Sunshine Coast photos

[Klazu]

Here's part 1 out of 2 from our trip to Sunshine Coast last May. We ended up staying at West Coast Wilderness Lodge in Egmont which is a very nice accommodation.

First evening at the lodge.





We had our bicycles with us, as we wanted to try out the Suncoaster Trail from Egmont to Madeira Park. The trail turned out to be not ideal for regular bicycles, as it is very steep and has large boulders.





I mean, REALLY steep.



Local wild life.



Snowboarders' bench.





Earl's Cove ferry terminal nearby Egmont is the gateway to upper Sunshine Coast and Powell River. One day we have to make the trip up there.





Egmont is well-known for Skookumchuck Narrows. This narrow patch of water forms the world's second fastest tide waters (up to 33km/h)!



It's quite a spectacle that Mother Nature puts up twice a day with 200 billion US gallons (760,000,000 m3) of water running out of Sechelt Inlet and few hours later back in again. Witnessing it feels like the whole ocean is emptying!



• Video Link

The interesting thing is that the narrows themselves are not even that narrow, yet the water masses are running wild. The difference in water levels on either side of the rapids can exceed 2 metres (6.6 ft) in height! I was lucky to witness a XL size tide.











Wild waters also form several standing waves that some crazy people occasionally use for surfing! Nobody out in the water there today, though.



To catch a beautiful sunset, we drove to Daniel Point in the nearby Madeira Park.











There you go. Stay tuned for the second photoset.

[whatnext]

Great stuff, BMW should be hiring you for some ads!

Haven't been to Skookumchuck in years, I remember when people used to refer to something cool as "skookum", derived from this. Haven't heard it lately.

[Hourglass]

Fantastic photos Klazu.

I remember boating in the Discovery Passage near Campbell River, and going through the tidal rips in a small boat there was rather unnerving. But that tidal rip at Skookumchuck looks downright scary!

[Beedok]

I like that one of the rainiest places in Canada is called the Sunshine Coast.

Very beautiful landscape.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Beedok

I like that one of the rainiest places in Canada is called the Sunshine Coast.

Very beautiful landscape.

Excuse me, but in fact, The Sunshine Coast is NOT one of the rainiest places in Canada. It gets less less than 40 inches of rain per year, and nearly 2100 hours of sunshine, due to the "rain shadow" of Vancouver Island. In addition, it is milder in winter than Vancouver, and if you go there, you'll see several species of hardy palm trees growing in gardens, as well as a lot of arbutus (madrona) trees, a broad-leafed evergreen typical of Csb (dry summer) climates. Finally, not being located at the mouth of an open or wide valley, there are much fewer instances of cold "gap winds" such as in the Fraser Valley, or higher up on Bute Inlet.
Believe it or not, The Sunshine Coast, does live up to its name.

[Klazu]

Yeah, trofirhen is correct and Sunshine Coast is not as rainy as most of the coast. It is not a sun coast like California or Florida is, but it still enjoys more sunshine than here in Lower Mainland.

Mostly I am surprised that so few people seem to have explored the area, although it is so nearby! It's a great outdoors destination and it's only a 40 minute ferry ride away.

Originally Posted by whatnext

Haven't been to Skookumchuck in years, I remember when people used to refer to something cool as "skookum", derived from this. Haven't heard it lately.

Cool, I didn't know that. It is indeed something pretty spectacular and hopefully my video made a better impression of how it really looks like.

Originally Posted by Hourglass

I remember boating in the Discovery Passage near Campbell River, and going through the tidal rips in a small boat there was rather unnerving. But that tidal rip at Skookumchuck looks downright scary!

There are some boat trips through the Skookumchuck Narrows, but the only boat I saw while in there was that one boat streaming through the rapids. It didn't look that scary from the land, but I am sure the waters can be treacherous for the inexperienced.

[Klazu]

Here's part 2. First few photos from the Francis Point Trail before the main event, a zodiac tour of the famous Princess Louisa Inlet.







Strait of Georgia is a huge open body of water. Vancouver Island is even further than those small islands in the background.



So yeah, from Egmont one can join on a spectacular half-day zodiac tour up Jervis Inlet to the incredibly beautiful Princess Louisa Inlet.

Nature is abundant in British Columbia and seing wild seals is not even that rare.





Broken mountain face.



Ages old mysterious First Nations rock painting on cliff side. The meaning of it is not known until this day.





Weather in the morning was very hazy, painting the view beautifully blue.



Some calm waters.







The whole area is so mountaineous that it is almost completely inhabited. No roads of any kind in here.



Me and my wife (not pictured) were the youngest on this tour.





Gateway to Princess Louisa Inlet is through Malibu Narrows. On the banks of the narrows is a former luxury wilderness resort that was built in the 1940. Visitors to this secluded resort included John Wayne, Senator John F. Kennedy, Barbara Stanwyck, Bing Crosby, and Bob Hope. Unfortunately it was so remote that business wasn't good and the resort had to close its doors in the 50s.

It was sold to a Christian association that has since then organized youth summer camps there (in winter there is also some accommodation). Now what a location be on a summer camp!! Access is only possible by boat or by float plane and there is no cell phone network in here. Nature is your playground in here!







The inlet itself is surrounded by very tall mountain faces.



The waterfall on the vertical face is called James Bruce Falls and it is credited being the highest in North America. It stems from a small snowfield and cascades 840 m (2,760 ft) down to Princess Louisa Inlet.



There is a small harbour at the bottom of the inlet.



It's a popular place for people to sail all the way from Vancouver. The trip takes two days one way, but spending a night under the stars in a place like this must be amazing!







It rains a lot between the mountains and hence there some beautiful old growth forest.







Chatterbox Falls is a small but very visible waterfall nearby.







In my opinion Princess Louisa Inlet is on par with New Zealand's world-famous Milford Sound. I have been to both and was surprised to find something this beautiful so close to Vancouver. Not many people even know of this place, which makes it even better.



It's an one-hour ride back to Egmont. Jervis Inlet had got windy by now, but at least the weather had improved and the haze was gone.







Back at out West Coast Wilderness Lodge.









What a view to look at for a weekend!



Finally, few photos from Gibsons harbour and ferry terminal on our way back.





The mountain in the back are theNorth Shore Mountains.







Tight fit with the bikes on.



BC Ferries is expensive to take, but provides great service.





And that is it! We had great time on Sunshine Coast and will surely be returning there for another visit sometime in the future! Definitely go if you have never been! All these photos were from Victoria Day long weekend in 2015, so now would be a perfect time to plan a getaway there.

[Infrequent Poster]

Very nice pictures klazu. I used to work in Jervis inlet when I was a teenager, brings back some memories. If you don't mind me asking, why was your wife's arm in a sling? Accident on your trip?

[trofirhen]

I've been to Norway, and Jervis Inlet to me seems even more spectacular than Norway's celebrated fjords (with the possible exception of Geiragerfjord). Also, the top of Norway is rather a pleateau "sheared off" by ancient glaciers, whereas the Coast range of BC has peaks rising straight up from the ocean at even higher altitudes.

[Cypherus]

Thanks for sharing these photos. I'd have to bring my girl there for a weekend getaway.

[Klazu]

Thanks again for all the comments. I am sorry that it takes me so long to publish stuff (these are only 11 months old ), but there is so much cool stuff and I don't want to post anything that isn't ready. So patience.

Originally Posted by Infrequent Poster

If you don't mind me asking, why was your wife's arm in a sling? Accident on your trip?

No problem. We actually had an unfortunate accident happen during our trip. On our way to Skookumchuck Narrows we were riding our bikes, as the trail is in good condition. Unfortunately in one of the curves my wife lost control of her bike and crashed into a tree trunk next to the trail. She could immediately tell that her wrist was broken, so we had to drive to a hospital in Sechelt. It was a long 1.5 hours walk + drive from the Narrows in agonizing pain.

In Sechelt the doctor did put a small cast on the wrist, but back in Vancouver it turned out that much more was needed. To make a very long story short, she ended up having two operations on her wrist (the first one failed) in the following month before it was properly fixed. She's now fine and back to normal, but last May-June was pretty bad time for us.

Even though we had lots of surprises along the way, I still have to say that overall we got great service from the Canadian healthcare system. With two operations the total cost for this accident must have been five figures, but it was ALL covered by the MSP. We didn't even need to use her employer's health insurance.

This is exactly why we choose to live on this side of the border and we were very happy to get such a good care and everything ended up well.

[OhioGuy]

Such beautiful scenery!

[Caliplanner1]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Thanks again for all the comments. I am sorry that it takes me so long to publish stuff (these are only 11 months old ), but there is so much cool stuff and I don't want to post anything that isn't ready. So patience.

No problem. We actually had an unfortunate accident happen during our trip. On our way to Skookumchuck Narrows we were riding our bikes, as the trail is in good condition. Unfortunately in one of the curves my wife lost control of her bike and crashed into a tree trunk next to the trail. She could immediately tell that her wrist was broken, so we had to drive to a hospital in Sechelt. It was a long 1.5 hours walk + drive from the Narrows in agonizing pain.

In Sechelt the doctor did put a small cast on the wrist, but back in Vancouver it turned out that much more was needed. To make a very long story short, she ended up having two operations on her wrist (the first one failed) in the following month before it was properly fixed. She's now fine and back to normal, but last May-June was pretty bad time for us.

Even though we had lots of surprises along the way, I still have to say that overall we got great service from the Canadian healthcare system. With two operations the total cost for this accident must have been five figures, but it was ALL covered by the MSP. We didn't even need to use her employer's health insurance.

This is exactly why we choose to live on this side of the border and we were very happy to get such a good care and everything ended up well.

As an American living (part-time) in Canada with my American wife and kids we keep saying that (some) Canadians take their socialized health care system for granted while Americans south of the border will mostly never understand what they are losing with their (for profit) private sector centric/driven health care system. Glad to hear that your wife is OK now. Please be careful on your future wilderness trips and thanks for your beautiful Sunshine Coast photos.

[zahav]

Klazu your photos are so spectacular, there are so many strong senses felt just looking at them, it's hard to explain but you feel some kind of way just looking at them. The government should pay for every photo you take anywhere in the province and use it for advertising, seriously

[Klazu]

Two summers after our first trip we returned to Sunshine Coast to enjoy a warm summer weekend with our visitors.







Familiar lunch view from a restaurant in Egmont.



Old forest machinery nearby.









This was also our second visit to check out the impressive Skookumchuck Narrows. We were lucky to catch another XL tide which was this time pushing back into the inlet, which made it look very different.







Rushing tide waters create standing waves which are big enough even for surfing.







• Video Link



Low tide emptied the bay next to our AirBnB.





Naturally, we had to show our visitors the renown Princess Louisa Inlet on a 5-hour boat trip.















Passing through Malibu Narrows.





Inside Princess Louisa Inlet the mountains start rising around one.









Many boaters had made the inlet their place to stay overnight.















It was a wonderful day trip to this incredibly beautiful corner of British Columbia.

Next day we decided to conquer Pender Hill nearby Madeira Park.











Another short hike that same day took us to see the Smuggler's Cove nearby Halfmoon Bay.

















Our weekend was great and it was another wonderful visit to Sunshine Coast. We haven't been back since 2017 but looking at these photos, I would really love to go again!

[djmk]

great pics

we went to see the Skookumchuck Narrows a couple summers ago. Personally, I found the cafe/bakery of the beginning of the hike a better attraction than the actually narrows.

There is a nighttime kayaking tour out of Egmont that shows the jellyfish illuminate. I wish I did that.