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Adult pool at Harrison Hot Springs Resort & Spa. Enter this month's Team Power Smart contest for a shot at a $500 gift card to the resort.
November 3, 2011
A visit to Harrison Hot Springs, and other B.C. gems
Posted by Rob Klovance
In the Summer of the Wasp, a one-night stay at Harrison Hot Springs Resort & Spa was my family's salvation.
More about that in a minute, but first a note that the winner of this month's Team Power Smart Contest gets a $500 gift card to the resort. No rite of passage necessary.
Skip to a look at other great B.C. winter getaways
What's with all the sawed-off Coke bottles?
We had envisioned a five-night stay at our favourite camping spot, Ellison Provincial Park near Vernon, as the perfect August getaway. Tenting under the pines, hiking around the bluffs above Okanagan Lake, and swimming in the stunningly beautiful sandy cove a five-minute walk from our campsite.
But while the weather gods cooperated — we got hot weather after a lousy July, but not so hot to produce a campfire ban — the wasps did not. As we drove in to set up, we noticed sawed off two-litre Coke bottles, the tops inverted to produce traps for the nasty insects, set up on the periphery of several sites.
It took about two minutes for the wasps to appear. It took less than a day for our friend's daughter — fresh off a lengthy road trip from Calgary — to be stung en route to the beach. And within eight hours, on a hike on trails around the site, we looked back to see my son screaming, flailing... terrified as wasps under the downed log beneath him, attacked.
He ran, we swarmed to help, and everyone got stung. My son was the "winner" with 10 stings, while I — the only one with an even mild allergy to wasp stings — got it only once. Many tears followed and while the three 10-and-under kids in our party valiantly returned to the outdoors the next day, one last sting sent us packing.
And that's where Harrison Hot Springs Resort & Spa came in. On the way back to Vancouver, we stopped in for some much deserved rest and relaxation. Not a wasp in site, my son spent hours recuperating in the warmth of the resort's pools, and we discovered a delicious Thai meal at a restaurant across from the beach.
Before you book a flight, consider B.C.
Harrison Hot Springs is on a long and growing list of favourite B.C. getaways, some close to Vancouver, some not so close. So before giving in to the temptation of a sun-soaked winter getaway, you may want to consider something closer to home.
Here are a few of our favourite winter getaways:
- Big White Ski Village: Great snow and terrain, ample, affordable on-mountain accommodation and an outdoor ice rink. Perfect family mountain.
- Wells Gray Provincial Park: Deep snow. Frozen waterfalls. A wonderful cross-country ski loop. Hut-to-hut skiing. Snowshoeing. Dog sledding. Away from it all.
- Pond hockey, if you're lucky: Know someone who has a winterized cabin on a lake? Brave enough to play at the 2012 BC Pond Hockey Championships in Invermere? Lucky enough to skate locally in what promises to be a very cold winter?
- Whistler-Blackcomb: It seems obvious, but with the improved Sea to Sky Highway, how can you resist? Opens November 24.
- Callaghan Valley and Manning Park Resort: Need a little break from the cross-country ski loops at Cypress? Toss in some nordic skiing at Callaghan Valley near Whistler, or head east to Manning.
Rob Klovance is managing editor of bchydro.com and lucky enough to compete in an annual pond hockey tournament. No, his name is not on the trophy — yet.
