Canuckapalooza and Chutes Park

Every year for Canada Day my friend, Jayson, and his wife, Cindy, host a large gathering which has affectionately come to be known as "Canuckapalooza".  I hadn't gone in a few years so I thought why not go this year and at the same time I can check out Chutes Provincial Park. 

The first thing I have to point out is that if you are using "Lady Google" to try to navigate your way to the park..."Do Not Trust Her!".  She will bring you to the municipal office instead of to the park entrance. (which I found out the hard way). Instead look for the traffic lights it is the only set of traffic lights in the whole town)  and you will see the sign for the park there. The main park sign is slightly hidden so you don't see it until you are almost on top of it. But if you are having troubles finding the place, don't give up! This park is well worth any trouble you may have getting there. This park is a hidden gem. 

I arrived at the park at about 2:45 and when I pulled up it almost looked like the girl who came out to greet me was going to tell me that the sites were all filled up (it's a small park) but when I said I had a reservation she smiled and ushered me inside the office. The girls in the office were super nice and helpful. 

I had picked out my site online and you never know what you are going to get until you get there really. Turns out I had picked a site in the Radio Free zone. (Yay!) And when I got to the site I saw that they had placed a "Reserved" sign on the post which I had never seen in a park I have been to before. (Also Yay!)

And my site was right across the road from the stairs that lead down to the water falls. In fact, I could hear the falls from my site. (You guessed it....also Yay!) 

The whole park was practically full and yet it was so quiet here. You could hear the wind in the trees and the birds singing. I quickly came to find out that this is an excellent park for bird watchers. There were so many different kinds of birds here. 

There was a wonderful smell of campfire in the air and I didn't even have one lit.  It was heavenly here!

My site had quite a long drive way and from where I parked it looked like the site was going to be small. But looks can be deceiving. 

Once I got right onto the site, down by the fire pit and picnic table, I realized that the site was large enough that it could probably easily hold 2 or 3 large tents. 

I got a new tent last year at the end of the season and I had never put it up before. I was happy to find that it was easy to set up and I was able to to so fairly quickly. My brother bought an identical one last year and he couldn't get his to go back into the bag it came in so I came prepared and brought a Christmas tree bag with me that I had bought last winter specifically for this purpose. 

I was happy to find that there were not as many bugs as I had expected to find at this time of year. There were lots of those big house flies (which aren't actually house flies and are called "cluster flies"), but I will take those over mosquitoes/deer flies/horse flies/black flies any day. 

Once the tent was set up I decided to take a few quiet moments to enjoy the park, just me and God, before heading over to Canuckapalooza. First stop was to go and see the falls. So I headed down the long flight of stairs to the path below. 

The path was wide and well maintained. It looked very inviting. 

Through the trees I could see all the people down at the beach cooling off in the water. 

The path leads to an observation deck with a long bench and a picnic table that over look the falls. It would be a great place to sit and have lunch. 

The water was crashing over the rocks below and it was very loud here. You can see the swimmers in the distance at the beach from here. 

At the top of the falls I could see some people on the other side. At first I thought that they had crossed the rushing water somewhere. 

But then I saw the trail map that was posted and I realized that those people had probably followed the trail and got there that way. 

Along with the trail map, there was a little blurb about the history of the river posted. Chutes Park got it's name from the old wooden logging chutes that used to be here. They would send logs through the chute and down to the bottom of the falls to be sorted. The chutes no longer exist today and there are not even any partial remains of them anywhere. But there was a picture on the poster. 

Tucked away in the corner by the trail signs, some pretty white flowers that I think are service berry flowers.

As I headed back towards my campsite I noticed an old, run down,  set of stairs that went down to the river bank. Those stairs were sectioned off with caution tape. I had wondered about the purpose of these stairs. Jayson later told me that there used to be campsites down there, but there aren't any more. 

On the way back up the stair case (the ones that weren't sectioned off) I spotted a pair of fire flies mating on the railing. 

It was such a beautiful day. A pair of Cedar Waxwings were singing in the trees. 

And a pair of Turkey Vultures circled overhead. I was amazed by the variety of birds in just one small area. 

I figured I had better make a bathroom stop before heading over to Canuckapalooza. The bathrooms were your typical non-flushing vault bathrooms that you usually see in your provincial parks. They were clean and well maintained. The difference between these ones and the ones in most other parks is that these had motion detection lights secured to them so that if you are going to the bathroom in the middle of the night you can actually see your way to the bathroom! What a great idea. All the parks should have these!  It's little things like this that make the difference between a mediocre park and a great park. This park is full of little "add-ons" that have been carefully thought of and implemented. 

Hanging outside the door of the bathroom was a laminated sign warning people of a $125 fine for gathering wood in the park. At least no one can say they weren't warned. 

At about 4 pm I finally arrived at Canuckapalooza. The kids had all just got back from the beach and were ready to play board games. We had a BBQ dinner and everyone relaxed, conversed and had fun. One of the main topics seemed to be about hiking and camping. 

As the sun went down and the stars came out, so did some of the night time bugs. At one point we turned to see that something the size of a humming bird was flying around one of the guests. It took a moment to realize that it wasn't a bird at all, but was a large  Hawk Moth. When it landed we proceeded to catch it and gently release it outside. 

The end of the first day of Canuckapalooza ended with a bang. Jayson set off some fireworks in the back yard and everyone gathered around to watch them go off. The kids loved it. (And aren't we all just big kids at heart?)

The party wound down at about 11 pm and I headed back to the campsite. Unfortunately in the dark things don't look quite the same as they do in the day time so  I ended up making a wrong turn and went a little bit out of my way before realizing my mistake and turning around. I got to see a baby porcupine wadling down the road because of this though. 

Back at the camp I sat in the dark and had a snack and a drink before going to bed. I heard something walking through the bush. At first I thought it was another camper but when I turned on my flashlight I saw the cute little face of a young raccoon looking back at me. When he saw me he got nervous and turned around and went back the way he came from. 

Just before bed I took a walk down to the falls in the dark with no flashlight on. The stars were shining and the fire flies were flickering. The air was warm and there were no mosquitoes. It was a beautiful first night!