Birkenhead Lake...

Birkenhead lake on a sunny morning.

It's taken me a while to get around to writing it up, but we spent the weekend before last camping at Birkenhead Lake, a beautiful provincial campground about one and a half hours north of Whistler and Pemberton.

The like is cold and crystal clear, framed by snow-peaked mountains

We set out on Friday morning and drove along the Sea to Sky Hwy. It is the same drive that we took to Alice Lake and it is a beautiful drive as you head up into the mountains. Once you are past Whistler the traffic diminishes and you take the lovely windy drive up to Birkenhead. Birkenhead Park itself is about 14 km up a well-paved side road.

At first we were disappointed to find that our reserved spot was taken by someone. The park attendents had moved us to another spot (we are still not sure why they didn't move the people in our reserved spot...which would seem to me to be the whole point of reserving a spot in the first place). There were also people in the the spot they moved us to. The park was nearly empty when we got there and Birkenhead, fortunately, has quite a few first-come-first-served campsites. We found one that we liked (after about an hour of me changing my mind) and set up. As we were setting up Mark spotted a bear hovering around in an adjacent campsite and we noticed lots of bear poop around. The bears around Birkenhead are quite adventurous. We were glad to be sleeping in our van!

A lakeside "beach" where you can take a rest...or spend a whole day

Despite a forecast of drizzle and cloud, we enjoyed sunshine and warmth. On Friday afternoon we did part of the beautiful lake trail. We enjoy this trail because it stays close to the water and there are little areas where you can go to the lakeside and enjoy a "private" little beach. The lake is very cold. I did a bit of paddling, until my feet went numb. Bronwyn, however, stripped of and began splashing about! What is it with kids and there toleration for cold water?

On Saturday morning we went down to the lake. Mark took turns taking the kids out in the kayak and I chilled down by the lake and took in the breathtaking scenery. Just after lunch Mark went back to the campsite to get his sunscreen (he refuses to use the factor 30 that me and the kids use).

Just as he returned some dark clouds rolled in. By the time we got back to the campsite rain was starting to pour. Thunder clapped and the skies opened. There followed about 45 minutes of downpour. We were definitely glad of the van...although Mark spent most of the time trying to stop the tarp from collapsing under the weight of all the rainfall.

When the rain cleared we were left with sunny skies again and we did some more of the lakeside trail. The mist was rising from the forests on the mountains. Sunday was also a beautiful morning. That was when I took the picture at the beginning of this post. And this one. Mark is responsible for River's hat...but it was a bit cool, and the only warm hat that we had with us...

Here is a little video of Bronwyn and River singing their goodbye song. One of River's favourite songs is "All Good Things" by Nelly Furtado. And it's the sad song that Bronwyn sings when we leave camping....