that's accessible right across the dam to the 1st right. You'll have to walk a bit and it's good to plan to bring a small cart to tow your stuff.

As people leave the park, the gates would open again or around lunch time ish..

As more people come, they like to grab all the sand area that may become quite busy.

The parking lot and overflow are free of charge.

There are lifeguards on duty, and it's a nice place to kayak or use your stand up paddle as the water is quite still. There are change rooms and restrooms where the woman's one tends to be quite busy, and specially at the end of the day. There's a water spray or shower right outside the restrooms that's always clogged. Over the last year I never saw that working though.

This park is so big and there are plenty of green areas and tables all over the place but more distant from the beach so they tend to be more available, even on busy times as I...

the lake is beautiful but finding a parking spot was a nightmare We arrived 9.30 am on a Saturday in July all the parking lot were full and so many cars wandering trying to fight for a spot which is impossible as no one leaving so early in the morning

Main parking lot said to be re open again at noon and many cars parked to wait but that line was hopeless as the staff don’t respect the lineup across the entrance ( line up is not allowed on Dewney Trunk Road as it’s a one way main route) They open the gate for less than a minute at noon and whoever manage to rush in can get it

It’s dangerous and create lots of confusion when the gate opened as many cars waited across the street and also many know the rule of the game would just stay on main road and try to turn right at noon and some try to turn left

It end up took us 3 hours to get a spot at Stave Fall At least they don’t close the parking lot and we can still wait and try out luck at Stave Fall

Too crowded in the beach area and sure not a good place for fresh air as lot of people Bbq and can smell meat everywhere

Minimal phone signal so can’t load my google map Among us we got Fido, Roger’s, bell and virgin phone & all doesn’t work at the lake and parking area Better preload the google map before heading...

It is a typical lake area in BC but the parking was such a nightmare that it is not worth the trouble at weekends in summer. We arrived at 3 pm. to find that the first parking lot was closed and would not open until 5 pm. Two staffs blocked the way to the second parking lot, commanding visitors to leave while there seemed to be vacancies inside. I couldn’t understand that it was a time of leaving for some people in the late afternoon and why visitors were not allowed to check out the spots by themselves . When I tried to ask her if we can wait in line here, she was so rude by saying angrily that “don’t argue with me” and threatened us that if we stayed here our car will be towed. I drove 50 minutes here for recreation and not a fight so I left for maple ridge park.

I was shocked by the rudeness of the staffs and would not go to this place again. In Canada, this is not the right place to look for peace at weekends.

By the way, if you claim that you are going to the power house museum instead of the lake, the staff would...