Sunday, June 27, 2010

The Beauty of What We Love

Yesterday my husband and I took Indy and went hiking in the wilds of British Columbia, at Golden Ears Park. It's one of the largest parks in the province, boasting 62,540 hectares of land and has impressive stands of Western Hemlock, Western Red Cedar and Douglas Firs.


We hiked the 6 km Lower Falls trail, which we last visited just before we got engaged over 20 years ago. We have such good memories of this place and even 20 years later, it did not disappoint.

There's a great rock beach half way to the falls that is a perfect swimming hole for dogs and people alike. Indy wasted no time plunging in!

This is the face of a happy dog.

Here's another area where, if it were a fair bit warmer, you could swim out and enjoy your own little island oasis for awhile.


Inviting, isn't it? Did you know there were so many shades of green?


Here are some of those stands of trees I was talking about. The whole hike was in the deep woods and the lush green all around was so beautiful.


Surely this is heaven.


A nurse stump. You wouldn't believe the circumferences of some of the stumps we saw. They were amazing. It's hard to get a sense of the scale of this one, based on the angle of the photo but it was really large.


The lower falls. I wanted to take more photos here, but there's a considerable spray coming up from them and I was afraid that if I stood there too long, the camera would get too wet and be ruined. We walked just a short way back down from here and had a picnic lunch.


I spotted this broken egg shell on the edge of the path in the brush as we were heading back. I can't tell you how relaxing it was to be in this gorgeous place, hearing nothing but nature as we walked. Indy had a fabulous time off leash and he was so tuckered out by the time we got home he slept the rest of the afternoon and evening. A tired dog is a happy dog.

We drove a mere 30 minutes from home to be enveloped in this kind of natural beauty. I believe we live in the best place on earth. They don't call it Beautiful British Columbia for nothing!

5 comments:

Nancy Lynn said...

I agree that it indeed a gorgeous area. I was born and raised in the NW States area and I loved it. I always thought the trees went as high as the clouds. I miss the beautiful NW.

Kimber said...

Isn't it amazing to be out in nature and think of the many shades of green? Beautiful hike!

Elena said...

I had to pop over here from Michelle's blog because of your post. I wanted to say "bravo-good for you". And beautiful photos you have here!

Seth said...

Thanks for taking me out of NYC into the beauty and majesty of BC. I feel refreshed!

jennn said...

I love Golden Ears! I only went there once, to fish, about 3 years ago, but it was a glorious afternoon! I must go back sometime.