Roadtrek Zion Campervan in the Okanagan, BC

It's Friday afternoon and we're heading off to the Okanagan for the weekend in search of sunshine. I'm not sure we're going to be successful. It's the first week of June and what we refer to here as Junuary. It's 13 degrees outside, raining like mad. This is pretty much January and February weather for us. It happens on occasion. We had a great May with 30 degree days, but beginning of June it's got a lot of rain, cooler weather. We'll be stopping at Manning Park at the Mule Deer Campground this time. It's about halfway to the Okanagan. We'll spend the night there. It'll cool down to probably about 3 degrees. And for the weekend there's even snow in that area forecast. So a bit dismal, but we're hoping the Okanagan will be a lot nicer. It's a wine country, so in the worst case scenario we'll just visit several wineries. So you couldn't ask for much of a better backyard. We are a little close to the highway. You can actually just see some of the cars through the trees and hear a little bit of the highway noise. But this isn't a main highway, so don't envision that there will be a lot of traffic over the course of the night. And then the sound of the river will probably offset any of that. So side to side we're pretty good, and Mickey just noted that we're slightly lower at the back. Which is actually advantageous if you intend to use the shower. One of our learnings is if we're sloped the other way and we have a shower, we always have this puddle of water remaining. So some other nice spots that don't appear to be reserved, so we're not sure whether they're first come first serve sites, which you can tell when you look on the website, or whether they're just simply not reserved. So similar to our spot, but even a bigger picture of the river. A nice little feature for people who are tenting. A very clean place to wash your dishes. Some extra water. Garbage recycling. Probably be what you'd expect to be an outhouse, but take a look. Flush toilets, and a sink. And actually even a little playground for kids. So we like a lot of the campsites. They're very pleasant, as we've noted before. These ones are a little close to the highway. But you still get quite the view. So it's still raining outside, and there's lots of little bugs that are totally biting us. I don't think they're mosquitoes. They're really tiny. It's hard to see them, but I got bites all over my ankles. So we're eating in. And as usual, my one-pot cooking of noodles and sundried tomatoes, vegetables, and I think that's about it. It's making a valiant effort, but the rain is winning out, and the fire is starting to go out. Well, good morning. It's about just a little after 6am. I've been up since 5.30. Went out and did what I refer to as a rockin' walk, which means I really just go for a long walk. Pick up a rock somewhere, if you see a big rock. Maybe do shoulder press with it. Maybe do some squats. Clean and press. Some arm curls, depending on the rock and the size of the rock. Put it down, keep going. Walked over to some picnic tables. Did some step-ups, some push-ups. Just a little bit of exercise. Nothing to really tire you out. Not a bad night. It didn't get that cold, actually. I think it only went down to about 11, so it was fairly pleasant outside. Furnace didn't come on too often. Really nice evening. Other than the fact that it was raining. We're really enjoying the morning. I say we, because I just woke Mickey up when I went back into the camper van. But she's enjoying the view outside of the river. It's very nice. Nice start to our day. Just having some simple meal this morning with some cut-up fruit. We were forced inside by a large number of bugs, which were hanging around. And then it just started to rain again. Had a bit of blue sky. Start of the morning, if you're up early, like 5.30 or 6. But it's starting to rain again right now. And just before it started to rain, we were just inundated with bugs. So, back inside for breakfast this morning. We're on our way out. We were laughing because we were getting clouds and sun. When the sun would come out, the bugs would go away, and it would seem really nice. And the second the clouds came over, the bugs would come out, and it wasn't so nice. About 9 o'clock in the morning, we're heading off now towards Princeton. And then possibly we'll move to a different area in the Okanogan. We haven't quite determined where yet. The rain's chasing us. It's driving through Princeton at the moment. It's a very arid part of British Columbia, but today we get to experience their few days of rain. The actual town, little downtown, is on the left. And there's some nice little shops and restaurants. This is just the highway side. We're still heading on Highway 3. Crows Nest Highway. It's the same river that goes behind our campsite. The Simokameen River. We're going to go check out the Bromley Rock Provincial Park campground. We'll check out the day-use area and have a little break, let precious out. A lot of smaller spots. And by the river, but close also. It's a bit close to the road, but again, it's not that busy of a road. Some of the spots look nice, some of them. And this spot's not such a great spot because you're just on the highway. Here's another provincial park, Stemwinder. Let's have a quick drive through and look around. This one has 27 campsites. Water pump and pit toilets. And they do accept reservations. Well, $18. It's cheaper than the other one. Bromley Rock was $23. Heading up to the See You Later Ranch Winery and do some wine tasting. It's one of my favorite wineries, so I'm looking forward to it. Great experience at See You Later Ranch Winery. Very wonderful staff and great wines. And a nice store as well. We should have tried that. We should have had lunch there. The patio inside was closed, but we have some nice little rooms inside that look very pleasant. The wines were really amazing. So, if you ever get a chance, come and stop by. As far as chasing the sun, we seem to have successfully just found more rain. Here we are in the Okanagan wine region. Semi-arid. Some of the warmest, driest climate in Canada. And you can kind of get an idea, looking out the window, what it's like. Going to make some lunch and wait out the rain for a little bit. And then decide where we're going to spend the evening. We went to a campsite that we were considering, but it's pouring rain. And there just really wasn't a lot of interest in checking in there. It's on a big lake. Vasu Lake. But we just didn't see much point in staying there and just being basically locked in the van for the rest of the afternoon. So we're going to keep continuing exploring and see where we end up. It's not looking very summery at the moment. So we pulled into the Okanagan Lake Provincial Park South campground. We're going to try our luck here. The lady at the guest house said that there's plenty available. So we're going to check out the first come first serve. This must be overflow. Not the nicest, but there's plenty of spots. So there's one there. It's not bad. Right on the water. It's so far from the sites we've seen, the sites are a little bigger. And you're higher up, so you get more of an expansive view of the lake. Here's a nice spot with a water view. But a nice grassy area in between the sites. Oh, he burrowed underneath. So Precious wakes us up at 6 o'clock because she's hungry and thirsty. And then as soon as she's eaten, then she wants to go to sleep when we're both up and about. Precious sleepyhead. Good workout? Excellent workout. You can see my training partners. Who are they? They're small and furry. Marmots. Oh, did you see them? Lots of marmots. It's a beautiful morning here at Okanagan Lake. The water's nice and calm. There were lots of waves last night, but this morning it's pretty beautiful. And I'm just enjoying my morning cup of coffee here. It's my new mug that I bought from See You Later Ranch Winery. And it says coffee keeps me busy until it's acceptable to drink wine. So I think that suits me to a tea. And Gordon's relaxing over there. He's drinking his tea. And looking at pictures of the marmots that he... Oh! Oh my gosh! Look at them! Oh my gosh, they just came to visit me. They're so cute! There's our Zion hidden behind the tree. Pretty nice place to have a morning coffee. Scrambled eggs, some vegetarian sausage, bagels. Looks like a good breakfast. Peaches. You're so cute, Monkey. Yeah, you're so cute. What are you looking for? What's going on over there, precious? What's going on over there? Do you want to drive? Do you want to drive today so you can give Gordon a break? What do you think? What do you think? So I thought we could talk about the campgrounds at Okanagan Lake Provincial Park. Although I did say earlier that the north campground seemed a lot nicer, we actually ended up enjoying our stay at the south campground. It was really pleasant being right next to the water. There was a grassy area beside our site and you could actually sit at the picnic tables there. It was nice and quiet and you're right there next to the water. So I thought it was a great stay. Well, that was nice. I still would go to the north site if we went back again. It's nice to have the water feature at the southern one, but I really like the north site just because they're bigger and quieter. We were lucky. It was a quiet area. The campground, everyone was quiet. So it worked out really well for us, which is nice. I agree with Mickey. It was really nice to be able to be by the water. We got to film some ducks and we had lots of birds and things. I'd still go probably up to the northern campground if I was going to stay a longer period of time just because the spots were a little bit bigger. Instead of taking 3A, we're going to take Old Headley Road. So we're on the way back home, but on the way we stopped for lunch at a little forest recreation site just on the west side of Headley. Headley is a small little town. I think it used to be a gold mine there. So you could camp here actually for $12 a night and you're right next to the river. The only negative thing is you've got Highway 3A across the river, but Highway 3A is a very quiet highway. You'd have little if any traffic at night. During the day it gets a little busier.