Broke & Bougie
Riverside Picnic at Gates Park
PoCo's riverside park on the Traboulay Trail, where the picnic table is free and the salmon show up in fall.
Gates Park, Reeve Street
More infoBroke & Bougie
PoCo's riverside park on the Traboulay Trail, where the picnic table is free and the salmon show up in fall.
Gates Park, Reeve Street
More infoGates Park is downtown Port Coquitlam's riverside backyard, a big easy green on the Coquitlam River with the Traboulay Trail running straight through. The move is simple. Grab takeout, claim a picnic table under the trees, and let the water entertain you. In fall the salmon actually swim past your lunch, which is either deeply calming or deeply alarming depending on your relationship with the food chain.
Grab takeout downtown first - PoCo's Shaughnessy Street strip is a five-minute drive - then park free in the big Gates Park lot off Reeve Street. Skip the busy playground end and walk toward the river: the picnic tables tucked under the trees near the dike are the move, shaded, breezy, and looking straight at the Coquitlam River. Time a fall visit and you will watch spawning salmon push upstream right below you - the thing first-timers never plan for and always remember. Don't miss strolling a few minutes along the Traboulay PoCo Trail after you eat to the spot where the river widens and the mountains stack up behind it; it is the postcard shot and it costs nothing. Arrive before 11am on a sunny weekend or the close-in parking is gone.
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