Tsintsunko Lakes Provincial Park is located on the Bonaparte Plateau north of Kamloops. It is accessed from Kamloops by following Westsyde Road to the Jamieson Creek Forest Service Road, then turning left at the Beaverhut/Home Cabin junction. We arrived at the trailhead on a warm and windy day after a stop at Jamieson Creek Falls on the way to the park.

Tsintsunko Trailhead

Tsintsunko Trailhead

We were following the trail to the lake when we suddenly heard the loud CRACK of a tree breaking. Not knowing where exactly the sound had come from, I decided to keep walking faster in the same direction. This turned out to be the worst choice, as a tree suddenly came down right above me. Luckily it got caught up in the branches of the trees around it.

Falling Tree

Falling Tree

After collecting ourselves for a moment, we forged on towards the first lake.

Old campsite by the lake

Old campsite by the lake

And then further on the trail toward the cabins. The first cabin looked ready to fall apart at any moment.

Old Cabin

Old Cabin

The second cabin was in much better shape. It had a bunk bed, tables and chairs inside and even some emergency rations. There was also a log book with many entries. Lots of mice were mentioned, and one group had spent the night of December 31, 1999 there (just in case the Y2K predictions were true).

New Cabin

New Cabin

Tsintsunko Lake

Tsintsunko Lake

After checking things out for a bit we made our way back to our car and started heading home. But in the meantime the wind had struck again, and there were two trees down across the road. Luckily we had a hatchet in the truck or we would have had a rather long trek to find assistance.

Fallen Tree

Fallen Tree

After a lot of effort and a bit of swearing we were clear to go. We’ve since learned from this experience and we now carry an axe and chainsaw as part of our backroad gear. Now that we have a canoe, we would like to go back to Tsintsunko again one day to do some fishing and more exploring.

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