Ruckle Provincial Park campground

Ruckle Provincial Park holds down the island's southeast corner, and its campground is the kind of place people describe to strangers on ferries. Seventy-eight walk-in tent sites are spread along an open grassy meadow above Swanson Channel, so the view from your sleeping bag is open water, passing ferries, and with luck a seal or otter conducting its morning rounds.

This is camping in the old style: you carry your gear in from the parking lot, claim a spot by a numbered picnic table, and the park operator wanders past in the late afternoon to collect roughly twenty dollars. Facilities run to pit toilets and cold water taps, which sounds Spartan until you price this view at a hotel.

The park doubles as a heritage site: the Ruckle family homesteaded here in 1872 and part of the property is still a working farm, closed to the public but agreeably audible. More than 15 kilometres of trails follow the rocky shore to quiet coves. Sunrise over the channel is included free, which on Salt Spring counts as a genuine anomaly.