The second half of our BC road trip reminded me of that old children’s book, “Fortunately, Unfortunately.” Except the other way ’round.
Unfortunately, the mid-part of BC that we had to drive through, East-West from Revelstoke to Pemberton, is very dry (which is why it’s so vulnerable to wildfires).
Fortunately, it’s also lovely.
Unfortunately, when we got to Pemberton, so did the rain.
Fortunately, waterfalls don’t care much about rain.
And I thought this hole was just as intriguing as Nairn Falls.Ditto for the mosses, and the river “potholes” in the rock!
Just above Pemberton is Joffre Lakes Prov. Park, which I’d heard was special, so I decided to make the drive up there. Unfortunately, this meant 20 miles up an evilly steep and twisty road. Fortunately, I learned ahead of time that you can’t even peek down the trail without an online reservation.
Oh…maybe that’s why the reservation?
Unfortunately, it was still raining. But fortunately, that meant fewer people competing for reservations, so I was able to get one. (And they’re free.)
Unfortunately, the hike is STEEP. But fortunately…I’ll let the photos do the talking now.
Middle LakeLil’ ol’ waterfall you pass on your way to Upper LakeFirst glimpse of Upper LakeHoly cow, am I looking right at a glacier?!Yep. Glacier. How else does that water get that color?
Unfortunately, I had to hike back down, and next day we had to leave BC and head homewards.
But fortunately, we hit a couple more pretty Provincial Parks on the way down Rt. 99, past Whistler, toward Vancouver: Brandywine Falls…
…which is also an easy hop-on spot for Canada’s exciting Sea to Sky multi-use trail.
Unfortunately the trail was a bit too steep and mountain-bikey for us,
but Fortunately walking your bike is good exercise…and it was still gorgeous!
Or make that “gorge-ous,” as in this one, which hosts a bungee-jumping bridge!
Unfortunately we accidentally drove past Garibaldi Prov. Park, one of the biggest in the province, because we didn’t think its raggedy access road could actually be the right road, and then turning around on the freeway got complicated.
But fortunately I got a nice consolation walk at Alice Lake, the definition of serenity:
So, yeah, unfortunately we finally had to leave “Beyond Compare” BC,
but fortunately I brought THIS image home with me, so I can transport myself with a glance…like right now.
O Canada–thanks for being! O BC–thanks for being the bestest, closest part to us!
The Mate and I have always had a huge crush on British Columbia. We’ve meandered up the Sunshine Coast, used Harrison Hot Springs as a base camp for checking out multiple provincial parks, thrilled ourselves with the Discovery Islands, and last September, spent two weeks exploring the lower half of Vancouver Island. And that’s not even counting the many times we’ve driven through on our way to the Rockies, murmuring, “Why aren’t we stopping here?“
Pictured: “Here,” a.k.a. some throwaway lil’ waterfall along Rt. 23
This trip was all about stopping here. Not traveling too far in any direction. Going in circles, even. Exploring parks we’ve never heard of. All in the name of soaking up the wonders of a place that REALLY needs a better name.
Beautiful Coastline? Best Countryside?
We started in Manning Prov. Park, especially of interest to me because it’s the terminus of the Pacific Crest Trail, of which I’ve hiked many sections.
Note the “You are Here” triangle up top
Since we were camped at Lightning Lakes, it seemed only fair to hike around them.
“2,400 miles–no thanks. 4 is fine.”
Bear Country? Bewitching Conifers?
The weather window started closing behind us at Manning, with snow predicted the next night, so we kept moving, down toward the flat(ter) Okanagan. We’d heard of the famous Kettle Valley rail trail, and in Princeton we did ride a section of it, but we also checked out trails in the community reserve of China Ridge, just above the town.
Thanks to the lovely woman at the Info Centre who sent us here! We’d never have found it.
The trails were more mountain-bikey than we usually ride, but we enjoyed our short stint up there.
Aspens! LOVE aspens.
Biking Country? Best Camping?
Next night we camped by the Kettle River, right where the rail trail crosses. Having had two rides that day, we just strolled some of it; the river was the best part. Notice the burned area in the back left? That’s from a 2015 fire. We were hyper-aware, this whole trip, of the fires still burning near Kelowna, and made sure to avoid the area.
Burning Cruelly? (unfortunately that “BC” could apply many place)
Following lovely Rt. 3 (the Crowsnest Highway) to Castlegar, we once again met up with the Kettle Valley River Trail, and rode another section…along the Columbia River. Yes, THE Columbia River–what we Washingtonians, and probably some Oregonians too, tend to think of as OUR Columbia River.
Horribly lowered by drought, dammed to within an inch of its life, clogged with industry…”Roll On, Columbia,” and good luck!
Behold Columbia? (That one at least makes some sense!)
After that ride, we swung north on little Rt. 6 to the tiny town of Slocan. We’d chosen Slocan because of its proximity to Valhalla Prov. Park, whose photos looked more national-park level than provincial.
Zooming in on Gibli Peak–gorgeous, but pretty inaccessible
But we soon discovered how hard it is to get INTO Valhalla.
It’s really a backpackers’ park, and we hadn’t come to backpack.
We ended up just hiking the bottom left portion of the lakeside trail, and that was PLENTY.
Big Cop-out? Maybe. But luckily for us, Slocan boasts its own rail-trail, which follows the Slocan River as it flows out of Slocan Lake.
Oh, OK. We’ll settle for this.
Slocan itself is a sweet, quirky little town with rainbow crosswalks and helpful volunteers in the library. We’d go back there in a minute, and maybe ride all the way down to some other simpatico towns on Rt. 6 with hippy-sounding cafes and bakeries.
Bakery Central? (I guess that applies to lots of places too) Biking Capital?
Even rockslides don’t stop these folks. You can hike right through this one.
Leaving Slocan, we decided to loop around a bit. The plan HAD been to camp 2 nights at Glacier National Park…but that weather window slammed shut, and we didn’t want to camp in snow. With an extra day before our hotel reservation in Revelstoke, we followed Rt. 6 back west in a squiggly semi-circle that took us back to–ta dah! The Columbia.
Or more accurately, ACROSS the Columbia, by FERRY.
They don’t even call it a river there, they call it Arrow Lake! Seeing that mighty river so abused brought us no joy. OK, a little joy. It was still fun ferrying across.
Burdened Columbia?
But that afternoon cheered us right up. First we got to ride yet another rail trail (Okanagon) along Laka Kalamalka, an honest-to-gods, true-blue, undammed stretch of watery glory…
On & on, just like this!
Looking across at another Prov. Park I wish we’d stayed in
…and then, that evening, near the lake, the Mate and I got our first Glamping experience, on a hydroponic farm!
Don’t worry, I didn’t know what a hydroponic farm was either.
Doug, the friendly owner of Utopia Feels glamping, gave us the full tour, including veggies:
Inside that white tube-tower, it’s raining!
…critters:
Silly & Billy, the goats, and Bad Bunny, enjoying veggie trimmings
…and of course, the glamping tents!
If anyone’s looking for an AMAZING wedding venue, I highly recommend this place!
I can’t say we’ll ever do this again, but it was a hoot and a half to do once!
And this is a SMALL tent. Some sleep up to six!!
Bountiful Campgrounds? Bodacious Comfort?
Bunny Cuddles?
Leaving the Okanagan behind, we turned north and east again, as if heading for the grand Rockies. But this time we stopped short, in the town of Revelstoke, home of…
…Columbia?! Is that really you?
…you guessed it: the Columbia River. Still dammed (just upstream from town), but looking closer to a real mountain river than I ever dreamed it could.
Beautiful Clarity!
Revelstoke nestles into a whole batch of mountains, including Mt. Revelstoke, which has its own national park. Clear skies were in short supply when we drove the single road in and up to hike toward the summit:
…but we got the idea.
Over the next couple of days, as the rains moved in, we took advantage of little breaks to revel in local awe (Revel? in Revelstoke? See what I did there?).
Creek showing glacial siltglaciers of Mt. Begbie, part of where that silt comes from
Just up the road (literally, up) from Revelstoke is Canada’s Glacier National Park, and it KILLED me to be so close and not go. But we were disinclined to drive in possible snow & ice. So…next time, B.C.
Best Choice?
But Revelstoke was quirky enough for us. Examples: Woodenhead, apparently carved decades ago by some dude for the fun of it, and adopted by the town:
Not creepy at all!
…and this Indian-German fusion restaurant we found.
Curry mit spaetzle? Jawohl!
After Revelstoke, stymied by weather to the east, we turned west. I’ll save that for Part II, because that part was
Like my new word? I was trying to find a way to describe the way The Mate and I tend to travel, and it occurred to me: pretty much all we do, wherever we are, is look for trails to walk or paths to bike (or vice-versa).
Cathedral Grove, near Port Alberni
Leaving Tofino, we drove less than 20 miles down the road to Pacific Rim National Park, a thin strip of forest and beach that runs a good length down Vancouver Island’s Wild West Coast. The hiking trails are all short, but the longest of them is run by the Nuu-chah-nulth people, whose land it occupies.
It’s hard to get The Mate to turn around for a photo.
Along with offering some moments in the best parts of the forest, the trail tries to deepen one’s awareness of that culture, like this:
If only I knew how to pronounce those words…
This totem pole along the trail is maybe the most beautiful I’ve ever beheld.
I had a hard time leaving this.
Everywhere you go in that park, signs remind you whose land you are on–a convention our US parks would do well to emulate.
That sign, by the way, greets walkers and bikers for MILES as they traverse the longest path of all: the bike path that runs the entire 20+ miles of the park. The Mate & I LIVED on this path during our camping days there, using it to move from one beach or hiking trail to the next. And, given the number of poop-piles we counted, the local bears live on this path too!
Does the bear shit in the woods? Actually, no…not when there’s pavement available. (Not sure why someone placed a rock on this batch)
Of course we didn’t spend ALL our camping time on the move.
Not when there’s giant fungus to groove on! (foot included just for scale)
I’m not a “beach person” in the sense of lying on them for hours, but give me a beach with tidepools and I’m good–at least till the next mealtime! 🙂 PRNP has some AMAZING rocks and tide pools.
This one comes with its own window.
In one pool, I was amazed to discover an eating-sized fish who appeared trapped, as if in an aquarium. I vowed to come back next morning to try to save him if the tide hadn’t come in far enough…
Hang in there, dude!
…only to discover him, to my chagrin, still there…along with an even larger buddy…both of them attached through the gills by a nylon line, and the fisherman who’d caught them still trying to augment his catch. Apparently he was using this tide pool as his bucket to stash his fish, even overnight!
[Not pictured: pathetic caught fish in tide pool. I’m a terrible hypocrite; I just like to eat ’em.]
Seriously, though, I can’t say enough about this part of Canada. Come for the big trees…
…stay for the big trees at sunset!
Leaving the Wild West (regretfully), we moved slowly back through the center of the island, spending the night in Port Alberni. Not much pathing nor trailing there–but I did fall deeply in love with their bakery. If you want to know more about this very blue-collar town at the far end of the LOOOONG inlet which bisects the west coast, let me refer you to my friends’ blog–they do a good bit more than pathing and trailing when they travel.
[Not pictured: Port Alberni. Nothing really grabbed me there, visually; probably due to lack of trails & paths.]
On the way out, however, we walked in the Cathedral Grove (pictured at top), and later stopped at Little Qualicum Falls Provincial Park, where we vowed to come back sometime and camp. Here’s why.
Any salmon in there?
Luckily, we’d already had our leaping-salmon experience the week before at Stamp River, because…
Yeah, no.
…these falls were not exactly leap-able. Ridiculously gorgeous, yes. We had some of our best “trailing” around this river, seeing its falls from all angles.
Our final stop was Lake Cowichan, where I’d attempted to take The Mate on last fall’s ill-fated Mystery Birthday Trip (see previous post). The Trans Canada Trail runs through there, so we had high hopes of pathing it on our bikes.
But it was closed for construction. So we had to make do with the lake.
Oh darn.
Lake Cowichan looked even better from above, although the trail itself led mostly through the scruffy results of clearcutting.
The scenery finally got pretty just about when we were ready to turn around. Oh well.
We spent our final Vancouver Island night near Nanaimo, where we’d be boarding the ferry next morning. Yes, we did manage to find a couple more trails & paths nearby, but by this time we were starting to feel all that mileage in our legs. So we kept the walks short, and fell gratefully into the bed which took up our entire tiny room in this adorable pub/hotel.
Did I order the poutine for dinner? Yes I did.
We arrived home to find the Cascade skies still hazy with wildfire smoke. Happy as I am to be reunited with Maya the Malamute, I’ll end with this photo from the ferry back to the Canadian mainland, because…
[not pictured: the orcas we saw splashing along the way]
…see all those mountains out there? Can you imagine how many paths and trails they’re hoarding?
Thanks, Canada. With or without the doggone excuse, we’ll be back, eh?
After coming to grips with our sweet Maya’s need for intensive training to ease her reactivity to other dogs, the Mate and I booked her a two-week stay with local dog whisperer Stephanie Vallejo (highly recommended, but get in line: she’s very much in demand!). Then we looked at each other.
“You thinking what I’m thinking? If our dog is already being cared for…”
Washington State Ferries hasn’t resumed its service to Sidney, British Columbia, so we had to take the long way round. Oh darn.
Our first stop was the town of Sooke, just west of Victoria, where most tourists go. We’re not really into cities–particularly very Anglophile cities like Victoria immediately following the death of the Queen. Plus Sooke is known for its glorious rail-trail, the Galloping Goose, which the Mate & I have been eager to try out.
You can see why.
“The Goose” stretches 55 kilometers, much of which is as gorgeous as this part (where I saw a bear the next day). With a few exceptions, it’s perfectly level, and includes fun little additions like…some VERY high trestle bridges…
Don’t look down
…mixed forests, and shoreline, like this part fronted by what Canadians call Arbutus, and we call Madrona (or Madrone, in California).
Beautiful, eh
From Sooke we headed back toward Victoria, then followed the main highway north to not-quite-halfway up this INCREDIBLY big island, where we entered its mountainous middle. I was on a mission. I wanted to see bears, and leaping salmon. Maybe even together!
I got my wish. Sorry about the poor zoom quality on my phone.
That bear’s two cubs showed up a moment later, but I took a video of them instead of stills, so you just have to imagine. Were we nervous about the bears being only one river away from our campsite? Well…we would have been, had the ranger not assured us that these particular bears had been coming every evening, checking for fish and leaving, without seeming to care about crossing over.
Good enough for us to sleep well. We happened to know that the fish were just downriver…
…nope, further downriver…
…where the BIG falls are, summoning the energy to leap. As with the bears, I took videos of the salmon doing their thing and forgot to take stills. But if you look very closely…
VERY closely!
…you can see them massing in the canyon just below the falls. Dozens of them. Hundreds. Several specials. Getting ready for the big push. (But they also have a fish ladder to fall back on, in case they give up after 80 or 90 tries.)
Our next night of camping was on Sproat Lake, where the scenery was nice but not breathtaking. However, following my nose and some truly baffling maps, I stumbled upon one of the most magical waterfall pools I’ve ever encountered.
Did I skinny dip? Are you kidding? Of COURSE.
What’s weird is, I accessed this place via an ugly logging road under a power line, then had to climb down a bluff using a VERY scary rope “ladder”–to find this lil’ piece of Narnia waiting below.
Oh, and then climb back up again.
Good job, Vancouver Island–make us work a little for your treasures.
One of our two weeks is now behind us, and The Mate and I are at the end of the world, or what feels like it: the towns of Ucluelet and Tofino, one at each end of a peninsula hanging off the Big Island.
Image courtesy of VisitTofino.ca
Tofino’s where the kayak photo came from. “But Gretchen,” you may ask, “don’t you already live on an island? Why would you vacation somewhere so similar to your regular ol’ life?”
Could this photo have been taken in the San Juan Islands? Possibly.
But my answer is:
Nothing “regular” about THIS…
…or THIS: the First Nations village of Opitsat, which our kayak guide told us was the oldest continuously-inhabited settlement in North America, dating back at least 5,000 years (but more likely, he had learned, 10,000). Seeing it gave me goose bumps. (again–apologies for poor zoom lens)
The background snowy peaks of the mountains in Strathcona Provincial Park are just…extra.
And I’ll let Ucluelet speak for itself:
Just a teensy bit wilder than where I live.And so are the trees.
One more thing The Mate and I are really enjoying about this part of B.C.: its quirkiness. For example, our rented room is in the lower part of this…structure?
Home, sweet whatever you want to call this.
And their official control-your-dogs-at-the-beach signs are hilarious:
Wait, did somebody say Good Dog? Oh, we sure hope so. But meanwhile–thanks for the vacation, Maya! See you in a week!
I know you’ve had it a bit rough this last week, re-discovering your own racism and all. Welcome to the club. Gotta tell you, though–I still need to thank you for the ten days I just spent with The Mate, introducing my parents to your Rocky splendor. You may not be perfect, Canada (big surprise), but you’re still pretty stellar in my book.
Thank you for your waterfalls.
Like this classic: Athabasca Falls in Jasper National Park
Or this one, coming right out of a cliff face! (Jasper)
Another classic, joining the Maligne River in Jasper
Can you ever have too many waterfall pictures?
Thank you for your canyons.
Athabasca
Johnston Canyon, Banff National Park. (Even though it was so crowded there I stopped taking pictures.)
Even your dry canyons are awesome!
Thank you for waterfalls IN canyons!
Maligne Canyon. Got pretty crowded there too…but can you blame us?
Thank you for the colors of your lakes.
The famous Lake Louise.
Lake Agnes in Banff.
The Inkpots, Banff.
Hard to tell where sky ends and water begins. (Jasper)
Can’t…stop..photographing…water!
Thank you for your glaciers, even though their shrinkage scares the shit out of us.
Athabasca Glacier, coming off the Columbia Icefield, is still making its own weather…
…but look how far the poor glacier has receded since we first visited in the early 80s!
Thank you for your wildlife, even when it’s right beside the damn road.
Jasper traffic jam.
Big guy. I was hoping to see him fight another big guy, but he was too busy guarding his harem.
Moose are my FAVORITES. We saw four along just this one stretch of Maligne Road.
My second bear on this trip had me wishing for a zoom lens for my phone. Gotta work on that.
After the disappointment of seeing NO bighorn sheep in any of the parks, we met a giant herd on the very edge of the city of Kamloops! This is only some of them.
Thank you for the reassurance that, even when all your pine-beetle-ravaged forests do eventually burn, which they must…
(Yeah, pretty horrible to see–trees weakened by drought)
…Nature WILL know what to do.
Thank you for your mountains, which are not like any other mountains I’ve known.
Maligne Range…rock from 600 million years ago, uplifted
But on second thought–thank you, too, Washington. Your mountains are no slouch either.
The Mate at Washington Pass Overlook
And for that matter…thanks for the reminder, Lopez Island, that I don’t NEED to go to Canada to worship beauty. (But thank the gods I can! And I wish some of it for everyone.)
I know, I just finished one trip to Vancouver Island, and satellite islands, in September. But when some dear old friends visiting from the east coast wanted to discover Canada, the Mate and I jumped at the chance to do some more discovery of the lovely land so ridiculously close to where we live.
We didn’t have time to go all the way to our happy place, Jasper, Alberta…that’ll be, we hope, next year. So we rented a house in Harrison Hot Springs, adjacent to a generous handful of Provincial Parks, and made daily forays.
Foray #1: Sasquatch Provincial Park. Just outside of Harrison Hot Springs. Probably a zoo in the high season. But in October, we had the place to ourselves.
VERY tempted to take a dip…if the air had been just a teensy bit warmer!
The backdrop: Manning Provincial Park. That’s tomorrow’s trip. Meanwhile, we had fun getting lost while trying to hike around Hick’s Lake. Dumb Americans.
I canNOT resist a good fungus shot. And why should I?
Foray #2: Salmon Spawning Channel. It’s October! The Pinks and Chum are coming home! This channel wasn’t as photogenic as a natural stream, but apparently it boasts a 12x survival rate of baby salmon, so…we were OK with it.
It’ll all be over soon, guys. Thanks for all your hard work.
Foray #3: E.C. Manning Provincial Park. I was especially interested in this one, as I’ve had several friends through-hike the Pacific Crest Trail, and Manning is its northern terminus. We didn’t get to that part of the park (the weather was hovering right above freezing and we weren’t thrilled about tackling ice in our friends’ little rental car), but we did take a nice hike past some waterfalls, punctuated by fall color.
Did I mention it was a rather foggy day up there?
Not aspen, but a relative: black cottonwood. Or so we were told. Doing its October job.
Foray #4: Golden Ears Provincial Park. This jaw-droppingly beautiful place (of which we only saw a fraction–it’s huge!) is less than 30 minutes outside Vancouver!
I don’t think these are the actual “Golden Ears,” but I’ll take ’em.
Think this waterfall is pretty? Just wait for…
…the pool above it! Words like “entrancing,” “emerald,” and “crystalline” come to mind. Sometimes cliches are apropos.
That was it for forays. Well, no, we did also explore the environs of Harrison Hot Springs itself, including a pretty wild, fern-dripping hike around the edge of Harrison Lake, but I didn’t have my camera with me. But I did go for a bike ride around the Fraser Valley one day, capturing some local sights, like…
…this cranberry bog! Didn’t know they grew in the Fraser Valley; our Washington cranberries are all out near the coast. Not pictured: field after field of blueberries, all in festive autumnal red.
It was easy for the Mate and me to feel right at home, amidst the red cedars, moss, salmon–“We have all that,” we told ourselves smugly. But then I saw this campaign sign:
“Please”???? When’s the last time you saw a US campaign sign say “Please”?
O for such civic civility! O my! O Canada…take me with you!
Having checked out some of its wee satellites (Quadra and Cortes), we turned our attention to Vancouver Island itself, a mothership so vast it’s hard to remember it’s an island. (Although I suppose one could say that about our continent as well, eh?)
With only two days before our ferry home, we didn’t have time to head all the way over to the wild West Coast–that trip will have to wait. Instead, we bumbled into the easiest possible gateway to gorgeous: Strathcona Provincial Park, just west of Campbell River.
Our goddaughter had described her “best bike ride ever” a couple of years ago, along the shores of Buttle Lake in the park. That’s talking our language! In scrutinizing the map, we discovered Strathcona Park Lodge. And since it was now raining more or less continuously and we were no longer interested in campgrounds, we crossed our fingers and gave the lodge a try.
They had one cabin free.
“Tent, shment.”
They also had 180 Canadian teenagers staying on the grounds…because Strathcona Park Lodge, it turns out, is an Outdoor Education Center–I mean, Centre. In their own words, they are “a self contained community of more than 20 buildings, 50 or more staff and hundreds of guests. The entire operation is powered by a micro-hydro system, which means we’re highly sensitive to energy conservation. We also treat our own water and heat some of it with passive solar technology.”
Yup–we’d found our peeps. Those 180 teenagers? Not only did they get whisked away to spend their days hiking in the rain and learning to kayak, they also returned at night to tuck into a dining-hall meal that truly shocked us in its boldness: curried eggplant and lamb, with samosas and yogurt! Can you imagine American teens eating that? Good for you, Strathcona! Good for you, Canada!
[If I were the kind of person who takes pictures of food…but I’m not, so you’ll just have to imagine it.]
The second night we cooked, using our camp stove out on the cabin’s front deck, with this view.
This will do.
Nights were awfully cozy.
“Tent, shment.”
Oh, and that bike ride? As beautiful as described, going on for miles and miles and miles. (I mean kilometers.) AND relatively flat. I did one section with the Mate, and another alone, stopping to take pictures.
Looking into the interior, where the mountains rise to 7,000 feet.
Their version of the dogwood…and, I THINK, BC’s provincial flower (too lazy to fact-check this)
Don’t think I’ve ever noticed maples changing color outside-in like this.
The hiking was no more jaw-dropping than a hike in our own Cascades–like I’ve said before, I’m completely spoiled. But I did encounter some FANTASTIC fungi.
These guys usually have red caps! Is this the Black Panther version?
Who needs maple leaves when you have this?
The rare British Columbian Boobshroom in full fruit
On our way back to the ferry in Sidney, we made a few stops to smaller provincial parks. This one, Elk Falls, was a favorite–right outside Campbell River.
Elk Falls, falling.
Must…cross…suspension bridge over ridiculously deep gorge!!!
There’s a reason for those high side fences.
Returning home to the San Juans, we received a sunset reminder not to feel sorry for our vacation coming to an end.
Last week we finally made time to visit with our neighbors. They’re nice people–just like us, actually, only nicer. Because they’re Canadians. In fact, our neighbor IS Canada. British Columbia, to be exact.
The Mate and I were embarrassed to say how little we knew Vancouver Island and the smaller islands between it and mainland British Columbia…given that we can literally see the nighttime glow of Victoria from our house, and on clear days, the mountains of the big island’s center.
In the past eight years since we moved to within viewing distance, we have been to Vancouver Island exactly ONCE. Just to Victoria. Yes, we took our kids hiking on the West Coast Trail, but that was TWENTY YEARS AGO. And yes, we once visited friends on Denman Island, but that was THIRTY-TWO YEARS AGO.
We were overdue for a visit.
As followers of Wing’s World know, my blog only occasionally morphs into Travel Blog mode, and even then, not the kind of travel blog with tips and descriptions of where to find the best artisanal meal. Over the next few posts, I’ll simply share some pictures and brief descriptions, and leave it to you to decide if you feel inspired to visit where we’ve been. Please do let me know if you’d like more specific recommendations about places to go or stay.
Up first: Quadra Island.
To get there, we took the ferry from San Juan Island (next to our Lopez) to Sidney, BC, then drove 3+ hours up the coast to Campbell River. Except for Mount Findlayson Provincial Park (with ENORMOUS old growth cedars and a salmon-spawning stream, right outside Victoria), this was a pretty dull drive, because we were beelining it on the inland highway. I’d recommend taking the slower coastal route…but we were in a hurry to get to the islands.
Campbell River itself? Not as cosy as its neighbor across the sound, Powell River, but it had its charm, including an excellent natural foods store, and this sculpture:
OK, Campbell River…creepy, but cool.
The ferry to Quadra took 10 minutes, but we still saw a humpback on the crossing. (Didn’t grab my camera fast enough for that.)
We had planned to camp, but neither of the two big Provincial Parks there had car-type campgrounds, and we weren’t set up for backpacking this time. The Heriot Bay Inn’s campground was WAY too sardine-packed for our taste (a tent between 2 RVs just doesn’t conjure up that camp-y feeling). But we were able to get a cute little room in the 100 year-old building…
…that came with its own cat.
Hard to take selfies with an ipad, turns out.
Our first two days of hiking were sunny, but also smoky from the many forest fires further north. Quadra’s beaches reminded us of ours…
Interesting note: no anemones in the tidepools, but lots of oysters!
…as did its giant, moss-covered hummocks rising out of forest.
Not pictured: me taking a skinny-dip in that lake back there!
When the rain came, it was very welcome, as it chased away all that smoke and (we trust) also helped the firefighters win their fight. The wild, wet coast felt familiar and exotic at the same time.
Ahhhhh…
Smaller than our Salish Sea ones. Typical? Unusual? Don’t know.
But this fir tree was in a class by itself.
They call this the Octopus Tree. Wonder why.
One of our favorite spots, on the southern end of the island, was Rebecca Spit, a day-use only park that is probably bustling in summer. But for us, on a sunny September day (which just happened to be our 31st anniversary), it was peaceful, and picnic-perfect.
Lovely place for a stroll, eh.
And then there was this guy on the road-paving crew near the inn, with his buddy, all vested up for safety:
Our kind of island, Quadra.
Next up: Cortes Island! (If you think Quadra’s quirky…)
Ready for a quick morph into travel-blog mode? How about a debate over what IS Canada’s best-kept secret? (I imagine it has many. Unlike the U.S., Canada does not trumpet its specialness.) The Mate and I just returned from a short excursion up British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast, and we are still scratching our heads.
How have we lived so long, and so close by, without knowing about this place?
Quick geography overview: the Sunshine Coast is–duh–on the west coast, or rather it IS the west coast, north and east of Vancouver. It is NOT an island, though it includes many. But considering you have to take TWO ferries to experience its extent, it sure is hard to convince your brain that it’s still on the mainland.
Look, here’s what I’m talking about:
(Courtesy sunshinecoastcanada.com)
Wanna drive to Whistler? Sure. Wanna drive to Gibsons? Get on a boat.
On Day One, a single ferry ride plus a generous hour’s drive from Vancouver, we were discovering the Skookumchuck Rapids. These rapids are NOT in a river–they’re formed by the tide rushing through an inlet too skinny to hold all that water without throwing it around in standing waves and trenches so deep and gnarly that kayakers come from all over to train and play in them.
Not a river? Are you SURE?!
Wheeee!
On Day Two, after our second ferry ride, I was walking through the largest town, Powell River, on my way to the info center. “Um, you might not want to go that way,” a young woman called to me from a yard. “There’s a bear in a tree down that street, and he’s been growling.” Of course I had to go see that bear. It was a big one, very black, snoozing in a crook of a cedar. In the middle of a neighborhood. Welcome to Powell River, eh?
{Did not have my camera on me at that moment, so I’ll give you a second to imagine the bear.}
Day Three, we drove to the furthest northern town, Lund, and took a 10-minute water taxi ride out to Savary Island–referred to by some Coasters as “our Hawaii.” Not sure about that comparison, but in terms of SUN and wide expanses of sand…sure, I get it. Also never heard of it. Also thrilled to be there at the end of the summer with NO ONE ELSE around.
sunny Savary, with Vancouver Island in the background
Day Two and Four, we rode our bikes 13k around Inland Lake, near Powell River. (We liked the bike path so much, we did it in both directions.)
The lake has its own wee island you can ride onto!
Not a soul around, unless loons have souls.
{OK, I’ll stop. I just REALLY liked that bike path.}
On our last day, back on the lower portion of the Sunshine Coast, we hiked a short ways to Smugglers Cove, where we found…
…THIS.
Madrona in the morning sun
Madrona with berries
I don’t usually post so many pictures, so you can tell what kind of a visual impact this place made on me. (If my computer weren’t so slow to upload them, I’d post more.) The Mate and I feel like we only got a little taste of the Sunshine Coast, and we already want to go back.
Which, lucky for us, isn’t that big of a deal. Which brings me back to that first question: why did it take us 26 years of living in the Northwest to figure this out?
So, what do you think: Canada’s best-kept secret? Or are there others I don’t yet know of?
How can you resist a tagline like that? As soon as I learned of The 7 Virtues Perfume Company, I knew I had to promote it. And I don’t even wear perfume!
I could dive right in and tell you about this inspiring Canadian company. But why don’t I let the 7 Virtues folks say it themselves? This is straight from their website:
Vision
Leave a better footprint on this planet than we found.
Values
We value the dignity and empowerment of others through jobs.
Jobs give others dignity and empowerment. We believe as a social enterprise we can use our buying power to support farmers and their families in nations rebuilding.
We do this by purchasing natural essential oils. We wish to ignite a cavalry of business to come and buy from suppliers in nations rebuilding.
When farmers can buy books and shoes for their children in a safe environment we will help reverse issues of poverty and war.
We believe in fragrances that are good for your skin. They are vegan, phthalate free, and paraben free. Good for the world. Good for your skin.
The 7 Virtues Beauty Inc. is a Canadian company based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. We believe we must flex our buying power to empower families in countries that are rebuilding. Our made in Canada fragrance collection is created with essential oils from nations that are rebuilding including Haiti, Afghanistan and the Middle East.
“Alphonsine is able to support her family harvesting patchouli in Rwanda” says the caption from this 7 Virtues photo
“Meeting our farmers in Rwanda and being welcomed into homes they built with their income from harvesting patchouli showed us the direct benefits of harnessing our buying power in the beauty industry for positive change. I could hear the birds singing loudly in the fields, a sign that the farm is organic, which makes our work even more impactful for our customers.”
Barb Stegemann, Founder, The 7 Virtues
I’ve read through the website and read several news stories about this company, and I can’t find a single thing to feel cynical about. If you do the same, and manage to find something to feel cynical about, do me the favor of keeping it to yourself, won’t you? Me, I plan to enjoy the knowledge that one small portion of an industry I normally snort at–cosmetics–is finding a way to make life better in some of our planet’s neediest places. And I’m ordering a couple of blend boxes (including “Noble Rose of Afghanistan” and Vetiver of Haiti”) for gifts.
This 7 Virtues photo’s caption reads, “Female Afghan farmer at harvest time”
Perfume for Peace, rather than for more money in the pocket of Chanel, Inc? Makes scents to me. (Sorry–couldn’t resist.) Read about 7 Virtues and tell me what you think, ok?
Wing's World 