Sumit Lakes & Geraldine Lake

Today the rain had backed off a bit but so we went for a hike to Lower Summit Lake. The hike starts from the southern end of Medicine Lake & runs between two saw toothed ranges. About a mile in you come to Beaver Lake (above). It's surprisingly peaceful place considering how accessible it is. Of course there are no beavers in the lake because it's called "Beaver" Lake. The Rocky Mountain parks are odd. If you can drive to it with less than a kilometre of walk, it's loaded with tourists. Anything slightly further is nice & peaceful.

 We saw a ptarmigan foraging beside the trail in full dark summer colours. He was going about his business with little regard for our intrusion.

More wild flowers. This one is an Indian Paintbrush.

The target of our first walk for the day was First Summit Lake (above). The trail continues to Second Summit Lake, Jacques Lake & then beyond. If you're really keen, you can continue to follow the "South Boundary Trail" the 165kms to the Banff/Jasper National park boundary on the Icefields Parkway. We weren't that keen to go past First Summit Lake. It's quite the nice setting but it must be much nicer with clear blue skies. The best part about the hike was the fact that it was just under 5 kms each way along a relatively flat trail.

On the way back to Jasper from the Summit Lake trail we drove alongside Medicine Lake (above). I just had to stop. The lake was dead calm & the reflections of the surrounding ranges... well, you be the judge (despite the cloudy weather). We've been to Medicine Lake a number of times & it has looked like a different lake every time.

After lunch, we set off on another hike to 1st Geraldine Lake (above). Our trail guide book lead us to believe it was a fairly short, moderately easy hike. Not the case. It was quite steep and the path was muddy & hacked up for most of the way to the lake. The lake was nice enough with a water fall at the far end. Unfortunately we were both a bit grumpy from the hike & it took the edge off the scenery a bit. The lake was surprisingly clear and was alive with some big trout.

For some reason we persisted with even more difficult terrain along the lake shore to the Water Fall at the far end. We did get there in the end & took a few average photos. Needless to say we were very glad to be back at the car an hour or so later. Was it worth it?.... Not so sure. The mountains have spoiled us so we're starting to get a bit hard to please.

Jasper Animals

It is a four day long weekend this weekend and we're back in Jasper. The drive up along the Icefields Parkway was marred by torrential rain and it wasn't much better in Jasper when we arrived. The skies may be a bit grey but we're otherwise excited to be back.
Having covered much of the area close to Jasper and to the west,we drove out east toward Hinton to explore something new. The main road twists through the lake riddled valley which makes for a nice scenic drive in itself. About half an hour from Jasper, we turned up the Miette road that is the acess for Miette Hot Springs. Everything was lush and green in the valley.

We did see a black bear at one of the campsites along the way. What a surprise! We hardly ever see black bears during our travels in Western Canada!
Anyway, this healthy young bear was going about his business stripping the forest of berries. He was right at the entrance to the Pocahontas campground but that didn't seem to deter him.

We saw a couple of deer toward the end of the day, but I think the traffic volume due to the long weekend probably scared most of them off.

Maybe we'll get lucky with better weather tomorrow.

Fisgard Lighthouse

Today was our last day on V.I. We had the morning in Victoria to check out Fisgard Lighthouse before an afternoon flight back to Calgary.

The Fisgard Lighthouse site is situated about 20 mins drive west of Victoria Harbour. It isn't just a lighthouse, itis also an historical site containing WWII battlements.

There's plenty of war memorabilia around the site.

The views from some of the bunkers and battlements are fantastic.

The lighthouse sits out on a peninsular separated from the military buildings.

Fisgard Lighthouse is well worth checking out if you are in Victoria.

We were able to get a direct flight from V.I. to Calgary, so there was no annoying stop over in Vancouver. The afternoon was clear so we were able to get a great look at the mountains all the way. Mt Barker was still watching us (pictured above).

Discovery Passage

Today was the second last day of our trip to V.I. We set off early from our hotel in Parksville & drove 130 kms north to Campbell River. It was a bit last minute but we'd booked ourselves on another whale watching cruise, this time into Discovery Passage. Discovery Passage is the narrowest section of water between V.I. & the mainland. There's a myriad of islands in the area as well. It was what I had actually come to V.I. for. The whales were always going to be a bonus. The scenery was awesome. There were no tourists to bug us, just the local wildlife.

The narrow waterway causes some extreme water movement. The tides run strong and boaties need to take great care in this treacherous stretch of water.

We hadn't even left the harbour at Campbell River before we'd seen our first Bald Eagle. Not far north of there, on Quadra Island, we spotted this pair in the tree. They looked very well fed & considering the abundance of salmon in the area, it wasn't exactly a ground breaking discovery. As we continued north, we saw many pairs perched in the trees scoping the water for fish. The Bald Eagles are easy to spot among the dark green spruce trees because they look like golf balls from a distance. Their white heads give them away. It's a big call, but I think we saw more bald eagles today than we did the whole time we were in Alaska, and there were heaps up there.

One of the other residents of Quadra Island is the Black Tailed deer. These are similar to the white tails on the mainland, but are endemic to Vancouver Island & some of the smaller islands in Discovery passage. They are much smaller than their mainland cousins. Bambi's mum in picture only stands about 3 ft at the shoulder. Their white tailed cousins are nearly double that full grown. Unfortunately for the deer, they are a prime snack for the many predators, particularly on Quadra Island. (You can see the doe looking up the hill for danger which was apparently more of a threat than us in the boat). Anything from eagles to wolves & cougars think that even the adults make great eating. The deer still seem to thrive.

Unfortunately the wind was blowing 30 knots plus by the time we weren't too far north. It made it nearly impossible to spot the orcas we had come to find. We could have driven right past them & not know it because of the white caps & spray. We persisted to a point but eventually when Discovery Passage changed into Johnstone Strait, the captain decided it wasn't worth the punishment or the risk to go any further. Instead we headed into a small port on the mainland called Port Neville. It's basically just a wharf, a post office & a bit of a museum. You'll notice an aluminium boat next to the wharf. That was our boat. It's kind of funny looking, but it really did a good job. We didn't get wet, we didn't get beaten up & it was deceptively quick!

We took a break from the battering in the boat & had a look around the old post office. Lorna, the lady who runs the post office, showed us around & was nice enough to tell us about the history of the place. It's now a mail hub for people living in the surrounding area on islands or inlets. The mail float plane comes 3 times a week (now that would be a cool mail run). After a spot of lunch we hopped back on the boat & headed back toward Campbell River.

Due to the lack of opportunity to spot whales, the back up plan was to go bear hunting. We saw three yesterday and were excited about seeing a few more and having an opportunity to catch them with the camera. We were in luck. The bears don't seem at all interested in boats & just go about their business normally. We ended up seeing 3 of them on the way back. They were all foraging on the shore, turning over rocks looking for various snacks.

The good thing about being in a boat is that you can get really close to the animals without disturbing them or having them attack you. Something to notice about the coastal black bears is that they are completely black. Their Albertan cousins we've seen usually have a brown face & a few white markings. As you can see, that's not the case with these guys.

The return trip to Campbell river was much more sedate. Aside from the frequent stops for wildlife, we were protected from the wind. We took a route between the islands closer to the mainland through some calmer waters & some spectacular scenery. The only unfinished business I have on V.I. is in the same area. In September & October you can take a trip with the same company (Discovery Marine Tours) across to an inlet on the mainland where the salmon run. The grizzlies line up, sometimes 15 at a time & fish for salmon. It will just give us an excuse to come back some other time.......

Tofino & Waterfalls

Tofino

From today we going to explore the middle of Vancouver Island. We'll be based at Quaillicum Beach for a couple of nights so we can do a couple of day trips to explore our surroundings. Our exploration today took us to Tofino on the remote west coast. From Quallicum Beach there's a 170km narrow windy hacked up road to negotiate to cross the island. The drive took us 2-1/2 hours! Just before we reached Tofio township we passed through this dense forest. This is about the best photo we have of coastal rain forest typical of the western shore of VI. The trees here aren't as tall as the ones we saw near Victoria 2 days ago, but are still very impressive.

Canadians have a huge coastline but very few places where they can surf. The north is frozen most of the year & the Atlantic Ocean is bitterly cold.
Long Beach near Tofino is the best known surfing beach in Canada (pictured is Chesterman Beach next door). I don't see the attraction myself. The water, even in the middle of summer is still icy.
There wasn't much in the way of surf today & the fog was thick & cold. We may well have been there on a quiet day surf wise. I could see the potential for great waves on the right day but I think I'll stick to the surf back home. The crazies were still out in the water regardless of how inviting the weather was.

We saw lots of black bears along the road across the island but there was nowhere to pull over safely to take any photos.

Quallicum Falls

On the way back from Tofino we took a divert to a couple of the provincial parks close to Parksville. The first one was Quallicum falls. A short walk took us to Upper Quallicum Falls (above). There was also a smaller unnamed water fall at the foot of the Upper Falls (below).

There was also another waterfall close by called <wait for it> Lower Quallicum Falls (below).

 

Englishman Falls

A short drive from Quallicum Falls is Englishman falls. Once again there was an Upper Falls (above & below) & a Lower Falls.

The Upper falls is one of the most unusual waterfalls I have ever seen. It topples down into a seemingly endless crack in the earth and disappears.

The lower falls (above) are a bit more conventional despite being a twin fall. It is slightly ironic that we drove for 5 hours to Tofino today but the pick of the scenery was 15 mins from our base at Quallicum Beach.

Mount Douglas & Craigdarroch Castle

Another thing you can do around Victoria is drive along the coastline & then up to the Mt Douglas Lookout. It's a great vantage point for overlooking Victoria & over to mainland US & Canada. The drive along the coast in nice, but nothing that spectacular. It is difficult to impress an Aussie with a coastline.

 We were able to look north and see where we'll be driving to tomorrow. We're off to Qualicum Beach, half way up Vancouver Island.

Across the water to the South East we could see mainland Washington State with Mt Barker watching us once again.

This is another of Victoria's overrated tourist attractions, Craigdarroch Castle. Sure it's a castle, but having been to Europe & the UK, this one is just a little cottage that isn't that old. We took the photo from out front & didn't bother going in. The write-ups hadn't inspired us at all.