Silver Lake Park is a 410-acre Whatcom County park 3.5 miles north of Maple Falls: free day use from 8am to dusk, a swimming beach, boat rentals, stocked trout, three campgrounds, and six lakefront cabins on a lake of about 173 acres. Maple Creek Park is its quiet neighbor at the edge of town — a free nature park with an easy 1.3-mile waterfall loop. Both are within about ten minutes of our red cabin in Maple Falls.
We send guests up the Mt. Baker Highway all summer, and Silver Lake is the recommendation that surprises people most — the corridor’s lake day, and the rest day we suggest between hikes. Here’s what’s actually at both parks, verified against the county’s own pages this week.
What parks are in Maple Falls, WA?
Maple Falls has two Whatcom County parks. Silver Lake Park, 3.5 miles north of town on Silver Lake Road, is the developed one: 410 acres of lakeshore with swimming, boating, fishing, camping, and rental cabins. Maple Creek Park, just north of downtown, is a free day-use nature park built around a short waterfall loop trail.
Silver Lake Park
Silver Lake Park has been a county park since 1966, wrapped around the southwest side of Silver Lake between Red Mountain and Black Mountain at 9006 Silver Lake Road. Day use is free, daily 8am to dusk, with 5.75 miles of trails inside the park. From Bellingham it’s about 30 miles and 40 minutes up SR 542 to Maple Falls, then left up Silver Lake Road — we cover that drive stop by stop in our Mt. Baker Highway mile-by-mile guide. From the Maple Falls junction, the entrance is roughly an 8-minute drive; from Glacier, plan on about 20 minutes.
Two current county alerts worth knowing: there is no cell service or Wi-Fi anywhere in the park, and the Lagoon Bridge is currently closed, which interrupts the full lakeshore loop. Download maps and confirmation emails before you leave the highway.
Maple Creek Park
Maple Creek Park is the one most visitors drive right past. It’s roughly 80 acres of forest and old pasture protected under a conservation easement with Whatcom Land Trust, and it’s a trail park, not a facilities park — no playground, no picnic shelters, no lake. The draw is the Maple Creek Loop Trail: an easy 1.3-to-1.4-mile loop with about 250 feet of gain, a creek crossing, and a run of small waterfalls. Maple Creek itself is spawning and rearing habitat for several salmon species. No pass or fee is required, and mountain biking is allowed.
Finding the trailhead is the only tricky part: it’s at the north end of the Silver Lake Community Church parking lot. From the highway, turn onto Silver Lake Road at the Shell station, then left on Second Street.
One honest caveat. The Bay to Baker Trail segment through here was wiped out by flooding in 2015, and the county lists no timeline for repair — don’t plan on walking from Maple Falls to Glacier. The loop itself is in good shape; WTA crews did trail work on it as recently as 2024.
How much does Silver Lake Park cost?
Day use at Silver Lake Park is free. Standard campsites run $25–$40 a night depending on residency, the six lakefront cabins and the Lakeside Lodge run roughly $51–$141 a night, and boat rentals run about $17 an hour to $61 a day. Fishing requires a Washington license.
| What | Price (verified Aug 17, 2026) |
|---|---|
| Day use, 8am–dusk | Free |
| Standard campsite | $25–$40/night, by residency |
| Group camp | $362–$385/night |
| Lakefront cabins & Lakeside Lodge | ~$51–$141/night |
| Boat rentals (rowboat, canoe, kayak, pedal boat, SUP) | ~$17/hour to ~$61/day |
Reserve by phone at 360-778-5850 or through the county’s online booking system. One date worth knowing: reservations for the following calendar year open the first business day of December at 9am.
Can you swim, boat, and fish at Silver Lake?
Yes to all three. A designated swimming beach sits near the boat launch and picnic area, the launch carries a 10-horsepower motor limit, and the park office rents rowboats, canoes, kayaks, pedal boats, and paddleboards in season. The lake is stocked with rainbow trout, and fishing requires a Washington license.
The 10-horsepower limit means this is a rowboat-and-paddle lake rather than a wake lake, and the pedal boats are the local favorite. WDFW stocks the lake with rainbow trout, and it holds resident coastal cutthroat too. The fishing season has run April through October, but state rules shift year to year — check WDFW’s current Silver Lake regulations before you cast.
Rentals are seasonal, and the county doesn’t publish an exact end date. Visiting in late September or October? Call the park office at 360-778-5850 before promising anyone a pedal boat.
Can you camp or stay overnight at Silver Lake Park?
Yes. Camping runs mid-April through the end of October: Cedar is the tent campground, while Maple Creek and Red Mountain handle RVs with 30- and 50-amp water-electric sites — Red Mountain even has horse stables. Six lakefront cabins and the three-bedroom Lakeside Lodge rent year-round, roughly $51–$141 a night.
There are showers in the Red Mountain and Maple Creek campgrounds, a free dump station for guests, and a group camp ($362–$385/night). The lakefront cabins are named for North Cascades peaks and each has a basic kitchen and a propane fireplace; one rustic camping cabin sits in the Maple Creek Campground.
One mix-up worth flagging: Maple Creek Campground is inside Silver Lake Park, a few miles up the road from Maple Creek Park in town. Same name, different places — double-check which one your directions point to.
When is the best time to visit Silver Lake Park?
Summer, if you want everything running at once — swimming, boat rentals, camping, and stocked trout. Camping closes at the end of October and reopens mid-April, but day use stays open daily, 8am to dusk, and the county’s lakefront cabins and lodge rent right through winter.
On a Mt. Baker trip, Silver Lake works best as the easy day: a swim and a slow lap of the lake after a big hiking day, or the fallback when clouds sit on the mountain. Our best hikes near Mt. Baker roundup covers the trail days on either side of it.
How far is Silver Lake Park from our cabins?
From The Black Cedar, our A-frame near Glacier, Silver Lake Park is roughly a 20–25 minute drive down SR 542 and up Silver Lake Road. From The Little Red Cabin in Maple Falls, it’s about 10 minutes — and Maple Creek Park is closer still, just off the same road at the edge of town.
That 10-minute number makes the red cabin the natural base for a lake trip: a forgotten towel costs you minutes, not the afternoon, and a private hot tub waits after the swim. The A-frame works too if you’d rather split the day — lake morning, then up the highway toward the mountain.
Both cabins have hot tubs, which is the correct way to end a pedal-boat day; our cabins with a hot tub page covers that side of it, and where to stay near Mt. Baker compares Maple Falls against Glacier and Bellingham if you’re still weighing towns. Booking on this site gets you our best rate, direct from the owners.
Last verified: August 17, 2026. Prices, hours, and alerts above come from Whatcom County Parks’ Silver Lake Park and Maple Creek Park pages. Confirm anything time-critical with the park office at 360-778-5850 before you drive up — there’s no cell service once you’re there.
Top photo: Silver Lake, by Steven Pavlov, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Edited.