Tunkwa P.P. – Easter 2010 – April 2

For most people the camping season starts with the May long weekend – for us, it starts at Easter – and as you no doubt know by now, Tunkwa Provincial Park is our place of choice.  Despite the fact that is ‘is still winter up there’, with this being at least our 3rd Easter trip, we know that really isn’t the case, besides, in just 3 weeks we’ll be setting out to parts unknown and want to make sure that everything in the camper is working as it should.

To that end we pulled out of here at 9 am on the 2nd of April, heading to Hope for fuel and coffee.  With the mountaintops disappearing in a haze of snow, we elected to take the longer, but lower route, #1 through the Fraser Canyon to Spences Bridge then highway 8 to Mamette Lake Road.  Weather was cloudy most of the route with light snow starting part way up Mamette Lake.  We were surprised to see the lake itself (Mamette Lake that is) to be completely ice free.

By the time we reached Logan Lake, we were talking more like blizzard conditions, although the roads were fine with the temperature hovering at about 2 above.  Pulled into Tunkwa at 1:30 in the afternoon, to find ourselves completely alone in the campground.

While Ernie got us set up in this most coveted spot – with a view of the lake but sheltered by trees and a bluff from the incessant winds, Shantz was so excited she was beside herself!  Here she was at Tunkwa and it was snowing!!!

I took April and wandered down to get this shot of the rapidly turning white ground….with the snow coming in sideways April was soon plastered along one side and decided she’d had enough of that nonsense!  By now the camper was set up and the furnace was on.

There were lots of geese wandering about grazing on the shoots of new green grass that really was there under the snow….

here is a more distant shot….those black dots are geese…While we sat in the warmth of the camper, a Travel Trailer pulled in…stopped in shock and looked at ‘our spot’, went and sat across the road for a bit and then left.  I said we had the ‘coveted’ spot, but there are over 200 others….maybe they went over to the campsite at Leighton as we could see several units over there…as it was, we remained the only campers the entire weekend although a number of people drove in and went for walks and had picnics…. 

by late afternoon the snow had let up and quickly started to disappear.  We ventured out for a walk….

there were a number of Dark-eyed Junco in the bushes around the spill way between Tunkwa Lake and Leighton Lake.

and here is a look at Leighton Lake….both lakes were still ice covered although thawing a bit around the edges.

here is the view from the spillway….

there were a few Killdeer running around, this was one of a pair at the edge of the lake…

More geese on the ice…

 by evening the sky had cleared and the sun came out…here is the bluff just across from our campsite…

and with the sunshine came Robins….lots and lots of Robins….some Junco’s as well…

and the Killdeer were wandering all over in the evening sunshine…

another look at the little bay…you can see the thawed out sections along the shore..

and to finish the evening, this adult Bald Eagle landed in the tree in the middle of the picture just above…you can just see the dot…

At this point it was time to retire to the camper and fire up the generator as the temperature was dipping below the freezing mark.