RV Camping at Monck Park, BC

Hi everyone! So today we're at Monk Provincial Park in BC which is a little outside of Merritt. Yeah, about 15 minutes. And from Vancouver it's about three hours, three hours and 15 minutes. Yeah, so nice and close for us. So in this video we're just going to chat a little bit about our camp here and maybe go for a hike and Gordon's going to do some paddling as well. So we hope you enjoy this video. Actually today's the first full day of summer. Yesterday was the summer solstice and we came in yesterday, stopped for our world-famous samosas at the Britton Creek rest stop. So first time this year and they were as good as ever. It's kind of a fun drive. It was kind of cloudy, rainy and then got a little nicer as we got closer to Merritt. But it was still pretty cloudy all day and did rain here actually in the afternoon, late in the afternoon and the early evening. Actually just the day before there'd been snow in the mountains. So we just finished I think the middle of June was kind of January and now we're back into some warmer weather and we're out here at beautiful Nicola Lake. All right so we had to stop again for the world-famous veggie samosas which are here and despite that I just can't resist my like once every several month hot dog that I get up here. So looking forward to it. Good. I haven't had one of those since last fall. One of the window screens and one for the other side. Hey Mr. Finch welcome to Monk Park. There's the water down there. Excuse the fingers when they stick in the video. Hey it's your first time to this place. He's cautious. Yeah but look at the nice view you get Finch. Really nice. So much warmer here but it does feel like it's gonna rain. Oh and in you go. So we're actually having a dinner of sort of odds and ends snacks and we're laughing because there's a fellow out in a boat in a small little boat and his motors. You might be able to hear it in the background. He's just hanging around our campground. Just fishing right off where we're at. So some olives. The world-famous samosas from the Britton Creek. Some little cheese for me. Turkey pepperoni. Plant-based cheese. I get some potato salad. I'm having a beer very similar to the type of beer our friend Henry's supposed to be bringing us. And Mickey's having a wine that we picked up at Manning Park. I just can't actually I ended up going a little later than I wanted but still fairly early. I think I was out the door at 5 in the morning. But last night we didn't get a lot of sleep in part because I think we have a mouse in our van again and so we've got a couple you know mouse traps out. And Finch was on the hunt. He was constantly jumping up and trying to run under seats and looking at things. So I think he could smell a mouse somewhere. I was trying to find one. Had no luck. We've got a couple mouse traps up. The kind Finch can't get in. They're not gonna hurt Finch. Hopefully if the mouse is still with us we will catch him or her and be able to let them go somewhere else other than here. Or we're hoping the best-case scenario is that they smell Finch and hightail it out. So I went for a paddle. It was nice. There was a little bit of a breeze on the lake down when the Sun came up. And I actually went all the way down. Walked down to where the sort of public beach area is. In part because I didn't want to inflate my boat with my little pump and possibly wake out wake some of the other campers in the area. And in the end that didn't matter because the pump's battery was dead anyway. And so I had to go old school and use the sort of pillowcase to pump it up. And that was fine. Got out in the water. It was a little breezy. So nothing to paddle. But in a pack raft whenever there's any wind it's never that great. So did a nice little paddle. Came back in. And what was really nice actually when I came in is I had an opportunity to see an eagle that was in one of the dead trees that's near the water. Just it was just great to see that. And got some shots from the water hopefully. Because when you're in a boat in the wind you're moving up in town. So who knows how those will come out. And then I managed to walk back and get a couple shots off the beach trail. So hopefully they all turned out. I'm sorry Mr. Finch you can't come out. I'm sorry little buddy. campsite and our van right there. There's a little beach off to the left. I'm gonna Just straight up ahead above us. I think I'm gonna go back and see if I can get a few more photos of the eagle from another side. I noticed he was still back in the tree. Just eggs for Mickey and regular eggs. Soon to be scrambled eggs for me. And a nice morning view. I don't know if you'll be able to see that but right up the upper corner where the awning is there's just a little remnants of a wasp's nest. We noticed last time we opened our awning that there was a small nest being built in the corner. Obviously we need to use our awning more often. So Monk Provincial Park the campground I think there's about a hundred and thirty sites. And yeah a lot of them have beautiful lake views which is really nice. And we lucked out and we found one along the lake. And yeah it's been peaceful and quiet. It's kind of like the week before school's out. So we're still you know I don't know maybe about a third full. I don't think it's that. There's a large number of sites that are empty. This is kind of unusual. Here when you check in the gatehouse is open between 10 and 4. And if you were to come in without a reservation you actually have to ask them where there may be some vacant spots. And then they'll look for something for you at that point. All the spots here are nice actually. We did a walk around last night around the campground. And you know there's some really nice spots. And then there's just some nice spots. We didn't really see any spots that were you know unpleasant looking. It's just they're big. There's lots of ponderosa pine trees. Some are completely out in the open. Some have elements of shade. So you know there's little kind of things you might want to factor in depending on how you like to camp. But it's just a beautiful place. And it seems rustic. There's no showers. But the washroom. Some are pit toilets. But a lot of them are also flush toilets. So no shower building though. But just be aware that they are a little concerned about blue algae blooms in this lake. I guess August last year they had some. Yeah there's a warning right now. I was out paddling. I saw none. But there is actually just a warning note from the local health authority saying keep an eye out. There could be a blue algae bloom. And they're they're monitoring it and checking. So yeah it's just could be I think it could be harmful. Potentially poisonous to animals if they eat it. And probably the same for people. But certainly you don't want it on your skin and things like that. Yeah and if you go paddling you gotta wash out your boat. Yeah I washed off my boat and washed me off as well. Yeah. Nice thing about having the outside shower. Yes exactly. We're just heading out for a short hike. We don't want to leave Finch too long in the van. Because it might get a little hot. All our fans and everything are set automatically. But we just still don't we still don't want to be away very long. The temperature today is gonna be somewhere between 23 and 26 maybe 7. By the end of the day. After right now it's still like about 18 degrees and reasonably cool. We're already hot and tired from walking up the campground road. It's not very far. So the hiking trail is right across from the entrance to the park. Okay we're heading back down. Check on the van. Check on Finch. Make sure the temperature is okay for him. Today we're just doing sort of the the quick quick and dirty. Yeah I think we'll be up and out back back to our van in about an hour. Which is which is probably fine. Just in time for lunch. Yeah just in time for lunch. It's past lunch but we had a late breakfast. Anyway fantastic views from up here. So nice. The west loop and then came back on the east loop trail. How you doing? Oh yes yes yes. You're gonna smudge the camera. Temperature in here is not too bad. 23.1 inside. 19.6 outside. Did you have a good rest? I think you did. I think you did. But you still missed us. Yes you did. It was a short hike but it's still worth at least a small glass of beer. Dinner tonight. I've got a... It's just a seasoned frozen fish. Haddock I think. Haddock. Some new out-of-the-garden baked potatoes. Some broccoli. Mickey has very similar but she has tofu instead of fish. Looked good. I added some ranch dressing. Gordon probably likes his plain. Good morning everyone. Well I got up this morning a little late. Left camp about 6 30 and I'm just on the longer trail that Mickey and I did yesterday. The trail we did yesterday was wonderful. Not too long. Steep. So good fitness hike. This trail is very similar. Very similar views but a little bit longer. And I think I'm at the high point of the trail at least according to the map I have. And we had an eventful night just as we're about to go to bed. Mickey's sitting with her feet up and all of a sudden a mouse came walking out very close to her. So she was kind of upset about that. I was so tired from the night before when Finch was hunting for a mouse. I didn't really care about a mouse in the van. But so Finch was jumping around chasing where he thought the mouse was and then we never heard of it the rest of the evening. So maybe he either convinced it to cower away somewhere or scoot out of the van. Anyway we've still got our mouse traps up and hopefully for the next several days when we're storing the van again I'll have the mouse traps up and hopes of catching it if it's still there. So I have to admit this is kind of my favorite terrain to hike in. Beautiful ponderosa pines are all over this area. It's nice and dry, grasslands, nice flowers. The only thing I don't like, ticks. I think we're at the end of the main tick season but still look for ticks after doing any kind of hikes in this kind of grass. But look at this view. So nice. Nice little bench. Now I'll show you the view. I came down up over there across and then it crosses the road here that goes down to the park and the trail sign is just ahead of me. They'll take me down down there the bluffs above the water. Just the top of the bluffs after I left the trail by the road. The campground's just over there. Somebody had a small boat, maybe a kayak right there. That's where I was yesterday at one point. Oh it's nice to be greeted when I come back in. Good morning Mr Finch. When I leave little Finch he says he wants to go home now. More room, more room at home. Here's something we don't usually film and that's packing and repacking all the stuff, putting the everything out either back in the cupboards or under the bed before we head home. Okay so we're all packed up and ready to go. We had a really great time at Monk Provincial Park. Yeah it's great. I mean there's we got to go some paddling. Yesterday did that short hike and then this morning I went back and did the longer loop which was really only about a half hour longer. Yeah really nice short little fitness hikes. Campsites are immaculate. The bathrooms are immaculate. Usually in the summer months it's pretty busy here but we did notice a sign up front when you arrive. The gate house is actually open from 10 a.m to 4 p.m but if you arrive after that and you don't have reservations then what they recommend is for you to either call the BC Parks reservation line or go online and just book a site because the tags at the campsites they all say reserved even if they're free. Yeah so that's different than some BC Parks where they'll change the signs if there's a day or two that a spot is open here you just have to check online if you haven't booked or if the gate house is open then they'll just look and obviously see if they can find you some. Yeah but there's a lot of nice spots here and we really enjoyed it. I mean it's been a nice trip. Yeah we really loved our spot. Beautiful lake view. So if you enjoyed this video please be sure to give us a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel if you haven't done so already and we will see you next time. We'll see you next time.