We left Fort Langley and headed south to White Rock to explore one of the longest piers in Canada. The White Rock Pier juts out into a bay that joins the Strait of Georgia. Our stay was two nights and one full day and we were energized to get out and explore the pier, the beach, and the promenade.
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| Sea Festival, White Rock Pier, 2025, White Rock, BC |
We arrived at the end of the White Rock Sea Festival so we missed most of the crowds, but saw a terrific firework show from our rental that night. The White Rock Pier was built in 1914 to service the steamship industry when the Great Northern Railroad put down a track along the coast. The pier is 470 metres long (1,540 feet) and is recognized as Canada's longest pier. It has been damaged by winter storms, high tide, and 90 km/h winds and twice needed portions reconstructed.
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| Accessibility Mats, White Rock Pier, 2025, White Rock, BC |
A new feature to the White Rock Pier since it re-opened in 2024 is the addition of an accessibility mat for people using wheelchairs or walkers, as well as an aid to the visually impaired. In the above photo, Jessie is posing on the accessibility mat which is designed to smooth out the bumpy, uneven surfaces of the wooden pier planks and make mobility easier and less jarring.
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| White Rock Pier, 2025, White Rock, BC |
It's father and daughter time in the above photo as Jessie and Nelson walk down the pier. However, I was excited to see a similar scene a few months ago while watching
Love at First Bark (2017) a Hallmark movie that used the White Rock Pier and beachfront as a primary location shoot.
Like Cats and Dogs (2017) was also filmed on the White Rock Pier although I haven't watched that movie yet.
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| White Rock Pier, City of White Rock, BC |
White Rock overlooks the ocean and everyone wants a view. In the above photo, if you look above Crystal's head to the beginning of the pier, you can see the road going up. When we were on it I had flashbacks to when I as a kid on a similar road and we had trouble not only going up, but also going backward when we couldn't make it up. Not as bad as the old TV show,
The Streets of San Francisco, but enough of a memory to make me hold my breath and grip whatever I could on the streets of White Rock.
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| West Beach Promenade, 2025, White Rock, BC |
The White Rock Promenade is 2.2 km (1.4 ml) long and runs continuously although it switches from one side of the tracks to the other at the main entrance of the White Rock Pier. The image above is of the West Beach Promenade which is easy to tell as it is located on the city side of the train tracks.
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| East Beach Promenade and White Rock Pier, 2025, White Rock, BC |
The East Beach Promenade is located along the beach side of the tracks. The City of White Rock has installed
Waterfront Live Cameras where you can check the weather, watch the tide, or people watch the promenade. I thought the cameras were stationary, but the East Beach camera will change every few minutes for views of the pier, promenade, beach or tide. On hot summer days when the tide is in, you'll probably see swimmers jumping or diving off the end of the pier as well.
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| BNSF Train on Beachside Track, 2025, White Rock, BC |
We were enjoying a delectable Fish and Chip dinner at Moby Dick's when the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) stormed noisily down the coast between us and the beach. About 28 trains run past daily between the U.S. and Canada, with the single track crossing the border at Surrey/Blaine. The proximity of the train streaming past as we ate was a novel experience, yet I wasn't aware of any whistle warnings.
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| BNSF Track Promenade Crossings, White Rock Pier, 2025, White Rock, BC |
It would have been a lot of horns going off at all hours of the day because the horns should have blown at each of the 8 Promenade crossings. However, in 2020, the City of White Rock reached an agreement with BNSF to cease blowing the train horns unless people or animals were spotted on the track. Instead of the horns, new safety gates were installed at each crossing along White Rock's waterfront. You can see the yellow safety gates in the above photo along with signage warning of oncoming trains when the lights are flashing.
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| West Beach ramp, 2025, White Rock, BC |
For our beach exploration, we used the West Beach entry where a nice long ramp took us from street level to the sand. The ramp starts off as asphalt and then changes to smooth planks which make it easy for people walking, especially those with young children, or carrying things like kayaks and paddle boards. The ramp is also accessible for those using the
beach wheelchairs that are available for 2 hours of free use. These wheelchairs are non-powered and must be pushed or pulled. There is a choice of a floating wheelchair for shallow water use, or the balloon-tired one for exploring the beach.
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West Beach, 2025, White Rock, BC
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Due to the weather there was a distinct lack of sunbathers and swimmers. The activity seemed to be centered on exploring and digging, with a couple teams kayaking. White Rock beaches hug the shoreline for up to 8 km (4.9 ml) and go out into the bay up to 800 metres (half a mile). If you check White Rock's live cameras as mentioned earlier in this post, you'll see the tide come right up to the rocky and debris-laden shore.
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| West Beach, 2025, White Rock, BC |
That's a lot of space for searching out tidal pools, critters, and other treasures like Crystal is doing in the above photo. She takes a lot of macro photography and it's always interesting the things she finds no matter where the location. Nelson is there too in the upper right of the image but he's out so far you have to zoom in real close to see his grey shirt and brown hat.
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| West Beach, 2025, White Rock, BC |
The above photo was taken by Nelson while he was way out there and looking back at the shore. From his vantage point, we see adult and juvenile gulls near a patch of algae and the certainty that there are many creatures hiding in the sand and/or water.
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| Exoskeleton of Molted Crab, West Beach, 2025, White Rock, BC |
When we first found this exoskeleton of a molted crab I thought a gull had flipped the crab and eaten the meat of it, but Crystal confirmed it was what was left after the crab had molted, much like birds molt by shedding their old feathers, or snakes molt leaving their old skins. Crabs shed the linings of their gills, mouthparts, respiratory organs, sections of their digestive tracks and more. The crab who had crawled out of this exoskeleton was probably hiding close by while waiting for its new soft shell to completely harden.
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| Photographing Beach Stones, 2025, White Rock, BC |
I took the above image from the pier while looking down at Crystal taking pics of rocks on the East Beach. Most of the rocks are closer to shore where the tide tumbles them into smooth beach stones. Both Crystal and I are fascinated by the uniqueness of every rock or stone, but where I want to physically collect them to view later, Crystal simply collects the close-up images she takes with her camera and then tenderly replaces the rock where she found it.
Even without lots of sunny weather we thoroughly enjoyed our visit to White Rock. The pier, promenade, beach, food, and ambiance of the place made for a very enjoyable stay. I'm adding this to my list of places I'd like to return to some day.
This post reflects the November calendar page.
Check back on December 1st for the final post in this series when we adventure back to Saskatchewan.
