Lions Bay’s nude beach now exposed
Recent warm weather has brought surge in visitors and a pressing parking problem
Brunswick nude beach in Lions Bay was a hidden gem loved by local naturalists, but word got out.
As it becomes ever more — well, exposed — there’s growing concern about the increased traffic.
The quiet Lions Bay outcrop of gravel and rocks has been a nudist hangout for maybe 40 or 50 years, one naturalist estimated.
There is practically no parking and you have to trespass across train tracks — and sometimes crawl under parked train cars. When you get there, there is no sand to speak of, but it’s an idyllic crescent moon of a bay facing Howe Sound and Gambier Island.
Yet Brunswick was recently overwhelmed with visitors, their cars parked dangerously on the highway interchange, said Lions Bay Mayor Karl Buhr.
“By one account there were 190 cars parked,” two weekends ago, one Lions Bay resident told the mayor as eight months of gloomy weather suddenly exploded into warm, summer sunshine.
If there’s a problem, isn’t the answer simple? Tow the cars parked illegally and dangerously.
“Yes, and no, is the short answer,” Buhr said. “There are jurisdictional cracks these things fall through.”
For one, the provincial ministry of transportation and infrastructure is responsible for the Sea to Sky Highway and Buhr said that includes interchanges.
“But they are a government jurisdiction, they don’t tow cars,” Buhr said. “And the police in Squamish are not going to come all the way here to ticket cars.”
The ministry, in response to an information request, released the following statement: “Parking is not permitted on the highway except for emergency purposes and those parked illegally may be removed by RCMP. For all other areas, motorists are advised to obey the posted signs.”
Parking, all agree, has always been a problem because there is virtually nowhere to park. A proposed compact parking lot was proposed, but met local opposition, Judy Wilson, of the Wreck Beach Preservation Society, said.
“Brunswick Beach is a well-known spot to locals,” she said. “It used to be that primarily women preferred to go there.
“The weather has been so rotten, I’m not surprised there was a huge turnout (two weeks ago).”
And it’s apparent that Brunswick, like Crescent Nude Beach in White Rock, is becoming more popular, said Dan Jackson of the 77-year-old Van Tan nudist club in North Vancouver.
“One hundred and ninety cars would be outrageous,” Jackson said. “The most I’ve ever seen on a busy day is 20 or so.
“But I know people who would drive there from Vancouver.”
Especially as Wreck Beach changes, he said.
“At Brunswick and Crescent, you’re secluded, you find like-minded people.”
Of the four people living next to Brunswick Beach who were surveyed, only one agreed to go on record.
But they all basically said the same thing: The nude bathers keep to themselves; they pick up after themselves; and, for God’s sake, don’t advertise the beach, we don’t want the whole world coming here.
“I find them very polite, not aggressive in any way,” said Dave Norris, who has lived on the waterfront for almost 20 years. “I’ve never seen any garbage left behind.
“There’s very limited parking. If they keep coming in big numbers, they have to park up by the highway and that’s illegal.
“And that’s the thing, we want to keep it secret.”
Well, as the mayor has pointed out, the cat is out of the bag. A perennial but manageable problem has become a big, unmanageable problem, he said.
“The place is being discovered, as is the case everywhere,” he said. “It’s not like Wreck Beach, which is out of the way. It was out of the way when there were 20 people coming in pre-social media days, but (190 cars), that’s a lot of people.”
Buhr said he has heard contrarian reports, that some naturalist beach goers are rowdy, wander nude in front of the houses, stagger back to their cars after a long day of slaking their thirst under the hot sun.
“These are the things that keep me awake at night,” he said. “My only concern is a safety one.”