Meet Holly and her adorable little family. I have known Holly since highschool and have recently connected over social media!!! She loves the outdoors and shares her love of the outdoors with her adventurous family. Their most recent trip with their toddler sent them chasing waterfalls. Check out their family adventure and all the beautiful places they decided to visit!!!
We have been really blessed with Abigail. She was born on May Long weekend in 2014 with the same love for the outdoors Jon and I both have! Abbie is happiest when she’s outside.
We started camping with her when she was little. When she was one week old, she went to Waskesiu for the first time. In September, when she was 3 months old, we tented in Wells. she would stare at the trees while I nursed her beside the fire. We wanted to go back to Wells Grey and do some hiking to show her all the beautiful waterfalls. This summer seemed like the perfect time to do it.
Toddler, Dog and Nomad camper in tow we went 3300km going into Northern, Interior, and Southern BC. We did around 300km a day of driving and Abigail did amazing in the car. We tried to plan an activity like biking, hiking or playing at the beach in the mornings to tire Abigail out so that while we would drive she would nap. The first and last day we did about 700 km!!! We drove mostly through the night when Abbie was sleeping to cover that distance.
Our plans were very flexible. I think being flexible with scheduling was so important for this trip. It was a long way so if we needed to stop we did and if Abbie was happy we would keep driving. We had no solid plan of where we would camp every night (with the exception of Wells Grey). For us that helped the trip go as smooth as it did. Road tripping with littles was all about timing…and if I am honest readily available snacks!!
The trip started in Saskatoon. We wanted to break up the drive because getting to Wells Grey is around 1300 km. Leg one we went to Mount Robson Provincial Park and stayed at this little first come first serve campground called Lucerne. It sits beside a lake and a little beach. It has some easy hiking paths in/around it. It’s a great little spot especially for toddlers.
It rained during our time camping at Lucerne. We made the best of the rain and got into rain gear and went puddle jumping, rock throwing on the beach and walking on the little trails. I think that is a must when you go on a road trip with kids.
After our time Lucerne we drove the rest of the way to Wells Grey and stayed at Falls Creek Campground which is which is at the tip of the key that makes up the vehicle accessible portion of the park. Here we spent 4 days hiking and exploring waterfalls. Most of the falls we visited were easy 500m-1km hikes to the viewpoints. However the big hike we did with all the kids was to Moul Falls. This is a 3 km beginner-intermediate hike to the base of the falls. Which means that roundtrip it was 6km of hiking!!! Add 5 toddlers AND 5 dogs into the equation and it was a good hike!
This was one of the most rewarding days of the trips. Abigail and all of the other kids had a blast playing in the rocks and watching the falls. The adults had a blast running behind the falls and playing in the caves. I had planned to take Abigail behind the falls but the runoff made it way too strong and I just didn’t feel comfortable. My husband Jon and I took turns playing with her while the other explored behind the falls.
When we weren’t exploring waterfalls we spent a lot of time just letting her play with sticks and rocks and whatever she could find. It was so great seeing her enjoy it so much. She learned about fire, and s’mores, and ate breakfast/lunch/supper outside. Even though she had short naps and went to bed late she did not have a single tantrum. In fact all of the kids enjoyed their time just as much as Abbie. It was incredible. Best of all it was completely uninterrupted by cell phones or any technology at all. It felt like camping when I was a little kid when there were no phones!
After the four days in the bush, we had planned to go and spend more time back in Mount Robson Park. However, the forecast in the Okanogan was amazing and it was about the same distance away since we had added about 300 km to the trip. Instead we decided to drive to the Okanogan for some lakes and hot weather. In the Okanogan we stayed at Kekuli Bay Provincial Park which overlooks Kalamalka Lake. Our spot was on top of a hill looking over the lake and we had an amazing a million dollar view.
In the Okanogan we got to swim in turquoise water and spend a day hanging out under an amazing Willow tree that was complete with a rope swing! Abigail got to experience a different BC, and was brave as she swam in the water.
After, we decided to continue on the south highway 3 since we had never been on that highway before, and follow the American border until Cranbrook. When we could cut up north again we headed towards Fairmont to surprise Jon’s family who were all there for the weekend. They were not expecting us but knew they would be happy to see us. We camped the Skandz Campground in Christina Lake. Christina Lake, BC is the warmest lake on the BC tree line. They also have the best bakery and ice cream shop. I would move there just to go there everyday.
Abbie went skinny dipping at Christina Lake for the first time! It was beautiful and a very family oriented place. We will hopefully be going back next summer to spend way more time there exploring all the different trails. There are so many little gems along Highway 3. Every 20 minutes we must have said that there was another place we wanted to stop. Next summer, we plan to do another road trip and spend some time exploring all of those little places. Too bad we didn’t live somewhere the camping season wasn’t just a little bit longer!
Born to be Adventurous 
OMG she’s just the cutest! ^_^ How did you handle hiking with the little one when it rained? Was there any kind of umbrella over here, or did you just put her in waterproofs? (people who hike with toddler impress me; I had a hard enough time with my backpack, and that didn’t talk back ahaha)
LikeLike
This post was by Holly Burgess and she has the cutest family! We have also done hiking and camping with two toddlers in the rain. We usually just do everything with full body waterproof suits! If they are hiking then you want to be careful they don’t overheat and wear gear that is water resistant but breathable. As for camping well it is definitely tricky. Things get wet and a bit mucky. It is nice on really wet days to choose that day to do the scenic trips those days. Drive somewhere to do something for 30-60 minutes and then drive somewhere else.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This definitely puts me in the mood for some hiking, I absolutely love the scenery is the pictures it is absolutely majestic.
LikeLike