Cool, green, and shady
Written: Nov 04 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lush greenery, enormous spaces, cool hosts
Cons: Paper mill, long drive from anywhere
The Bottom Line: After broiling through the rest of British Columbia, my BL relaxed and cooled off in the lush green of this friendly RV park.
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| Penguinlady's Full Review: Springbrook RV Park, Skookumchuck, BC |
If you look at a map of British Columbia, or all of western Canada, for that matter, you’ll notice, down at the bottom of the province along Highway 95, an inch or two north of the border, the town of Skookumchuck. Canada, like parts of the US, doesn’t lack for unusual place names, mostly derived from the indigenous people who once populated the area, but this one was not only unusual but also fun to say. It’s from the Chinook language and means strong or turbulent water. So, since we needed a place to stay on our way south into Montana, we figured Skookumchuck was as good a place as any, especially given that it’s the location of the SpringBrook RV Resort.
Imagine our surprise when we arrived at Skookumchuck (more fun to say than to type) and found that the town consists of the aforementioned RV park, a restaurant with two gas pumps in front, and a junk-antiques-treasures store, and has a permanent population of 25. Period. That’s it.
LOCATION
The SpringBrook RV Resort is located at 4527 Highway 95, Skookumchuck, British Columbia. Phone 250/422-3563, fax 250/422-3079, Reservations 877/422-3563.
It’s about an hour north of Kimberley, and maybe 90 minutes north of the US border. The area north along Highway 93/95 is the location of the Fairmont and Radium Hot Springs resorts, as well as many small lakes and hiking trails. If you turn off the highway at Lusier road and drive about ten miles into the back-country, you’ll get to Lusier hot springs, a series of stone-banked pools of varying degrees of heat immediately on the shore of the small Lusier River. Another five miles along that same road takes you to beautiful Moose Lake, at the foot of some glorious mountains. Surely this is blessed country.
THE PARK
SpringBrook RV Resort is owned by Barney and Marnie, a husband and wife who bought it 14 years ago and run it with the help of a couple of young people from the area.
It has 38 RV sites, all of them generously sized and lush and green. They all have full water, electric, and sewer hook-ups.
A few of the sites are pull-through, but the ones that aren’t are so big that it’s easy to put a vehicle in front of your coach or trailer. Our site was 30' wide by 60' deep, and it was the smallest one in the park.
There’s a double-sized site for tenters that measures 101' wide by 81' .
Each site has a picnic table and a fire ring, although fires aren’t allowed in British Columbia because of the extreme fire danger.
Free Wi-Fi is available.
A small building was under construction next to our site when we were there in early August; when we peeked in the windows, we noticed what look like laundry hook-ups. Maybe by the time you read this, it will be complete.
The office is also a general store, with some clothes and RV gear as well as souvenirs and some groceries. Next to it is a restaurant, consisting of a building that houses the kitchen and storage and a wooden "tent" outside where the tables are, open on all sides. It’s got limited hours and a very limited menu. Marnie runs it with the help of another young woman, who was out of town for a week when we were there, leaving Marnie pretty frazzled. She serves hamburgers, salads, a couple of sandwiches, and a steak dinner. Soft drinks are available but she doesn’t have a liquor license, so if you bring your own bottle, as we did, you have to sit outside the covered tent to drink it - still on her property but not "in" her restaurant. Go figure. (Shhh - she brought us coffee cups, plunked herself down at our table, and helped us drain our bottle.)
Marnie is a no-nonsense woman; when we checked in, she asked us to pick a site and come back to pay later because she had to start dinner. At dinner the next night, an obnoxious customer, a drive-through who fortunately wasn’t staying at the RV park, gave her grief because she doesn’t serve French fries with her burgers. She told him that if he wants fries, he should open his own damn restaurant; this is hers, she serves what she wants, and she doesn’t do fries. Because we were leaving Canada the next day and I had a huge amount of coin change that I feared I wouldn’t be able to exchange, she let me pay with coins, dollar for dollar, straight across. Even without allowing for the exchange rate, it was a good deal for us.
Right behind the office and restaurant is a 6-room motel that she and Barney built a few years ago. It has two rooms with one queen bed, full bath, and kitchenette, and four rooms with two queens, full bath and kitchenette. Each room has a BBQ on the back deck. The rooms are air conditioned and fully equipped with kitchen supplies for four. It’s simple and comfortable, ideal for people driving through who need to stop in an area with few towns or sleeping options.
There is also a cabin available for rent. It has a queen bed in open loft area, a double bunk, one single bunk in closed bedroom, one double sofa, full bath with soaker tub with shower, kitchen, dining area, deck, BBQ, firepit, and wood stove. It also has a private yard with a campfire ring and a picnic table, and is right on the bank of the Spring Brook Creek, which runs around two sides of the property.
Barney and Marnie are in the process of selling off their sites to fund their retirement. As of last August, they had sold 13 sites, with another few in the pipeline. The property is owned by an LLC and they are selling shares in it, with rights to use of a specific lot. Standard RV site shares are $12,000 Canadian per share, Park model RV sites are $13,500 a share, and cabin lots are $15,000 per share. If you rent for a month and then decide to buy, your rent will be fully refunded. Sites 4 and 7 already have log cabins built on them, with plenty of room for an RV next to them.
FURTHER INFORMATION
http://www.springbrookresort.com/
WHAT WE LIKED ABOUT IT
- Our previous two RV parks had been big parking-lot-style places with little grass and no trees. Spring Brook RV Resort is very green and lush, with beautiful lawns and big trees. The heat had broken by the time we got there, fortunately, but we could still appreciate how cooling it must have been earlier in the summer.
- The RV sites are gigantic, a very welcome relief after the parking lots. That makes for plenty of privacy, even with neighbors next door.
- Spring Brook Creek runs along one side and across the back of the park; it’s a pleasant walk and further contributes to the cooling effect.
- Barney and Marnie are a hoot - independent, no-nonsense people, friendly and talkative, who work hard, know their business, and provide good value and plenty of entertainment.
- The area is gorgeous, and you can get anywhere you want to go on the highway. We found a beautiful farm stand and loaded up on fresh produce; luxuriated in the Lusier hot springs with people from Germany, Holland, Colombia, and Japan, among others; and went paddling on Moose Lake - all after enjoying a sybaritic day at the Fairmont Hot Springs an hour or so north. We also drove south to Kimberley, a German town that boasts the biggest cuckoo clock in the world, and Camrose, home of a terrific railroad museum. Great location.
WHAT WE WEREN’T SO WILD ABOUT
- One of the things we noticed about all but one or two of the 14 RV parks we stayed in on this trip is that they are all located near railroad tracks. Not too surprising, I guess, given that prime real estate isn’t usually dedicated to RV parks. So we were pleased to note that there were no tracks near SpringBrook RV Resort. Instead, there’s a paper factory a few miles away. It provides most of the employment for this part of the world, and runs 24/7. We could hear a low rumble the entire time we were there, and could just glimpse it through the heavy trees. It isn’t really intrusive or even distracting; at first I thought it was the creek. But every so often you realize what it is, and if you wake up in the middle of the night, you’ll not only hear it but also see the lights through the trees. It didn’t bother me, but PM wasn’t very happy about it.
- While Marnie stocks a few basics, you need to drive at least 35 or 40 minutes to Kimberley to get to a grocery store. The place across the street is hopeless. So you need to be sure you’re stocked up.
SUMMARY AND VERDICT
Skookumchuck is truly in the middle of nowhere, and with its few amenities and small population, we can’t figure out why it’s on all the maps. No matter - we enjoyed our stay there and loved the size and lushness of the SpringBrook RV Resort. Even without the expected "resort" amenities, it was one of the most pleasant places we stayed. We weren’t crazy about the paper mill, but we really appreciated our hosts and the privacy the sheer size of the sites afforded us. Even though it’s highly unlikely that we’ll ever be back in Skookumchuck, we’re sorry that Barney and Marnie are selling off the sites. SpringBrook RV Resort is one of the nicest places we stayed on our trip; I’d rate it five stars were it not for that paper factory. Four stars.
Recommended:
Yes
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Penguinlady
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