SCENIC VIEWPOINTS & LITTLE HIKES.
Day 246 – It was in the middle 40’s last night, but it didn’t rain. This campground is located in the Cowichan Valley. The Cowichan River runs through the valley; mountains surround us. It’s very pretty. Grapes grow here among other things. There are wineries. I don’t think we’ve ever had wine from Vancouver Island. We should try it.
Not having any kind of signal this morning and not knowing what the weather would be like throughout the day, we decided to take a drive back the way we came yesterday to those scenic viewpoints to get pictures we couldn’t get in the RV. The sun remained out for the entire morning, then the clouds came in. It did not rain although it was a bit windy. We’ve certainly seen worse.
First, we stopped at a couple of places within this Park. Marie Canyon wasn’t far from the campground. It was beautiful with a deep canyon looking down onto the Cowichan River racing below us. While I wandered around on top, Rob took a trail down to the bottom. Then we drove a short distance to Kutz Falls – not much to see there – followed by Trestle 66, which consisted of a trail to an old railroad bridge that crossed the Cowichan River.
We drove away from the Park, heading east to Lake Cowichan and the wonderful Visitor’s Center located in town. We picked up lots of reference materials for all of British Columbia. Then we headed west back to Route 1 and south to get pictures from the scenic viewpoints overlooking the Bays, Islands, and Lakes between this area and the Saanich peninsula to the east.
It was getting close to lunchtime and we had heard there was a ferry not too far from here that we could take from this area to the Saanich Peninsula, so we drove west to the Cowichan Bay and followed the signs to the ferry terminal, stopping to get the details of the ferry crossing times. Tomorrow we may take the ferry over to visit the peninsula, saving us lots of driving time. We followed the water north taking coastal roads along the Bay until Mill Bay where we stopped for lunch at Bridgeman’s. We got a table overlooking the water and had a relaxing lunch.
After lunch, we meandered along the Cowichan Bay and stopped at Hecate Park and walked around, took some pictures, and we were going to visit the Estuary Nature Center but they were closed.
It was getting to be later in the afternoon. We drove back to Route 1 and headed north, stopping in the busy city of Duncan at a grocery store, looking for Beyond Burger meat (which we did find; will wonders never cease). Back at the RV it was warm enough to sit out in the screened tent until time to feed the girls. The high today was 66 degrees!