So we finally completed the last leg of our cross-country journey that has been put on pause for the winter. If you haven’t been following along, there are a few reasons why we decided to station ourselves on Vancouver Island: firstly, we wanted to be able to stay in the van for the entire winter. That may seem obvious but the Canadian winter can be extremely harsh and living in a metal box outside can be more problematic than what it’s worth in a lot of places. You’re also spending way more time inside, which can feel a bit confining at times.

And so, in order to stay in the van we needed to be somewhere mild. Naturally, people always say “go south,” which is what we did last year and it was great but we maxed out our visitor Visas to the US so that wasn’t really an option. Vancouver Island has one of the least wintery winters in all of Canada so it certainly ticked a bunch of our boxes. Lastly, it’s just easier for us to stay put for a little while in our own country where we can freely use our bank cards, cell phones and of course, health care.

We took the ferry over to Nanaimo in late November without any real plan beyond finding some places where we could hunker down for a few months to save money on gas and devote a lot of time to working on new and ongoing projects. In the summer, we scoped out a bunch of places around Port Renfrew and Port Alberni that made for some great free camping but were so far off the beaten path that it wouldn’t be realistic to commute back and forth to town to get work done. We always thought of the northern part of the Island (“up-island” as they call it) as a place that gets snow and cold weather in the cooler months until we decided to actually Google the weather patterns. Turns out Campbell River averages being only a degree or two colder than Victoria and is virtually the same as Nanaimo and other areas of the lower island. The real draw? It’s surrounded by an astounding amount of BC Recreations Areas – 90% of which are completely free and are within a 45 minute drive from town.

Campbell River itself is a medium-sized town (population 35,138 in 2016) that virtually has everything you need from several supermarkets to a Home Depot and even a Walmart (to me it’s a small town but having a Walmart kind of negates that). We’ve managed to figure out a great set-up for showering at the local rec centre where $5.75 gives you access to a sauna, steam room and hot tub (and two indoor pools during certain hours) on top of your regular shower. There’s also a Shell truck stop with coin showers that also has a water hookup, dump station and pumps auto propane for one-stop shopping. Along with a few coffee shops, we’ve been making use of the public library, which has become a fantastic daytime office.

With our day-to-day life sorted, we’ve explored a number of the surrounding recreation areas and make it a point to uncover new ground every weekend. We’ve found one spot in particular that we joke has become our “home” since it’s only a 25 minute drive from town and is otherwise devoid of other humans during the week. The network of forest roads is incredibly complex and unveils a whole other world within the Sayward Forest. There are so many peaceful lakes and hidden gems down every bumpy, pothole-ridden turn that you take. It’s clear that this part of the island hasn’t reached the same levels of tourism that the southern island has and is still relatively under-discovered – and, in turn, very underrated.

We’re now (optimistically) half way through winter and really have been spoiled by mild temperatures and miniscule amounts of snow. This was also our second Christmas in the van but the first without family or friends. We treated ourselves by renting out an amazing Airbnb cabin in Bowser, just north of Qualicum Beach, that spoiled us with some of the creature comforts we miss from being in a traditional house. Namely, a shower, internet and an oven – vanlife has made us increasingly easier and easier to please. We relished in all the extra space and cozied up by the wood stove that made our propane furnace seem like a sub-par hairdryer. It was a nice break but we were happy to spend New Years in the van, alone in the woods, with a bottle of champagne and some cheap fireworks (again, it doesn’t take much to amuse us).

Hopefully the next couple months will continue to be kind to us and this little life that we’ve created here will allow us to make and save enough money to start planning our next adventure. We’re really hoping to make the pilgrimage to the Arctic this summer and are majorly looking forward to hitting the road again. It’s funny how we’ve become so accustomed to exploring new places every day that our brains crave the same stimulation that you just can’t get from staying in one spot. That being said, we really are spoiled with all the amazing nature around us and the possibilities of uncovering it all, piece by piece.

Check out this list of all the amazing recreation areas we’ve camped at so far and we won’t blame you for joining us in lusting over Campbell River:

• Strathcona Dam – A BC Hydro Rec Area next to the hydroelectric dam
• Burnt Beach – An amazing hidden gem on a quiet bay of Campbell Lake
• Big Bay – A classic BC rainforest that makes you feel like you’re in the jungle
• Brewster Lake – A perfect place to visit in the winter since there are no fees
• Twin Lake – The place we call home during the week
• McCreight Lake – An awesome spot closer to Sayward
• Long Point – A bigger recreation area with the biggest beach
• Gosling Bay – A sun-soaked spot nestled in the rainforest
• Gosling Lake – As close to a private lake as you’re gonna get with a price tag of free
• Mohun Lake – A small, easy access spot just off of a main logging artery

With the provisions for a van-sized Christmas dinner in tow, we set off on the very unassuming drive toward the Grand Canyon. If there were no signs indicating where we were going and you were trying to surprise me, you wouldn’t even need to blindfold me. It felt like we were driving through Ontario with tall boreal-lookin’ trees, rich non-desert-sand soil and snow on the ground. Definitely not what I expected for what the surrounding area would look like, but that always made the surprise that much more exciting. Also, the snow and chill in the air helped to make it feel a lot more like Christmas!

I was really set on exploring the North Rim and stoked to park just metres away from the edge until I learned that the roads to the North Rim are closed for the winter. Womp womp wooooomp! Luckily, the South Rim is still ridiculously cool. This is the part that most tourists get to see so there are plenty of parking areas and whatnot nearby. Being the end of December, it was still pretty packed but not too overcrowded to enjoy. It’s hard to articulate how crazy it is to drive into a wooded area and then walk barely 10m to see that thing. I don’t think we were expecting it to be that cool but we sincerely recommend checking it out at some point in your life, if you haven’t already. We climbed onto a rocky peninsula and relished in how small we felt in the crazy landscape that surrounded us. Another thing we felt was hungry since we hadn’t eaten all day and just scaled our way into a canyon.

We met plenty of interesting folks in the parking lot that all seemed to come out of nowhere like some weird mirage – guess we were hungrier than we thought. We stayed to watch the sunset and immediately felt the absence of the sun as the temperature dropped significantly. We headed back to Tusayan, where we were staying for a few days, just outside of the park’s entrance.

We spent Christmas Eve binging on The Great British Bake Off and spending time with Justin’s parents. After doing our Christmas morning shindig, we cooked up a delicious holiday feast – complete with a tiny turkey – and made our way back to the canyon to enjoy some different views as the sun was packing it in for the day. Despite being a drag that you can’t drive along the North Rim in the winter, it’s super awesome that the road to Hermit’s Rest is open to regular vehicles in the off-season. Driving along the edge of the cliffs is a trip!! There are so many cool spots to pull over and see the landscape from a different perspective. Our favourite was Powell Point, where you can walk down onto a peninsula and be surrounded by canyon on both sides. It’s a pretty cool feeling that again, is very hard to put words to.

As we were just about done filming a time-lapse of the sunset, a guy came over and complimented Clemmie and told us he’s also a vanner. We shared proud parent stories about our vans when he told us that he had slept at the bottom of the canyon that night. We had heard of this but didn’t know if it was possible in a rig like ours. It’s top on our list to do next time we’re in the area and sounded like an amazing drive. As our new friend explained how to drive in, we realized that the turn-off is right by Peach Springs – a ghost town on Route 66 that we stayed near while boondocking in Kingman! It seems that we had literally driven past this magical road and didn’t even know it. For anyone interested, you must visit the Hualapai Lodge, just east of Peach Springs to get a permit (the last bit of the drive puts you on Native Land so you need the permit to enter). From the Lodge, you just carry on Diamond Creek Road until you reach the Colorado River and set yourself up from there! He said we’d be fine with rear-wheel drive but some other stories I’ve read might suggest otherwise. We’ll have to find out for ourselves one day – if blog posts cease to be posted after this then yes, we’ve gotten stuck in the sands of the Grand Canyon.

Our first Christmas in the van was awesome and we hope for many more to come. We were lucky enough to spend it with some family and found good enough Internet to FaceTime in with the others. Even though the snow was pretty for Christmas but we’re satisfied. We are heading south! Hit us up in the comments with your experience camping at the Grand Canyon if you’ve ever done it – we’d love to put it on our roster.