Cowichan River Tubing

The number 1 activity to do in Lake Cowichan is arguably tubing the Cowichan River. The route starts near Saywell Park and runs just under 3km to Little Beach Park, and usually takes about 2-3 hours to complete in a tube depending on water flow and how many times you stop. There is very limited shoulder parking at Little Beach pull out for setting up a shuttle. Or you could pay the Tube Shack $10 for a shuttle bus ride back into town.

The route starts very slow and picks up with small sections of class 1 rapids. The water was quite shallow in places, bumping our butts even in our closed-buttom tubes. With good line selection, a river paddleboard should be able to navigate this. Whitewater paddlers generally avoid this in the summer due to low waters and tubers.

Speaking of Tube Shack, they are the only tube rental company in town. They are well organized and run by a group of enthusiastic employees. We opted for the family pass (2 adults and 2 kids under 18). It wasn’t clear on the website whether we needed to pay for our third kid since we are upgrading to Swift Tubes (basically oversided, chubby inflatable kayak/raft hybrids) and we plan to carry Baby Bro in one. It turns out we didn’t have to pay for Baby Bro as long as he didn’t need a tube himself.

We came on a cloudy, drizzly weekday and got onto the river around 10:30am. There was only another family on the river with us, and they were in regular tubes so we paddled past them easily in our chubby kayak rafts and experienced the whole river by ourselves. Even without the sun, the river water temperature was very comfortably warm, like a heated swimming pool.

The first half of the paddle was chill and mellow, paddling under several bridges and past many houses.

Just as the kids were starting to get bored, the river flow picked up and we got to run some cute little rapids. It got the kids totally excited.

We joined up for a snack break and stretched our legs on a sandbar.

We rearranged our sitting positions and I ended up on the smallest tube while Big Bro and Middle Bro paddled their Swift Tubes ahead. They were very comfortable racing down the river with its small rapids, while we chased them from behind. It was very difficult to navigate the small round inner tube though.

Near the exit, the river was very well signed and slow, so you can’t miss the pull out at Little Beach.

Past Little Beach, the next pullout is 13km away at Skutz Falls in Cowichan River Provincial Park. I want to camp here and paddle the 16km from Lake Cowichan one day.

After 2 hours of paddlings and snacking, we pulled out around 12:40pm. The day was so quiet that we were the first tubers to exit the water.

The 2-hour float was definitely the highlight of our trip in Lake Cowichan area, and even stood out as one of the most memorable activities we did on our 2-week island camping trip. We went on to eat and shop in the beautiful small town for the rest of the day.

I saw some mixed opinions from local residents about the river tubers causing congestion and pollution on the river, and the Tube Shack for profiting off this public resource. In their defense, the Tube Shack provided free mineral-based (zinc oxide), river-safe sunscreen, reminded tubers to pack-in-pack-out, and stopped selling single-use water bottles. On this especially quiet day, we didn’t see any garbage along the river and we were mindful not to make excess noise since the river flowed through residential neighborhoods. As the premier tourist attraction in town, I’m certain the Tube Shack has a positive impact on the local tourism and service industry.

Finally, a quick note on the water gauge for future reference. Historically, the Cowichan River has seen high winter flows and extremely low summer flows, which have been managed by a weir at Cowichan Lake since 1957, though the weir is submerged during high water. The period of highest flow is typically November to February, while the lowest flows occur from July to September, a pattern influenced by the regulating weir and increasing pressures from a changing climate.