Wapiti Lake
The weather had continued to stubbornly stay cool north of me, but my time in the USA was almost up. It was time to head back to what was a still too cold Canada. As a traveller, you at least have the option of staying in the warmest areas as you head north. So follow along with me as I hit the ‘hot spots’ going north!
Church Rock, passing by on Highway 191 to Moab
If you want to be warmer heading north you have two tricks: stay near big water bodies and stay low. The Pacific ocean is a bit far west for a direct route back to Alberta, especially coming from Texas, so I was going with the low option.
From my camp near Bluff, UT there wasn’t much for low ground until Salt Lake City. While Salt Lake isn’t exactly low, it has a bit of a moderating temperature from the lake, if you can find boondocking near it. I’ve been to Utah Lake just to the south, so novelty wasn’t going be a plus. It was a long days drive, but I decided to push through to Snake River valley country, a broad low area cut through southern Idaho terminating against the Rocky Mountains of Yellowstone National Park. It’s not like it was freezing anywhere along here – I could have camped anywhere under 6000 feet at this point. However, the older I get, the less tolerant of cold I get. I’d rather be 5C warmer camped lower down in less spectacular scenery.
I passed through Moab for the 3rd time in my RV travels without stopping. There is some amazing rock scenery around there, but I’d rather have something slightly less scenic with way fewer people. I’d avoid the area entirely due to the traffic through Moab, but even with the slow traffic it was the fastest way to Salt Lake City for me. With my long day of driving, I wasn’t going out of my way to avoid one touristy town. Passing through Salt Lake City isn’t so bad, usually. The Interstate 15 is the main north – south route through the area. While it’s busy, it usually isn’t slowed down by heavy traffic. I’ve only been through once with an accident slowing things down. This time, everything was clear sailing passing through in the middle of the day. I was able to do my full re-supply in the area and keep going north. I was back in familiar territory, having come this way before in my north – south travels.
My McTucker spot at sunset
However, my destination was new to me. I was heading to McTucker Ponds, a semi-formal camping area just off of the Snake River just upstream of where the river enters the American Falls Reservoir. The ponds were created as part of the reclamation of a gravel quarry. You can see quite clearly from the aerial of the place that the ponds are water filled holes from the gravel mining. The view from the ground is much better. It’s been long enough that a lot of the shoreline looks natural. Some areas are still quite bare, but at least it means you’re guaranteed some open space that is not muddy to park your RV. I selected a quiet spot around the side of the lake, big enough for two rigs, but not strangers, I hoped.
McTucker and Mountains
The area was quite nice. You could tuck in to a few dead ends and have them to yourself other than the occasional fishing person that might walk through to get to the water at the dead end. I stayed through the weekend, which was the only time there were a few people around. Even in the summer high season, I think you’d have a chance of snagging a fairly private spot in the area. I certainly would visit this area again in the shoulder season, it’s a nice water spot pit stop for a day, or a week if you have the time.
I had to go way down the gravel road off the highway for my lunch stop
Having found the area to be unexpectedly empty for a water spot, I stayed as long as I could. That meant that there would be no stops further north – it was a long days drive back into Canada for me. That is always the problem with the six month maximum stay – just as the weather is getting nice in the northern States, I need to be back in Canada. I settled in for an uneventful drive north – always a good thing on a long day of driving.
Lots of Crocuses blooming in the area
My destination was Wapiti Lake Recreation site, an hour north of the border. After ten hours of driving, I wasn’t going to hunt for a new boondocking spot, not to mention the whole area between the US border and Highway 3 in the Koocanusa valley does not allow boondocking. There is lots of evidence of boondocking, but officially it is not allowed. Unofficially, there is not a lot of enforcement resources out there so you would likely get away with a night or two in an out of the way spot. But you don’t really need to boondock in the area. There are several free campgrounds and more informal areas that are marked for boondocking. You just need to find them. Your best bet passing through the area is to stop at one of the roads heading out into the bush where they have signage explaining the rules, and critically, a map showing you the camping areas. The googles map is good at picking up all the formal camping areas, but misses some of the more obscure informal camping areas.
Wapiti Lake Campsite
Wapiti Lake is more of a formal campsite, with fire rings, picnic tables and pit toilets available. I was hoping for an empty campground, so driving in and seeing no one there on a Monday made me happy. This is not a large campground. There are only a few formal spots near the lake, and you could make a few informal spots away from the water. It’s also not the most level camping, so I was happy to pick the best level and sunnier spot.
Wapiti Lake shows evidence of having been much higher – but only occasionally as seen by the dead trees
I was fortunate that the weather turned sunny and warm for my first few days back in Canada. I used that time to explore around the area with the motorcycle. I explored south as far as Baynes Lake, making note of several sites that would be worth visiting on my return to the area in the fall. Some rec sites are not so great. There are the popular ones that make you pay. Sorry, I’m not going to pay to be around people thank you very much. Then there was Suzanne Lake, which had the googles take me in via an unmaintained rough logging road. The lake was nice, but the sites were unlevel, close together and very shady. It might be OK in the middle of the summer when you want more shade, but there are several other lakes in the area that I liked better. Coming out of Suzanne Lake, I was glad I was exploring with my motorcycle. I ran across the grader maintaining the much better road going in, but still not a very wide road. With my RV, I’d have had to back up a half a klick to a junction to let the grader go by.
Kayaking Wapiti
Wapiti Lake was good – I even got the kayak out on the water for some paddling. But unfortunately it looks like the lake got winter killed for fishing. Several fishing people reported no catch to me while I was there, and I saw no signs of fish either. I decided to head a bit north to Horseshoe Lake rec site, where I had previously caught a very nice fish, in the fall I skipped past in this blog. Unfortunately, this time there were way more people around the lake, this now being early May 2024. While the weather was good, there were always two or three people out on the water fishing. It didn’t look like there was much action. Then the weather changed and it snowed, my thing I was trying to avoid most of all as a snowbird. It was a big cold system that dumped all the way down in the valley, not really normal for this time of year in these parts. I certainly wasn’t taking the kayak out now. Rather, I settled for more walks about as the weather slowly warmed up, melting the snow.
Some nice spots at Alkaline Lake, if you can get there
As things dried up I was able to get out the Grom and explore around the area for some real boondocking. The valley is wide with little hills in it. You have lots of hidey holes to explore. I wish I could have camped at Alkaline Lake, which was very pretty despite its name. The road was just a bit too wet and rough. Perhaps when things are completely dry I might go there, but it would be a stretch. My explorations north led me to a nice ridge with a view. With the warming weather, I decided to head there for my last spot of camping in BC before heading back to Alberta. See you next time on a ridge, near a ghost town!
