Wishbone Campground -- Columbia River Gorge

This is a delightfully funky campground on the WA side of the Columbia River, a few miles east of Hood River. Before I got this far east, I camped at Beacon Rock State Park (also on the WA side), not in the main campground, which is heavily forested and across the road from the river, but down on the river at the boat moorage where there are two campsites next to the river, and which is also much more open. Wishbone campground is set in scattered small oak trees, with lots of birds, especially Western Bluebirds.

Here's how I got to Deception Pass

From Quadra Island, I took the ferry back to Campbell River and drove south to the Living Forest campground outside of Nanaimo. I stayed there for a couple of nights, but it was pretty cold, so I decided to head south. I discovered that I could take an early morning BC ferry from Crofton, about 25 miles south, to Vesuvius on Saltspring Island. I explored the island for most of the day and then took another BC ferry in the late afternoon from Fulford Harbour to Swartz Bay at the northern tip of the peninsula that extends north from Victoria. I didn’t like Saltspring nearly as well as Quadra Island.

At Swartz Bay, I spent the night at McDonald Park, then drove a few miles south to Sidney, BC, where I caught the Washington State ferry to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island and connected to another WA State ferry to Orcas Island, where I camped at Moran State Park. I chose Orcas Island over San Juan because there’s no public campground on San Juan, but I think I would have liked San Juan better; what I saw of Friday Harbor during the hour wait for the ferry connection was nice (including a small group of peace demonstrators), and more desirable still, while in line for the ferry out of Orca, I met a couple who told me that there’s a place on San Juan Island that overlooks a strait where they saw lots of orcas.

From Orca Island, I took another WA ferry to Anacortes, and then drove to Deception Pass State Park.

Most of the campgrounds I stayed in on Vancouver and the other islands were set in deep forest. (The exeptions were Cluxewe [which, by the way, is pronouned like “cluck seaweed” without the “d”] and Heriot Bay. As the weather moved into fall, it was getting colder and darker, so I decided to go south to the Columbia River gorge.

Through the morning fog you can just barely make out the bridge over Deception Pass, between Fidalgo and Whidby Islands, at the eastern end of the Strait of San Juan de Fuca. I stayed at the state park here. Hint: click on the picture to make it bigger.

From Cluxewe, I went to Quadra Island via a 20 minute ferry ride from Campbell River. Quadra Island is lovely. I would have stayed there longer than 2 � days if the major campground, We Kai Tai, had been open. Both We Kai Tai and the Heriot Bay Inn campground, where I did stay, are on Heriot Bay, on the east side of the island. The views in the bay are wonderful, and the ones on the outer, eastern side of Rebecca Spit, which forms the southern part of Heriot Bay, are even better. The island is partly forested and partly small farms. There are a lot of artists living there. One of the things I especially liked about travelling in Canada was the support they give their artists. Signs directing you to artist studios are posted on the highway. I definitely preferred Quadra to Salt Spring Island, where I went next for a couple of days.

I took a kayak lesson while I was there and learned how to get in and out of the kayak, as well as how to paddle it. We then took a two hour trip around the bay.

A sunny day at Cluxewe. This was the furthest north that I went on my travels. Since I was there shortly before the equinox, the days were about 12 hours long, just as they would be anywhere, including Los Angeles, where I've lived for the last 29 years. But the sun at noon was noticeably lower in the sky. This place felt remote, even though there were fishing and even cruise boats coming through the strait, and the campground was only about 2 miles from the main road, and 7 miles from the small town of Port McNeill.

Cluxewe

Across the gravel drive from my campsite was this estuary. Here you see it at high tide. The Great Blue Heron hunted here.

Sunset at Cluxewe Campground

Jacob on the beach at Cluxewe, late afternoon. I liked Cluxewe a lot. The front edge of my campsite was high-tide line. I spent ten days here, mostly just watching the tide come in and out, walking on the beach, seeing bald eagles, harlequin ducks, loons (I didn�t know that they were ever on the ocean, but they spend the winter here),stellar jays, and ravens.

I camped here at Loveland Bay two nights. It's about 15 miles from Campbell River. Then I camped a couple of nights at Elk Falls campground, right outside of Campbell River, so I could do town stuff - laundry, etc. The guy who checked me in where I got the oil changed in the van suggested that I might like Cluxewe campground, near Port McNeill, so that was my next stop.

After Elaine and Laura left, I went north to Campbell River. This is the cemetery there.

Jacob on the way back from Bamfield

This was taken on board the ship going back to Port Alberni. It rained almost all the way back, and was fairly chilly. Jacob was allowed on the boat, but not inside. When he started shivering, I put my fleece vest on him. I wouldn't say that he was exactly thrilled about wearing it, would you?

The trip to Bamfield was beautiful – I’m still haunted by the vision of white seagulls against the rain-forest green of the walls of the inlet – but we spent a lot of time and energy getting ready to go and return. In retrospect, I wish that the three of us had decided to spend our time together doing a little less running around and a little more enjoying one another. Even so, it was great to have the four days together.

Bamfield part 2

This is the view from my motel window at Bamfield. We had separate rooms because Elaine is allergic to dogs. The village of Bamfield, we learned, is in two parts, and most of the tourist stuff is on the side opposite the one where our motel was. There's a water-taxi, however, so on our second day we crossed over and visited several galleries, most of which were along the path out to the beach on the Pacific. Although it rained a good part of the time we were at Bamfield, it was light rain, and it cleared up for us during our hike. You'll notice a number of cars in the picture; the only road into Bamfield comes to the side where we stayed. My guess is that most of the cars you see here belong to people living or staying on the other side of the inlet.

Bamfield

After spending a night together at the Living Forest campground, Elaine, Laura, and I decided to take one of the merchant ships that take passengers as well as cargo from Port Alberni, in the center of Vancouver Island, out to Bamfield, a small fishing and tourist village, on the western coast of the island. The trip takes about four hours and makes several stops enroute, mostly to deliver cargo and mail. We saw a humpbacked whale, and a black bear on a beach along the way. This picture is of the inlet at Bamfield.