Lying on the shores of Lake Okanagan across from the city of Kelowna lies a manicured well-dressed campground called Bear Creek Provincial Park. Bear Creek is 10.9 km from Kelowna’s boundaries traveling along Westside Road. The access to Westside road lies just before the downhill run to the floating bridge that takes you into the city of Kelowna. Traveling east on Hwy 97 you will need to take the last right hand exit into a traffic circle and follow it around until you are on Westside Road, from there it is an 7km run to the park along a nicely paved but winding road, with signage all the way.
Upon reaching the campground you will find the dump station across the street from the park gate and check-in kiosk.
Traveling into the park finds you at the entrance gate where you will have to stop to register at the guest kiosk. The staff here are very friendly and helpful and provide maps to help you navigate the campground
The campground has three loops consisting of 143 campsites and a 50 amp parking lot at the back of the campground where big rigs can find a berth. The Third loop where campsites 123 to 143 reside, you will find 30 amp service on some very nice lake front campsites that have expansive views of the beach and Lake Okanagan. All in all there are 14 - 30amp sites and 7 - 50amp sites at this campground the rest are setup for dry camping. The campground does have potable water in all of their taps so you do not need to go to the dump site to get fresh water. The sites here are nice and expansive with lots of room to setup up your rig and outside furniture, and most are heavily treed for great shade from the hot sun that blazes here in the Okanagan.
As we travelled along the nicely paved access roads towards loop one we ended up traveling over a single lane bridge that spanned Bear creek until we found our site # 90. This site was backed on to a beautiful open glade that was shared by several campsites in the loop. Our side was nicely treed with an open patch at the front of the campsite where I could setup my solar panels and capture the daily sun.
Backing into our site was relatively easy as there is lots of space on the loop road in which to maneuver your rig into your site. Once we were nicely tucked into our site then it was time to plant the flag and setup the outside patio.
Each site has a very large and permanently secured picnic table so you are not able to move them around to suit your setup; but we certainly had enough room to extend our awning and setup our outdoor mat and chairs.
After we had setup it was time to take the dog for a walk and explore the campground. In our loop there were not many access points to the lake so we had to walk around to loop 2 where there is access to the public beach. In loop one there were a couple of sites that had exceptional access and views of Lake Okanagan, but as with anything wonderful it is hard to get booked into these sites because of their popularity. Bear Creek is a very popular campground so reservations are certainly recommended. Anyways, as we wondered the campground we found two bath houses one in loop 1 and the other at the front of loops 2 & 3 that were nice and clean and had hot showers for free. The manicured lawns of this campground showed the love and care that the park staff heap on this campground every single day. The beach is big and beautiful with nice sand and a roped off swimming area. There is also a rental shack on the beach where paddle boats and boards can be rented, along with party inflatables too. There was certainly enough room on the beach so that you could find a nice spot to setup on without being uncomfortably close to your neighbor.
Loop two has some beautiful sites nestled into the trees and backing on to Bear Creek itself. In Loop three there are several sites with beautiful beach front views and access, but these are heavily booked and hard to get. As you walk around loop three it eventually opens up into a parking lot style campsite area where the big bus RV’s can setup and have 50amp power. Unfortunately the views here are not very nice and remind me of American style camping. The rest of the park opens up to large field like grass plots where kids can roam free and families can play together. Overall the experience here at Bear creek is one of family friendly civilized community.
Bear creek also offers a couple of great hikes that start across the street from the campground. There are two loops to follow that traverse about 4km if I remember correctly. They offer stunning views from the top of the ridge surrounding the lake area.
The climb at the start of the hike is pretty steep and can take a bit out of you,
but if you stick it out and reach the top of the ridge then you will be rewarded with exceptional views and photo ops.
Also across the street in the same area is a walk to a small but nice waterfall. Be prepared to walk through Bear Creek to get to it though, but again it is worth the effort to experience the coolness of this natural air conditioner.
Bear Creek is also incredibly close to the City of Kelowna and the Westbank, where every amenity imaginable is available for exploration. The Westbank is where you will find Walmart and a couple of laundry mats. Restaurants are best in the City of Kelowna, as well you will find the bigger grocery stores like Safeway. Shopping is very abundant in Kelowna; several shopping malls can be found across the bridge. If wine is your thing then Kelowna has some great wine tours and tasting events. Overall Kelowna and the surrounding area has activities for everyone in the family or just for Mom & Dad, this is truly a vacation destination.
Nuts & Bolts:
Bear creek is a friendly manicured big rig accessible campground. Most sites will accept rigs in the 30 to 36’ range, but there are sites that will fit the bigger 40 to 50’ size. If dry camping is acceptable to you then most of Bear creeks sites will work for you. If you require power then you will be relegated to either the 30amp sites that follow the lake towards the 50amp service area at the back of the park. Just beware that the powered sites are hard to book as they are very popular as is the whole campground. Early booking is definitely recommended here. Moving your rig in or out or around the campground is not a problem here as the road system is nice and paved with wide corners and well-manicured trees so low hanging branches are not really an issue, except maybe in some campsites. Water, water everywhere and every drop you can drink. All of Bear Creek’s campground taps have potable water in them, so there is no need to go to the dump station to fill up your fresh water tank. The dump station area is the only place where you may find it difficult to navigate as the turns here are a bit tight. The cost to dump is $5.00, make sure you have coins as bills are not accepted.
Family fun! That should be the motto of Bear creek as this is certainly a family oriented campground that offers everything that a family could want from a vacation destination.
Happy Trails,
The Glampurs