Day 8 – Vancouver, BC to Bear Creek Provincial Park, near Kelowna, B.C

One last morning in beautiful Vancouver.

I am a little sad that we’ll be leaving Vancouver this morning, since there’s obviously so much left to see and do. We could easily spend an entire week here, and hopefully we will in the near future. But I have to keep reminding myself that this trip is like dining at a buffet: you can’t have too much of any one thing unless you’re willing to take less, or nothing, of something else.

We joined grandpa for one last coffee this morning, stopped at a Canadian Tire, and then got left Vancouver on the Trans-Canada Highway east through the Fraser River Valley. I’ve been to Vancouver a number of times, but always by air not by road, so it was kind of interesting to see this end of town.

The Fraser Valley was kind of like driving the 401 eastward out of Toronto, if there were mountains on the horizon. First we passed the suburbs of Burnaby, Surrery and Langely (similar to Pickering, Whitby, and Oshawa) and then smaller towns like Abbotsford and Chilliwack (similar to Coburg and Port Hope) with lots of agriculture in between.

From the Fraser Valley we veered north on Highway 5 and into the Hozameen Mountain Range and over the Coquihalla Pass The climb was quite dramatic, taking us to nearly 6000 feet!


The price for this dramatic climb was also steep, and near the summit we passed through a toll booth where we had to pay $10.00!


And of course, with every good climb comes the speedy descent on the other side, this time into the Okanagan Valley. Canyonero’s nifty external thermometer indicated a temperature at the summit of 29C, which had increased to 37C as we dropped into the valley. The air was hot and very dry as we pulled into a fruit stand just south of Kelowna. Since we’d deliberately skipped the produce section during out grocery stop in Chilliwack earlier in the day, we loaded up on fresh blueberries, nectarines, cherries, green beans, some yummy nugget potatoes, two cucumbers for $0.25 each, and a massive fresh garlic, with the long stem still attached.

As we continued on along the western shore of Okanagan Lake, we saw a sign for the Mission Hill Vineyard and Winery. Having sampled a bottle or three of their fine offerings in the past, we decided a quick detour was in order. The Winery was very cool, though I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

It would be an exceptionally beautiful setting for a wedding, though exceptionally expensive as well, I imagine.

In the wine store, we sampled a few of their offerings and picked up a bottle of Gewurztraminer (Vone’s new and current favourite) and Sauvignon Blanc – both of which are quite light and fruity, the Sauvignon more tart than the sweeter Gewurzt.

A short while later, we arrived at our destination for the night – Bear Creek Provincial Park. Nestled immediately to the west of Okanagan Lake, and sheltered by the hills that rise up from the shore, it’s a very nice campground. Lots of trees, and a nice grassy field that the campsites all back on to, where lots of kids were playing. It also has a nice sandy beach, though our hopes of getting in a quick swim were quickly dashed by an arriving thunderstorm.

The rain started shortly after we had our tent and shelter set up. The storm built surprisingly fast, and soon we found ourselves taking cover in Canyonero as hail began to fall.

Luckily the heart of the storm passed as quickly as it came – though thanks to heavy winds and persistent showers we did opt to eat dinner in the front seat while Lilo slept in the back.

All in all, it could have been worse. As we head to bed, we’re only hoping the storms are over for the night…