On the bumpy logging road there (the road from Lake Cowichan was MUCH better than the one to Port Alberni--the road graters were on strike so that's why the road conditions were so bad).
View from the car as we went by
We reach the little community of Bamfield
And we hit the trail
We reach this lake fairly soon in our hike
Jeremy was amazed at the tree that grew on the tree...
Mud and tree roots, the trail in a West Coast rainforest
Happy hiker
Didn't I tell you there was mud?
The boardwalk over a part of the lake much further ahead to connect to the forest on the other side
What the lake looks like from the boardwalk
Pretty, isn't it?
And the trail through the jungle continues...
What we saw when we came out of the forest bushes
Wide beautiful beach
Beautiful sunshine
The huge tree stump we saw on the beach
Pictures with the tree stump
When my husband has the camera, you can't stop him.
Sand up in the tree stump? How high did the tide have to come to reach this?
Happy to be here
Taking a walk down the beach
"The Kiss"
Playing with footsteps, each pair is one foot of Jeremy's and one foot of mine
Seaweed
Sunset
Jeremy carving out our spoons
The beautiful finished products (mine was even slanted to better scrape out the food >:)
Our campsite
Jeremy setting up the poles for the tarp
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the far end of the beach where we stumbled upon signs of ancient civilization. I saw it as the "High End" of the beach's primitive camping. Actually, Jeremy figured this place was probably used by the First Nations when they came here. This is a sweat hut.
Check out the benches and the firepit in the middle. A sauna, if you will. They probably had tarp or something covering the roof.
Here is the very modern convenience of a table, complete with a bench.
With a little miniature town for entertainment
Check out the zen garden
And the luxurious accomodations (hey, they have a roof AND skylight!)
A closer look at this hardwood dining table and bench reveals...
Your very own bar and grill! How's that for luxurious?
Double swingset
Here, let us show you how it's done
You even have a volleyball court. See, I told you it was for the rich primitive campers: sauna, accomodation with skylights, an honest-to-goodness table and bench--a bar and grill even! Zen Gardens....yup, you got it good when you camped at this end of the beach
We wander off to explore the south end of the beach
And discover this beautiful arch! It wasn't visible from our campsite.
Beautiful eh? I love stumbling on things like these...
Check out the pretty colored waters
Another kind of entrance that led to a small rock beach that faced the arch
This the "beach" we saw once we entered
View looking out the "entrance" to the beach
A small cave opening. We couldn't go further than that so we headed back the other direction to explore the north end of the beach
What do you think? Cougar tracks? That was our theory
Paw-print. Don't know how long ago it was.
View of the arch again with the island beyond
The seagull's favorite hangout spot was here at the mouth of the creek where we got our drinking water from
At the far north end we navigate the rock cliffs...I'm over a cave opening at the bottom, rather high up--it brings a whole new meaning to "where you go I will go"--when I told Jeremy this, I didn't have quite this situation in mind.
Cave #3
Beach shot
Another small hidden beach
Caves #4 & 5
This sun star was huger even than the one in Iron Mine Bay!
OK, I lied...it was a cute little itty baby sunstar
Sea star with some sea anemones
We finally made it to the rocks on the far far far end of the beach where Jeremy wanted to explore
Looking back towards our campsite...far far away....
Back at our campsite, we built ourselves yet another wonderful fire
Jeremy's fire pictures...he gets a little obsessed sometimes
No pictures of the hike back. But here I am at the end of the hike. Check out my mudstains (said with pride) that I worked so hard to get. I actually got quite cleaned up from brushing against wet bushes the whole way
I ended up slipping and landed seated on a muddy log. Mudstain then was much worse than in this picture.
In contrast, my husband is smiling because he came out with his white shirt still white and not a mudstain on him (because he washed his foot out at the lake right after he got it in the mud). City folk, I tell you...
Nope, nothing here either.
Foot comparisons. My feet are the muddy ones. Hey, you should have seen them right after I pulled them out of the mud. You couldn't see my feet then...so this is actually cleaned off.
Picture at the trailhead. Keeha Beach: 3.5 km.
Now let us show you around Bamfield
Here's what most of the town (West Bamfield) looks like from across the water. You have to take a water taxi to go over there and the majority of the town is on that island.
Brand new Rix Centre for Ocean Discoveries. Fancy!
the Bamfield Marine Science Centre where we got to go in and see the Whale Lab with all the cool sea creatures
Rix Centre for Ocean Discoveries. And that was it folks. All there really is to see in Bamfield :)
