STRATHCONA PROVINCIAL PARK.
Day 278 – It rained during the night and some this morning. There was supposed to be some sun today, so we drove to the areas of Strathcona that we could get to by road – areas we hadn’t already visited. We packed a lunch and headed out before 9:30 a.m. It was cloudy and 57 degrees.
We drove south from our campground stopping at several turn-outs to get scenic pictures, but without the sun to bring in some color the hills and trees were just dark and not as interesting. We stopped at several trails and evaluated them for distance, ascent/descent, and mosquito population, and decided to return to two on the way back. We kept driving until we reached Ralph River Campground.
This campground is also part of Strathcona Provincial Park, and like our campground, Buttle Lake, it was full. We drove through, scoping it out in case we came back another time. We would definitely come back to this campground. We fit in most campsites, the sites were bigger and farther apart, and it appeared to be occupied more by serious hikers and people that fished – it was much quieter than where we are now. Comparing this campground to ours, it is a good 45-minute longer drive and is more remote, farther to any cities, and closer to most of the major hiking trails.
We continued south and west to the end of one road and stopped at Myra Falls. The parking lot was very crowded and the trail was quite steep. Rob walked to the end of the trail to get pictures; I stayed in the car and watched the mosquitoes swarm around the car.
We drove on to the end of the Park road. At that point we turned around because it was gated mining property. We drove back north and stopped at both areas we’d checked out before: Auger Point, which after reading the description didn’t look very interesting; and Lupin Falls, which Rob hiked to while I hid in the car.
We continued north past the road back to our campground and stopped at Upper Campbell Lake Campground. We wanted to see how busy they were on a Saturday. There were a couple of empty campsites. We’re keeping this campground in mind for a stay after the Island we’re going to tomorrow. This campground is first-come, first-served, not taking reservations. We hope to nab a campsite at this small campground on the lake (even though we already have reservations at a different campground, we like this one much better and if we could get in, we would cancel our other reservations). After looking at the campground we drove around the Lake and stopped at the Dam where we ate our lunch.
It rained a little and the clouds thickened. So much for some sun for our drive. We went back to our campground and spent the rest of the afternoon there. We leave tomorrow for some Island time.
For more detailed information about Strathcona Provincial Park Buttle Lake Campground, click here.