When driving the Alaska Highway, through British Columbia, everyone will agree a stop at Liard Hot Springs is a must! Managed by BC Parks, Liard Hot Springs has an interpretive walk, two pools, one hotter than the other as well as a provincial campground. We enjoyed our stop here while heading to the Yukon so much, we made sure we stopped on the way home too!
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Where Are The Liard Hot Springs
The Liard Hot Springs are remote, we stopped here on our drive up the Alaska Highway on our way to the Yukon. Driving up the Alaska Highway, From the start of the Alaska Highway at Dawson Creek, the Liard Hot Springs are 750 kilometers north.
If you are heading south on Highway 97, it is just over 200 kilometers from Watson Lake in the Yukon to the Liard Hot Springs.
The Liard Hot Springs are clearly signposted from the highway and literally right beside the highway you will find the entrance gate where you can pay your day fee or camping fee.
The Campground
The campground at Liard Hot Springs is very popular. Although they have some first come first served sites, I can’t recommend booking a site enough. Sites can be reserved through the BC Parks reservation service up to two days in advance. If you decide not to, try to arrive early, the first come first serve sites are often snapped up before 4pm. Note they only accept cash, so make sure you have some on hand to pay for your campsite, in 2023 a stay here will cost $26 per night.
The Liard Hot Springs campground is very well maintained, each site is large and most are fairly private. They each have a picnic bench and fire ring. There are water pumps but you must boil the water before drinking and lots of pit toilets as well as garbage and recycling.
Access to the Liard Hot Springs is included with your campsite. Make the most of being able to visit at quieter times. We went at 7am when the pools opened and had the place to ourselves for 20 minutes.
The Liard Hot Springs campground is the first in British Columbia to be fully surrounded by an electric fence. The fence surrounds the entire campground and staff complex. Many of the sites around the edge can clearly see the fence. Although not a deadly danger, it’ll surely give you a shock if you were to touch it. If you have small children, a more central site might be safer.
Note that on our way back, we camped here and experienced the worst bug problem of our entire five week trip. Mosquitos got everywhere, in the tent, in the truck. Going to the bathroom or getting into the hot springs was tough! Mosquito coils, a thermacell, bug spray and if you have one, a mesh dinner tent would go a long way to making a stay here more enjoyable when the bugs are bad!
On the opposite side of the Highway is the Liard Hot Springs Lodge if sleeping in a tent isn’t for you or you want hook ups, they have a small RV site.
The Liard Hot Springs
For those not staying at the Liard Hot Springs campground, there is day use access. It costs $5 per person, paid, in cash, at the entrance gate. The day use parking area is large, with outhouses and picnic benches.
From the parking area the short 700m walk to the hot springs begins. It is a flat walk which has been decked to avoid damage to the fragile ground underneath. Look out for wildlife, we were lucky enough to spot moose grazing a short distance from the boardwalk!
Arriving at the hotsprings there are male and female changing areas as well as shelves to store your belongings and benches to sit on. A short walk away there are dry washrooms. There are no showers and no fresh running water here so make sure to bring your own water bottle to stay hydrated!
There are two pools, the lower one being cooler than the upper pool. The lower pool is large and you can swim quite a way through a skinny channel, which was a very cool experience. The upper, hotter pool is usually the more popular of the two. With benches submerged in the middle of the pool to sit on. The hot water source is in the upper pool and getting close to it is where the hottest water can be found.
The pools have been created with a natural feel and they self regulate themselves. There is no chlorine in these pools, but the water is constantly flowing so there doesn’t need to be. They have stones on the floor and the pool edges are totally natural. Enjoy the bird watching while you soak.
Liard Hot Springs were open 7am to 10.30pm when we visited, check online before visiting for current opening times.
Make sure to pack a towel, bathing suit and flip flops to enjoy your time at the hot springs!
Definitely a MUST see! I love how natural the hot springs are.
When did you visit? This article is published in March, but March is dead of winter right now in Alberta. I was there in August 2022 and they had set up a big wildlife electric fence around the entire area, so I don’t think Moose or bear sightings are possible within the park/campground/hot springs area anymore.
I agree! They are so beautifully done, it feels very natural. I can’t wait to go again but it’s definitely a drive from Alberta.
We visited in July 2022, I’m just catching up haha. When you leave the parking area to go to the hot springs, you exit through the gate which is the boundary of the electric fence, at least when we visited the electric fence didn’t include the hot springs area but it wouldn’t surprise me if they had expanded it. We saw the moose from the boardwalk between the parking and the hot springs. I’m not sure how common wildlife sighting are, seemed a bit crazy to me considering how busy a spot it is.
The wildlife still have access to the park I’ve been there 21 times in last 6 months and I saw moose, bears etc… even around the pool