Purden Lake Provincial Park, British Columbia - September 13th to 14th, 2022
Purden Lake Provincial Park was a peaceful destination. The nice weather added to our enjoyment of the park. A little wildlife and pretty scenery provided a great place to relax.
Tuesday was a longer drive, about four and a half hours Google Maps time from Tyhee Lake Provincial Park to Purden Lake Provincial Park. Jasper was originally going to be our laundry and grocery stop in four days, but, since we are no longer staying in Jasper due to the Chetamon wildfire, Prince George was our last chance for laundry until we reach Banff in ten days. Purden Lake is just east of Prince George, so stopping to do laundry would make our drive even longer. It was already the shoulder season at Purden Lake which meant the camp sites are no longer reservable and all were first come/first serve, so we didn’t want to show up too late in the day. That meant we set our alarm for 6 am and were on the road by 7 am.
As we were trying to pull out of the campground sharply at 7 am, we came up to the closed gate across the campground entrance. The sign said the gate is closed from 11 pm to 7 am. Well, it was 7 am. Keith got out to see if the gate was locked. At first, it looked locked since there was a padlock on the chain, but the lock wasn’t through the other end of the chain. So Keith swung open the gate and we were on our way.
The weather was a repeat of the previous few days. Foggy and cold in the morning, but warming up in the afternoon. We were heading east, into the sun. So between the fog alternating with the sun in our eyes, it made it difficult to see to drive, but Keith managed.
The only stop we made on our way to Prince George was in Burns Lake for gas and a morning treat. Keith picked out a place called Old and Bold Expresso Bar. We arrived at the coffee shop right at 9 am, just as they were opening the door for the day. The pastries looked fresh. Along with our chai lattes we ordered a cinnamon custard swirl and a raspberry croissant. The pastries were fresh and warm. OMG! The. Best. Cinnamon. Roll. Ever! Technically, it was not a cinnamon roll because it also had custard. We previously thought that the cinnamon rolls at Tetsa River Lodge on the Alaska Highway would be hard to beat (Alcan: Tetsa River, British Columbia - June 4th to 5th, 2022). Today we were proven wrong. So, if you find yourself on the Yellowhead Highway in British Columbia, you definitely have to stop in Burns Lake and try it for yourself.
Another nice surprise was the laundromat in Prince George. We stopped at the Spotless Laundromat just off the highway. It definitely lived up to its name. It was the cleanest laundromat we’ve ever been in. All the machines looked clean and in good working condition. The washers and dryers took loonies which was good. For those of you not familiar with Canadian coins, loonies are one dollar coins and toonies are two dollar coins. We were getting low on quarters. We still had a lot of toonies so we were glad to see the change machines would take toonies and give us loonies in exchange.
After eating our lunch, buying groceries, beer, and gas, we were ready to make it through the next ten days. Now, our only concerns about getting through Jasper were having enough gas, fresh water, and gray water capacity.
We arrived at Purden Lake Provincial Park around 3 pm. There were plenty of sites to choose from, even with half the campground already shutdown for the season. We stopped off at the dump station just to check it out. You were expected to put $5 in an envelope to use the dump. Keith tested the fresh water hose. Uh oh, it did not turn on. Was the water shut off for the season?
After picking out our camp site, we walked over to one of the other water spigots scattered throughout the campground. Whew! The water was still on. When the park attendant came around later that evening to collect our payment, we confirmed that the water would be on for the remainder of our stay. We also confirmed that the dump was still open. That put our minds at ease. We had enough fresh water and gray water capacity to get us through another day or two, but we were not sure what the situation would be at our next campground, Mount Robson Provincial Park. So being able to dump and fill before we leave Purden Lake made us feel better.
It was another warm, sunny afternoon and evening. All the camp sites are nestled among the trees with plenty of separation from neighboring sites. Again, we were able to comfortably eat our dinner at the picnic table outside. It felt good since we haven’t been able to do that most of the season due to bugs, rain, or cold temperatures. Steller jays swooped down to check us out, but they were not too aggressive.
After dinner, we strolled a half mile down the road to the day use area on the lake. There were plenty of nice picnic tables and a nice sandy beach with a swimming area. It was too cold (for us anyway) to go swimming, but it looked like it would have been a nice place to swim earlier in the season. A couple of boats were out on the water. The trees along the shore, lit up by the sun, were reflecting nicely in the calm water.
Wednesday was another repeat of the weather for the past half dozen of days, chilly in the morning followed by a sunny and warm afternoon. We walked the campground loop in the morning, then went on a longer walk in the afternoon. There is a trail that mostly follows the lake shore. From our campground, we took a short trail from the campground down to the boat dock where we picked up the shoreline trail. We headed southwest on the trail, the direction opposite of the way to the swim beach. The trail follows the shoreline to the park road where it crosses a small creek. According to the map we saw, the trail crosses the road, follows the creek a little ways before crossing it, then follows the creek back to the road. However, it looks like most people do not take this section of the trail because it was very overgrown. We tried following the trail, but quickly lost the trail. So we turned around, crossed over the creek on the road and continued the trail on the other side as it returned to the lakeshore.
The trail led us out to a little point along the shore line before circling back. It was in the trees most of the way, with views of the lake through the trees. The forest floor was a carpet of green with a few berries, flowers, and mushrooms. The leaves of the devil’s club were so large and gave us the feeling we were walking through a rainforest. Even though the trail was not very long, we wore our hiking boots as we were not sure if we would come across muddy areas. There wasn’t much mud, but there were lots of tree roots to negotiate through. We were thankful to have the ankle support of our boots. There were also plenty of fallen trees to climb over, under and around that it was more of a workout than we planned. When we returned to the boat dock, we went back to our camp site. All in all, it was a fun little trail. We went 3.1 miles with an elevation gain of 427 feet in one hour and 45 minutes. It was hike number 41 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2022.
As we snacked on tortilla chips at our camp site, our stellar jay friend came back. He was rather bold and hung out pretty close to us. Every now and then he would swoop close to us as if he was contemplating snatching a morsel from us. We don’t feed the wildlife, as it makes them dependent on people and more aggressive. We were especially protective of our tortilla chips. These were the La Cocina brand from Canada that we discovered when we first crossed into Canada. They quickly became our favorite, so we were excited when we saw them while grocery shopping in Prince George. The chips are thin, light, crispy, and addictive. There was no way we were sharing them!
Before dinner, we hopped back on the shoreline trail again, this time taking it to the swim beach and back. A person was sunbathing on the beach in a bikini. The sun felt warm, but it still wasn’t warm enough for us to strip down to a bathing suit. However, laying in the warm sun was rather inviting. But we were hungry, so we returned to our Red Tail Lodge to make dinner. After dinner, we walked another loop around the campground. Keith’s phone said we walked more than seven miles that day. It didn’t seem like we went that far. It was so nice to be outside enjoying the warm sunshine, even though we were in the shade of the trees most of the time.
Even though we were concerned about what Jasper and the Chetamon wildfire had in store for us, we had a relaxing time at Purden Lake. We had no cell signal at Purden Lake, so we couldn’t check on any status. When things are out of your control and there is nothing you can do, then you just have to relax and let it go.
Check out our related video: Purden Lake Provincial Park, British Columbia
(Ann)