British Columbia Magazine

In May, Associate Editor Shanna Baker and I took a road trip to the Tofino/Ucluelet area, travelling up over the beautiful ‘Hat (Malahat) on Hwy 1 from Victoria, then over to Port Alberni and onward to the west coast of Vancouver Island.  As we drew closer to Ucluelet, a relentless rain began, forcing us to slow down and enjoy the drive on the winding mountain roadway. To our left, vestiges of the winter’s snowfall remained, while streams rushed with spring runoff to our right.

Our first stop was the new Kwisitis Visitor Centre at the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve of Canada. If you are in the area, I encourage you to stop in and check out this facility, formerly known as the Wickaninnish Interpretive Centre.  The timber structure, which also houses the Wickaninnish Restaurant, is perched on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, on one of this country’s most beautiful white sand beaches.

Writer Elizabeth Nolan profiled the centre in our Summer 2011 issue, but we wanted to show it to you in one of our Editor’s Videos. Interpretive designer Donald Gunn trekked over from Saltspring Island to show us the 20 brand-new exhibits, most of which were developed in close collaboration with the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations.

Click here to watch the video. Note: Keep your volume on high: the sound quality isn’t the greatest, and our outdoor scenes are pretty windswept!

We hope the video will give you a taste of the beauty of the park and a preview of the interesting new exhibits on display at the Visitor Centre.

Looking for a new ditty to sing around the campfire this summer? Well, you’re in luck. CBC Radio 2 Morning commissioned songstress Sarah Harmer to create a new tune to commemorate Parks Canada’s 100th anniversary.

I heard it this morning on my way to work, and it’s fantastic.  You can download the video and the sheet music here.  

Don’t forget to join magazine staff on Parks Day, Saturday July 16, in Vancouver’s Stanley Park (near the totems).  We’ll be there with BC Parks, Parks Canada, and others (including musical guest K’naan, who will be part of a free concert, beginning at 4 p.m.). See our blog post below for full information about the event.

If you can’t make it to Vancouver, take advantage of free admission to any national park this Saturday and try out Harmer’s new Canadian campfire song for yourself.

British Columbia Magazine will be at Stanley Park’s Brockton Point in Vancouver this coming Saturday, July 16 for Parks Day.

Parks Day is a celebration of the 100th anniversary of both BC Parks and Parks Canada. The event includes a free outdoor concert beginning a 4 p.m.; instructional demonstrations on how to camp, hike, surf, climb, fish, and geocache; the opportunity to meet Olympic gold medalist Maelle Ricker; plus free hugs from Parka the Beaver and Jerry the Moose!

Visit us at the British Columbia Magazine booth to try your luck at spinning our prize wheel.

Festivities run from noon until 8:30 p.m. For more information, visit the Parks Canada website: www.pc.gc.ca

Celebrations in honour of the BC Parks centennial are also taking place July 16 at Fintry Provincial Park in the North Okanagan, with an inaugural Fintry Fair, featuring arts & crafts, musical acts, outdoor activities, and more, as well as at Squamish’s Alice Lake Provincial Park, with cake and a scavenger hunt. For more BC Parks-related events see www.bcparks.ca.

Visitors to Gowlland Tod Provincial Park in Saanich on southern Vancouver Island can now take a break, on us.

British Columbia Magazine recently became the first organization to sponsor a bench in BC Parks’ “100 Benches for 100 Years of BC Parks” program. Our park bench, complete with commemorative plaque, overlooks the beautiful Tod Inlet.

Fun facts about the bench:

-it looks like it’s made of wood, but the “cedar” planks are actually comprised of recycled plastic.

-the planks are ergonomically arranged for optimum relaxation.

-the first 50 people to visit our bench will win a lifetime subscription to the magazine. (Just kidding, but we do hope you’ll visit).

To sponsor your own bench see the BC Parks website. Benches are available at various parks around the province and cost $1500.

British Columbia is full of volcanoes.

Mount Garibaldi. Mount Meager. Mount Edziza. All were active volcanoes once.

The Geological Survey of Canada groups the volcanoes of the Pacific Northwest—those younger than about five million years—into seven volcanic belts. Of these, five include large portions of B.C.—the Anahim, Garibaldi, and Stikine volcanic belts, the Chilcotin Plateau Basalts, and Wells Gray-Clearwater Volcanic Field. A sixth, the Wrangell Volcanic Belt, just touches B.C.’s northwest corner.

Somewhat ironically, it is a volcano outside of B.C. that most threatens British Columbians. For those living in Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, Emergency Management BC  identifies Mount Baker, in the Cascades belt of northern Washington State, as posing the greatest potential volcanic hazard. Not that scientists suggest it will erupt soon: just someday.

For our Spring 2009 issue, Contributing Editor Larry Pynn and landscape photographer Chris Harris travelled on horseback into the eerily beautiful volcanic landscape of Itcha Ilgachuz Provincial Park. This Chilcotin park’s landforms were created in two volcanic phases: an early shield-building stage, characterized by lava flows some three million years ago;  and a more recent capping stage 800,000 to 2.2 million years ago, when molten magma founds its way to the Earth’s surface through fissures to become cinder cones.

To read the full article and see Harris’s spectacular photographs from the trip, pick up the current issue of British Columbia Magazine.

I love hiking in the fall. It’s a season of enhanced sensory pleasures. The crisp air seems scrubbed clean and its gentle nip makes you appreciate a cozy scarf and gloves. In the coastal forest, the beauty of the evergreens is enhanced by the contrasting deciduous flares of yellow, orange, and red.

Knowing that the next change of season will transform my favourite trails yet again encourages me to be more acutely aware of details that soon will disappear under the snow: the beacon of bright red berries in the understorey; the delicate clusters of tiny forest mushrooms; the small footprints of squirrels or the scat of foraging bears.

The ghost of winter-to-come was a notable presence on my recent hike in E.C. Manning Provincial Park. The first snowfall had touched the subalpine, and the white dusting on the fall foliage along the 1.5-kilometre Paintbrush Nature Trail was particularly lovely, as you can see from my snapshots.

Do you have a favourite autumn hike? We’d love to hear about it.

Speaking of outhouses . . . did you know that for a mere $42,000, you can donate a composting toilet (with a plaque honouring your gift) to your favourite provincial park? Or, if you prefer something a little more traditional, you can choose a park bench ($3,000), picnic table ($4,000), or new tree ($25-$1,000).

It’s all part of BC Park’s new “Leave Your Mark” program, launched as part of the province’s sesquicentennial celebrations. For more information about sponsorship opportunities, costs, and terms, visit the BC Parks website.

It’s Parks Day in Canada on Saturday, July 19. Which one of British Columbia’s more than 900 parks will you choose this weekend?

Go for a hike, paddle a canoe, or just bask by the lakeside in your favourite protected area. It’s the perfect day to acknowledge how lucky we are to have so much green space in this province. Just how much? A whopping 135,000 square kilometres, or 14.26 percent of B.C.’s land base.

There are many special Parks Day events planned in parks around B.C.

At Vancouver Island’s north end, join a free interpretive day hike to San Josef Bay in Cape Scott Provincial Park (profiled in our Summer 2007 issue). At the Island’s south end, follow a naturalist on an informative “insect exploration.”

In the Okanagan, round up a team for the grass volleyball tournament that will be held in Okanagan Lake Provincial Park, or take a one-hour, ranger-guided hike on the Bear Creek Nature Trail.

On the Lower Mainland, learn about the marine ecosystem by joining interpretive walks on the beach. There will be a “touch tank,” too, for children to experience what a sea star or anemone actually feels like.

For a full list of activities in parks around B.C., follow this BC Parks’ link: www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/events/parksday2008_events.pdf

For more on the history of B.C.’s parklands, look for contributing editor Bruce Obee’s “In praise of parks” article in our Summer 2006 issue.