RV Camp at Bear Creek Park, Kelowna BC on Okanagan Lake

Hi everyone. So it's a beautiful fall day, mid-October, and we are heading over to the Okanagan. We're going to try staying at the Bear Creek Provincial Park, which is in Kelowna, sort of northwest of the city. And it's our first time there, so we're looking forward to it. Now we haven't been able to visit Kelowna at all most of the summer because they had some bad wildfires. And Bear Creek is actually not too far from where the fires were. I know that a lot of people lost their homes, but hopefully they are on their way to recovery and getting their homes rebuilt again. So we're going to spend a couple nights there, and they will be closing on October 15th, which is only a few days away. So we just wanted to take the opportunity to just go there and check it out and enjoy the beautiful fall weather that we have. So we hope you enjoy this video. So lucky for us, we were able to stop by and get some veggie samosas and Gordon to get his hot dog. And Finch also had a meal break. He ate some food, and now he's kind of lazing around. There's the city of Kelowna right there. Almost right across the lake from Kelowna. A little bit north. Yeah. Unfortunately, it's not as sunny as we had hoped. The weather forecast said it was going to be sunny, but it's mostly cloudy right now. It might get sunny a little bit later. And it's still cool. It's probably about 8 degrees right now outside. So we were chilly walking around the park this morning. I went out this morning and a little earlier, walked around, went to the beach, saw some ducks and geese. Music Because there's been a lot of fires here over the summer, the park actually... When you walked outside, it just smelled like you were kind of... You know, if you've ever been anywhere where there's been burned wood, you can smell that. And that's what the whole park smelled like this morning. It's not bad now because the air is coming more from the east. And so it's kind of fresh smelling. But all the hills behind us had a serious fire this summer. And the trails that are at this park, which would be... I think they look like they'd be really nice to sort of explore. They're all closed off. I'm not sure if they're... They're probably just concerned about burned trees and potential issues. Yeah, it's on the west side, across the west side road. Yeah, just across the road. And the Santa Dump is also closed because of the fire. Yeah, as a result of the fire. So I don't know how long it'll take for them to open that up. I'm sure not until the earliest, until sometime next year. Yeah. So this is an interesting campground. There's 143 sites. But a lot of them are powered. So some of them have 30 amp. Some of them have 50 amp. The 50 amps are mostly the pull-through sites. And they're sort of paved, concrete paved. And nice and handy for, like, big rigs. We haven't actually seen this many big rigs. Now, if you follow our channel, you know we usually go to more rustic places. This is kind of more like a family campground. I suspect it's really busy in the summer. But I've never seen so many Class A's. It's because a lot of the spots are really big and long. As Mickey was saying, they have some pull-through sites that are full service. So water, sewer, and power. We're actually at powered sites just because it gets cold. And we wanted to take advantage of an electric heater. Yeah, so we're in the 30 amp section at Site 50. But everything in the first couple loops on that side are unserviced. And there are actually some really nice sites on the lake. Yeah, that's in a sort of, there's a section that's a little bit more, you feel a bit more rustic. Bigger spaces, spots between, here's some kids behind us, some spots between the campsites. I think it's sort of like 80 to 100, somewhere in that range. The negative side is some of those are also very close to the highway. So if you can get the ones along the creek or closer to the lake, there's some very nice, it feels a little bit more private than where we were at. We're fine. All the sites where we're at have kind of open grassy areas behind them where people can access and play. So it's still, it's very nice. Yeah, but otherwise, you know, we came here because they were open a little bit later than the other campgrounds. I think the only other ones that are still open. In the Okanagan. Yeah, in the Okanagan is Okanagan Lake South. And Kukuli Bay is still open, I think, for another week or two. Some stay open. I think South Okanagan stays open until there's snow. Yeah, that's right, yeah. And right now, the nice thing is they have full services here. So flush toilets, showers, everything. Yeah, some of the buildings are older and they're smaller, and then some are bigger and newer. And there's quite a few. This is a big campsite and I think it will be very busy in the summer. Oh yeah, even now little kids are playing in the playground. Yeah, but it's still probably only half full. I mean, the section we're in is pretty much full. A few empty sites. It's the area that is a bit more rustic. Not very many, only a couple people there. And we would probably be there ourselves, except we wanted to hook up to power. Yeah, and by the time we release this video, it will probably be closed because it's going to close in a few days. Yeah, but the sun is starting to come out, and hopefully it will get a little bit warmer. I'm not sure what we're going to do today. I think it will depend on weather. It does get a little bit warmer. It's supposed to get to 16 or 17, which is pleasant. Maybe I might even get a paddle in. We'll see. And if the weather is not that great, maybe I can convince Gordon to drive over to one of the wineries. I'm sure we can do that on the way back regardless. He's either not listening to the sign or he is the guard gull. We've got some sun now. Much nicer. That's our campsite there in the park. You can see all the burned out areas above it, just on the other side of the highway. All right, my post-paddling meal. Hungry Man dinner. A chicken one. I didn't even know they made these things. I think he bought it as more of a joke for me, I think. Okay, I'm done. And here's my review. Actually, the potatoes, the brownie, that was there, and the vegetables were actually really good. The meat, I think it met my requirement for a meal at 31 grams of protein. But otherwise, the chicken was, I think at best, okay. Otherwise, yeah, I really enjoyed it. This is my lunch. It's an Amy's lentil loaf meal. Sounds too healthy. It's actually good. I really like it. Is it Hungry Man's lentil loaf? It's not Hungry Man. It's Amy's. So I had a great visit to the Volcanic Hills Winery in West Kelowna, and I spent more time than I should have, but I did a great tasting with Lindsey, and he was amazing. He was very knowledgeable about the wines and also gave me a history of the winery. Yeah, it was very nice. Yeah, so I really enjoyed that. Got about half a dozen bottles of nice wine, which I'm looking forward to having at home. And now we're heading home. We had a great visit to Bear Creek. This morning it rained a little bit, but it wasn't too bad. Quick little walk this morning. All right, this is, it's October 14th at 9.22, and it's the maximum, what is it? Annular solar eclipse. Yes, so roughly 70-80%, which was kind of a non-event. Yeah, we didn't really see anything. And yeah, so out just for a little walk this morning. Got everything put away, and then it started to rain, which is great. Yeah, perfect timing. Anyway, it was a nice little getaway. It's a nice little park. It's really a shame. You know, it's sad that, you know, because of the fires, not only the park's been destroyed, but obviously a number of houses in the area. And you can still smell the, you know, the smell of burned wood when you're at the park itself, unless the wind's coming from the east. But hopefully over the next couple of years it'll improve, and I don't know how long it'll take to open up the trails behind the park again. Yeah, and also the center dump is closed still because it's on that other side. Yeah, right now. Yeah. But yeah, it was a nice little quick getaway. Very family-friendly park is how I'd describe Bear Creek. There are some more rustic, quieter spots on, I guess, a little bit more to the south, and if you can stay away from the road. Otherwise, they're open. Really nice place, I think, for kids. Yeah. And it's nice that they're open quite late, and it's also nice that late in the season, and it's also nice that they have powered sites and full-service sites as well. Yeah, it was really handy having the powered sites for us. It's a nice trip, and if you do stay there, you can choose a number of different wine locations to visit. Oh yeah, there's tons of wineries in that area, so we only got to go to one, but there's a lot to choose from. So if you enjoyed this video, please be sure to give us a thumbs up, and please be sure to subscribe if you haven't done so already to our channel, and we will see you next time. See you next time. Bye.