We had the opportunity to get a Yurt at Nutimik campground for a couple nights. We were in Bay 1, Yurt 19. Yurts are soft sided canvas structures with a proper floor and furniture so it is not quite cabin but not quite tent. They have a double bed with a single bunk on top and a futon, a dresser, a table and 4 chairs, a lamp, a fan and a heater. They also have some clean up items like garbage and broom.
They are set nicely in private sites. We had enough room to set up our dining tent, park our car and still have lots of room for the fire pit. The modern bathroom was about a 150 foot walk. The showers were down the road somewhat and the beach you can either walk a trail to get to (which has a beautiful scenic view but was too wet for us to trek this time), or you can take your car and park.
The campground beach is small but it doesn't seem to get too busy most weekends. There are so many other beaches nearby. We love the scenery in the area. Blueberry Hill is that hill to the left. You can access it by hiking in behind some cabins before the store. It has a wonderful vista of the lake. Unfortunately, because of 2 full days of rain it was too wet for us to be trekking out on the wet rocks so we stuck to doing other things.
There is so much to do in the area we didn't even touch the surface. Sturgeon falls is a short walk, over a bridge that was put up less than 10 years ago. Petroforms and Pine Point Rapids are really close by as well. There is a museum right in Nutimik. Of course, you can fish or go boating.
I had specific things in mind for our two days there. I wanted to read and unwind, cook over the fire, go to the spots where my family had my grandparents memorials, and check out at least one spot we have never been. I grew up going to the Whiteshell every summer so even though there is unlimited things to do out there it would be interesting to see what we come up with. On Saturday we set up our stuff and got settled and then went off to one of our favourite spots that we always visit. Rainbow Falls at White Lake. It is Easy to get to from either side of the Whiteshell so we seem to go no matter where we are staying. We were going to do the hike but it was so muddy and the woman in front of us slid and fell in the muck so we decided to just enjoy the falls and the view on the lake. There were a ton of dragon flies landing on us and in the water.
We capped off the evening with cooking steak on the fire and playing cards in the dining tent.
Sunday we started out bright and early by heating some chai latte mix with milk in the kettle on the fire and sat and read for a while. We decided to head to Seven Sisters picnic area. It is outside of the Whiteshell but is where we had my grandpa's memorial. It was packed there with day campers out to have picnics but we grabbed a spot on the side of the rapids and just sat on the rocks. We had a picnic and reminisced about the many picnics we have had there both before and after grampa passed away. We walked around the area and compared the water levels to years gone by. I enjoyed watching the pelicans bathe in a calm pool in amongst all the rapids.
We decided to head to Pinawa to find the suspension bridge but we took a wrong turn and ended up at the old dam instead. Since were were there we decided we would take a look as neither of us had ever been there. We ended up spending hours there looking around and walking. It was hot but Jamus loved looking at all the old ruins and I love hiking so this was a win for both of us. I especially loved getting in behind the old dam where you can be close to the water. We weren't prepared to go swimming so we just sat with our feet in the water. We had brought our cooler with us so we had lots of snacks and drinks. Despite this being a provincial park the outhouses there are not kept up at all. There was no toilet paper and they were disgusting compared to most of the trail outhouses we have seen. Despite that we can't wait to go and spend a full day there in the future.
We ended that day by heading back to the yurt, having a big fire and cooking dinner. We were tired from all of the heat but enjoyed the quiet campground as it was almost empty now that it was Sunday evening.
Monday morning we cleaned up our site and the yurt. We had a fairly comfortable stay. Jamus is a bit too tall for the bed or the futon but otherwise it was great. We decided to go for a late morning swim since it was already so hot and packing up was sweaty business. We used the showers before we left the campground and then set out on our way.
Our next stop was Brereton Lake. We picked some daisies and then we went down to Gram's old dock - we still know who owns it and they told us to go whenever we want. We had Gram's memorial there so we sat on the dock and reminisced about the good old days. Did you know there is a trail to a beautiful ravine behind the cabins at the store? We used to go up behind there with the other kids in the neighbourhood all the time when we stayed with Gram and Grampa Bill.
Anyway, we decided to stop in Falcon next since Jamus had never been and I had only been in there once before. We went in to the Lakeshore Campground and asked a ranger there if we could use a campsite for an hour to make lunch. He said he wasn't going to stand in anyones way of enjoying the outdoors on such a beautiful day so we had a little fire and cooked up some dogs and left over bacon from breakfast. We still had some cheese left from the day before too so we had some pretty gourmet camp dogs. After stretching our legs around there we decided it was too cool for a swim now and headed home. It was still a long drive and it was getting to evening already.
All in all we had a great time. I finished a book. We went to 2 new places and had a ton of fun.
