Carmanah Walbran Trip Photo Essay

Back in April some friends and I spent a few days out in the Carmanah Walbran Valley. These are some of the photos from the trip.

Our first day we headed upstream from the campsite to do some exploring. There are massive trees everywhere. Particularly were the Three Sisters just feet from each other.

There were some other groups camping along the river. Always a good idea to keep your food in the trees with hungry bears around. Make sure they’re high enough though. I think I could reach one of the bags we saw.

The Three Sisters were huge trees but many of the other trees were as big or bigger. Simon looks tiny standing next to one.

The trail wound its way up and over small ridges along the side of the rover. The scenery was stunning the entire way.

For some reason I’m attracted to the random human things I find in the woods. There was a sandal hanging in one of the trees. Not exactly appropriate hiking footwear. Having only one sandal would be even less appropriate.

The trail was well marked most of the way. We lost it after we crossed the river once. With some wandering and a keen eye we always found the markers. I felt like a scout roaming around ahead of the group trying to find our way.

With beautiful scenery it’s hard not to just sit and take it in. I caught Simon doing his best Survivorman impression.

The only sketchy part of the hike was a very slippery log that we had to use to cross the river.

Most of the hiking was nice open trail under the old-growth trees. Some of the area near the water was quite thick with salmon-berry bushes.

We made it to August Creek and were looking for the falls. These were the first ones we ran into. We dubbed them August Creek Falls, sat down beside them and had lunch.

There was tons of fungi along the trail. I was hungry when I took this photo. I thought it looked like a nice hamburger.

I can’t imagine a place more beautiful with all the different greens. It can be tough to take some of the photos because there is so much green but it was certainly a nice place to be.

The boardwalk was in very good shape. Some of it was wet and very slippery. I had to catch up to my friends when we started and moving quickly on boardwalk with stiff boots on which nearly ended badly in a few spots.

Our second day we headed downstream from the trail intersection to the Heaven Tree and another grove of huge trees.

We passed some beautiful swimming holes in the river. Too bad the water was absolutely freezing.

Another prime piece of junk in the woods. I’m not sure how you get back up the trail without a shoe on your foot.

Our weekend camping at Carmanah Walbran was another great time out in the wilderness.

My only tip here are that you need to pack light as the campsites are a long walk from the parking lot. We were under the impression it would be a car camping, drive-in type of camping and it was much more walking and carrying heavy gear than we had expected. Pack lightly and you’ll be happier.

There are bears in the area. We didn’t see any in the campsite but some campers that were leaving, came back in a hurry to let us know there was a bear heading down the road and then drove off again. Bring bear repellant and cache your food well.

To end the weekend we headed out to Nitinat Lake and stayed one night there. It was another beautiful place to stay, especially since we had the entire campsite to ourselves on the lake (aside from a very cute, furry visitor). More pictures from that location to come soon.

See you out there.