Day 14: Prince Rupert - Kitwanga: Into the Land of Totem Poles

26.7.24

The night was short; the alarm clock rings at 8 AM. We have breakfast in the camper; it’s fresh outside, and the ambiance is not so enticing that one would want to freeze for it.

Next door, there's a family with 3 children - traveling in a California Bully Bus. Respect! They HAVE to have breakfast outside...

We leave the unloved campground right after breakfast - unfortunately, I forget to take the obligatory site photo..

Maybe it's for the best.

Lacking alternatives, we are not the only ones here, and I’m sure that one or another overnight guest from yesterday, who even paid for a full hook-up, is really annoyed about it. By the way, all the campers who arrived with us last night are already gone....😳

I can't recommend this campground anyway.

So let's get out of here quickly. It’s still cloudy when we leave, as it has been raining until this morning. We drive along the Skeena River, a truly enormous wide river with tons of trees, roots, and boulders in the riverbed. Incredible! There must be massive amounts of water here after the snowmelt or weeks of heavy rainfall that we can hardly imagine right now.

The terrain becomes noticeably hillier, and the landscape changes. We see many Bald Eagles - always too quick for the camera - and stop here and there at a nice viewpoint.

Our first stop is the Walmart in Terrace. We stock up on supplies. Suddenly, it feels like +10 degrees warmer here than in Prince Rupert this morning, so we quickly switch to shorts and t-shirts, then we zoom off to Kleanza Creek Provincial Park. I had it on the overnight list, but it didn’t fit with the route.

We therefore visit the beautiful day-use area, right by the river, and have the whole place to ourselves. The campground is also completely empty except for a few sites.

This gives me hope for the north -- we sometimes only have FCFS (first come first serve) campgrounds, which unfortunately cannot be reserved in advance.

After eating, we hike the steep trail uphill to the viewpoint over the falls and then descend to the falls. Here, the water rushes into the gorge. Very impressive.

After a long lunch break, we continue towards Kitwanga.

We stop at the Gitwangak Totem Poles and then proceed to Gitwangak Battle Hill, which we effortlessly 'climb'.

Originally, I planned to stay overnight in Hazelton, but the Ksan Campground was already 'full'. And that months ahead when I inquired; hence, I chose and reserved the Kitwanga River RV Park for today.

The nickname 'River' is misleading here as well - we see no river for miles....

In comparison to Prince Rupert CG, where we paid exactly the same price, the Kitwanga River RV Park is vastly nicer!

We booked a power/water site (no full hookup site) and set up on the upper campground, a small hillside above the campground. A German family ahead of us is assigned the site in front of us, which has a nicer view. We settle on site 12, right behind them.

New picnic table and bench combo and clean sanitary facilities, plenty of space around, and well-functioning WiFi. The highlight for my 'boys' is the horseshoe throwing game, which can be played on the lawn below the campground.

We have dinner outside and see another German couple in a truck camper two sites down who were already with us on the ferry and also stayed last night at the Prince Rupert CG.

However, the German vacationers here are generally not very talkative. The family in front of us barricades themselves the whole evening in the camper and enjoy nothing of their beautiful view. The German couple in the truck camper is also not in communication mode.

Okay - we stick to the nice Canadians around us 😇🤨🤷🏻‍♀️

Rain is forecasted for tomorrow....

At some point, the rainy days had to catch up with us...😯🙈

For the statistics:

Campground: Kitwanga River RV Park

31 €; Site 12

Traveled: 257 km

Hiked: 6 km

Photos: 162

Weather: Sun & clouds, 17 degrees