Interactive Metro Vancouver

Derby Reach Regional Park sits across the Fraser River from the entrance of Kanaka Creek, near Fort Langley. The park is situated on the original townsite of Fort Langley, the oldest continuously settled European community in British Columbia. Tall black cottonwoods shelter the campsites and support the nests of a colony of blue herons.

The park’s Edgewater Bar is a big attraction to anglers of all ages who come to set their lines for salmon and watch the Fraser River flow by. Fishing bars that were once prevalent along the Fraser have more recently been usurped by log booms, which makes Edgewater even more valuable. What gives this park top billing are the squares of melmac inlaid at the corner of each picnic table. This is the officially sanctioned place to clean your salmon. Just the sight of it raises one’s hopes.

Derby Reach Regional Park is the only Greater Vancouver Regional Park that offers overnight vehicle/tent camping. The 38 riverfront sites here are allocated on a first-come basis, with a maximum stay of three nights.

The area was "discovered" by a party of Hudson Bay Company explorers, led by James McMillan, who struck out from Fort Astoria on November 18, 1824, to find a suitable location for a trading post on the Fraser River. McMillan's group reached Mud Bay on December 13 and followed the Nicomekl River to an area near today's Portage Park (53rd Avenue and 204th Street). From there the group portaged across Langley Prairie to the Salmon River where Trinity Western University is located today, following a route that became known as the Smuggler's Road (later renamed Glover Road). In 1827 McMillan returned to set up his fort at Derby Reach (the site is marked by a cairn at Derby Reach Regional Park).

By fall the rudimentary beginnings of Fort Langley were established at the site of Derby. By 1828, so many Indians established encampments near the fort, and settled on Kanaka Creek directly opposite the fort, that the main Kwantlen tribe eventually became known as the Langley Band. Whattlekainum had led this re settlement from the Skaiametl and Kikait areas. He decided that the sky people could offer protection to his people from the constant Yuculta depredations.
From "Kwantlen.."

General

- Fishing
- Public camping
- Picnicking
- Heritage site/building
- Dog off-leash area

Amenities

- Drinking water
- Public toilets
- Pay phone