Leaving Okanagan Falls, east to Cranbrook BC via Syringa provincial park (2 days!)

Campsite #7 at Syringa park

Wed June 17 

Today we headed out from Donna's place, starting to head east and home. Not real early, away about 8:30 PDT (11:30 EDT).

It was garbage pickup this morning. Before we left, Donna chatted with a neighbour and they had some visitors in the background:

 

Neighbour Bren with her walking companion

The background doe had some company too, 2 really young fawns

Very scenic heading south on Hwy 3 this morning, with light traffic and minimal construction delays: 

Some huge rock formations along the way

Not the Rockies, but makes one feel small anyway

Lots of irrigated greenery. Grapes, various fruits etc.

Lots of markets too. Mostly cherries this early in the season

 

A left turn at Osoyoos had us heading for the hills along hwy 3:

Looking back down on part of Osoyoos

Hwy 3 gets pretty twisty in places

We just carried on easterly on hwy 3, stopping here and there:

 

A couple of seniors enjoy trying for a fish at a rest area

Stopped at Christina Lake park for a picnic lunch. Ominous.

After considering various destinations for today, we decided we were ready to camp for the night. Both of us were tired. Now to find a place to camp.

A couple of places didn't appeal, so we headed for Syringa provincial park, a nice campground we visited 2 years ago:

Settled in to site #7

Lots of nice site choices

Even a scenic playground area

That's us again, from the path behind our site

Nobody was on the gate when we arrived, so we walked up later to register: 

A huge free-standing rock along the path

 We did get a bit of a shock when registering. This site was likely $25-$28 two years ago. Today the site is $37.50. Bad enough, but then the provincial govt adds another $20 per transaction because we don't live in BC. So $57.50 to camp for the night.

Just to add insult to injury, BC seniors get a site for half the posted rate. So a BC senior would pay $18.75 as opposed to our senior $57.50. Rather a steep difference, yes? Like double taxation on non-BC seniors.

The increased rates only apply to the more popular parks (ie the accessible ones we may want to use). The non resident fee applies to all BC parks though. I guess the good news is that it may be easier to find a campsite in a BC park now. 

Other than the great campsites and gorgeous views, the park also had:

-  no electric or water at our site (electric is available on some other sites for an additional 7 or 8 dollars)

- water from park taps has a Boil Water advisory

- no showers in the park

- no Wifi or cellular signal, so no communications last night 

 

We debated carrying on, but were tired enough that would have been unwise. So we paid, under protest. The park is privately run, but the provincial govt decides on pricing. Sympathy and empathy from the gatekeeper, but no discounts. Very disappointing decisions, kind of what the orange one down south has done with US parks. We won't be looking for provincial parks in BC anymore.  

 

Thu June 18

Today we carried on to Cranbrook from Syringa provincial park. Lots more scenery along the way:

Many looong uphill and downhill grades today. The van keeps track of average mileage for the day, and it varied from 7.1 L/100km to 10.2 L/100km. Low at the bottom of some of these grades and high at the top after a long ascent. 

After only a bit more than 2 hours of this we were ready for a good break already. We stopped at the tourist info place in Creston BC, having enjoyed the service and the art show there 2 years ago when through this area. A good stop once again. Here's some local art that caught Cathie's eye (to Look At Only!). No purchases today. 

During the stop we started to look for campsites for the night and  preferably over the weekend. Really nothing available. The National parks like Waterton Lakes are completely booked starting Friday, as the National Park cost reductions start then for the summer. 

We did stop in to Yahk, a basic BC provincial park. We (I) had misunderstood that the non resident fee applied only to the more popular and accessible parks. Not so, the $20 transaction surcharge applies to ALL BC Provincial Parks. Just the price increases were limited to some 68 of the popular parks. So no increase for a night at Yahk, same price of $21. Plus the $20 non res fee to almost double the cost to $41. The park didn't really appeal to us today, especially for that price.     

So, here we are in Cranbrook BC again. After spending some time in the Walmart parking lot, and some store time too, we moved over to the nearby Home Hardware store when the 6pm overnight period starts. This is the store that welcomes RVers with a nice sign we haven't seen before or since.

Here is a link to our previous trip through here in 2024. More details about the camping etc. < LINK to 2024 trip > 

 

While we're enjoying the slow pace, especially through the winding  mountain roads, I figure it will take over 25 days to get home at this rate. Not a bad idea in some ways, but we hope to not take quite that long. :))
 

P.S. the horizontal line across the bottom of both these maps is the US border. 

Lots of sheep pictures!

In the next-door-neighbour's yard

 

We've had a real nice week visiting at Donna's place. The van has stayed put in the driveway, with various trips to nearby Penticton courtesy of Donna for shopping, dining out etc, and a great week of good weather.

I thought I'd focus on pictures of the sheep visits, as they dropped by a couple of times, usually a flock of 8 mature rams:

 

Visiting Donna's front yard

Some amazing horns on these guys

Finishing off the last few flowers on the front yard rose bush

The older the ram, the more the horns curl forward

The rams were moving on to the neighbour's yard here

There's quite a valley between the neighbour's yard and the houses across the way 

  

 

A younger ram paid a solo morning visit to Donna's back yard. A little apprehensive about Donna's dog Sergie barking at him:  

 

He decided on discretion and headed out in a hurry...

...but stopped to check things out

 He decided to come back, carefully

Sergie encouraged the ram to keep moving, and he did.

There were reports of bears in the area, but none visited Donna this year while we were watching.  

We're expecting to leave Donna's tomorrow (Wednesday) and start heading easterly. A slow trip home we hope.
 

 

A few days resting up at Donna's. The sheep are back.

 

Donna's house

 

We haven't posted for a few days, just relaxing and resting up from the long trip west. We're so happy to have made it out to BC and Donna's place once again. (Donna is Cathie's sister)

On our visit here 2 years ago we started seeing wildlife right away. Not so this time. The first few days seeing a quail was about it. Today (Friday) we started to see larger wildlife again. 

Donna's little guard dog (Sergie) has been quite agitated each time he's gone outside. We finally saw a coyote Wednesday, and our theory is that coyotes have been around, and the sheep don't come by then. In fact, a few nights ago a group of coyotes killed a small deer right in a neighbor's yard, and maybe they moved on then. Sergie isn't as agitated now, and the sheep are back.

Meanwhile, we've had a few excursions:

A visit to one of the many local wineries

On the way to the winery we finally saw some wildlife

 

As usual, one of the pastimes has been a cribbage tourney between Cathie and Donna. Donna has been the big winner until today, when switching chairs has seemed to give Cathie an edge. Donna's still ahead in game wins and skunks though, right now:

 

Every couple of days Sergie gets an off-leash walk in the nearby dog-friendly area:

 

Intimidating sign, there has been some instability in that area

The white house above had some slippage in their side yard

Lots of dramatic building lots here

 

Donna's house is in a really pretty (and stable) area:

 

Always yard work in season though

Donna filling the back yard birdbath

 

One day the gals had an outing with lunch out, and came back changed:

Before

   

After trim

Nice lunch spot

Finally today some sheep arrived. These are all rams, the ewes are off raising the current lambs in private:

First they appeared in the back yard this morning, but didn't stay long

Later this afternoon they came up the neighbours driveway

8 in all

They headed right around to Donna's front yard to a rose bush they like

Once the rose flowers are gone, time to go

Somebody make a decision - where to now?

Head across the road

On their way to greener (or rosier) pastures

 

Here's a couple of rose bush pictures:

Rosebush in the back yard where sheep can't reach

 

The bush the sheep found in front. They only missed 2 flowers, but came back later.

We're planning to stay through the weekend and start heading for home next week.