Which Way To Go?

The weather Gods are not painting a nice picture for the next few days.  Neither are the Internet references and reviews for RV Parks around Penticton.   Most say; Overpriced and Overregulated. The WiFi at our Vernon location was so poor we could not do much planning so the new plan was to use Penticton to figure out where we are headed and find somewhere to stay.

The overpriced part we quickly confirmed during a lunch break at a wonderful ‘Organic’ grocery store with a sit down deli in Penticton (Wheatgrass).  Grilled salmon wrap, curried corn salad, chunky vegetable soup, stacked turkey and cranberry sandwich and delicious coffee.

After an hour of Internet searches and reviews our conclusion is; you should book well in advance and stay at the Provincial Campsites just North of town.  You won’t get WiFi or laundry but you will get lake side access, a true feeling of camping, a reasonable price and none of the crap I am listing below.

Here are some excerpts from our searches:

• Only two parks in all of Penticton accepted dogs;
• But those two did not accept dogs during Jul or Aug;
• And, your dog has to be less than 17in tall or long to be allowed in;
• Full service (power, water, sewer) $50 per night, charge for showers, charge for WiFi, charge for more than 2 persons (Best Western, $90, Free breakfast, free Internet, pool and hot tub);
• No refunds, must be booked in advance, no drive ups (so what if you don’t like what you see when you arrive?);
• Lasting impression; Leave Penticton off your Bucket List if you are a camper

Not far South of Penticton on Hwy 97 is Oliver and then Osoyoos.  Both of these locations had RV resorts that sounded wonderful and had good reviews.  We however, needed to make a decision.  It was getting late in the day, the rain was spotting and if we headed South we would be adding over 100klms to our journey.  A little more checking and we decided to head over Hwy 3A to meet up with #3 at Keremeos.  Our destination was a toss up between Gold Mountain RV and Riverside RV in Hedley BC. We chose Gold Mountain, about 100 klms.

The climb out of Penticton was straight up.  Ears popped over and over.  White beast wanted to go fast but I wouldn’t let her.  Once we crested that climb I swear it was downhill all the way to Keremeos.

It turns out the two RV parks are exactly side by side, in a beautiful river valley, 5 klms South of the little town of Hedley BC.  We are going to stay another day (rain or shine) and visit the town as the owners of the park have convinced us that the local museum and antique shops should not be missed and if the weather holds we can hike to one of the old gold mines.

The river is flowing too violently for Kyle to swim so we hiked up into the fields above the RV park.  He chased imaginary rabbits till he was ready to drop.  How do we know, really big pink tongue hanging out during the walk back down.

This is definitely a 5 Star place to stop.  $34 for full hook-ups.  WiFi, fire pits, four TV stations, grass and shade plus river access.  We will stay here again.