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| Northern Vancouver Island Adventure - Day 2 | |
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07/25/07 - Port Hardy, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada Waterfalls and bear-spotting |
(Shutterfly photo album - North Vancouver Island) |
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This morning (after a breakfast of PopTarts, bananas and coffee
in our room), upon the recommendation of the hotel manager, we
stopped at Elk Falls Provincial Park just north of town to do a
short hike to a waterfall. Upon setting out, Caroline was
thinking "you've seen one waterfall, you've seen them all."
Well, boy was she wrong! Due to all the rain they've had
this summer on the Island, it was flowing, I mean really
flowing. We both agreed that it was the most amazing
waterfall we'd ever seen and well worth the stop. At mid-day, we stopped for lunch and a small touring break in the tiny community of Telegraph Cove. A quaint, picturesque little place, entirely built on stilts over the water, not much goes on here except tour departures and eating/drinking at the over-hyped Killer Whale Cafe, where we ate lunch. We did pay a brief visit to the mildly interesting marine conservation awareness museum, the Whale Interpretive Center, where they had some nice (and HUGE) whale skeletons on display. Next it was on to our stopping point for the night, Port Hardy. As we drive north, places are seeming increasingly rustic. Gone are the Starbuckses and MacDonaldses of Campbell River... Our motel for the night, The Pioneer, is a case in point. An interesting sort of place, I'll give it that. Our neighbors were a bunch of bikers and there were some small RV/campers out back that looked like they'd been there for a while. Beyond that, the photos will just have to speak for themselves...you'll see. But it was all worth it because on the road into town we spotted our first black bear just off the side of the road...and another....and another... Oh, the excitement is just too much! They pay absolutely no attention to the traffic whizzing by on the highway (unlike the local drivers and truckers, who fly by as close as they can to your car and give a long honk, if you pull over to get a closer look at the bears), just grazing on the side of the road, like deer or cows might. It's quite a bizarre and amazing sight! All in all, we saw at least 10 bears, including a cub or two, making the trip more than worthwhile.
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Telegraph Cove
