Quadra Island - Rain Day

Hullo... today is looking a bit cloudy but we are game for more adventures... We explored some of the more distant parts of the island... First we drove by Rebecca Spit - cute!

And then ended up on a gravel road... which was beary dusty...

Are we there yet? ***cough-cough***

Oh... look at that - red salmon berries. We saw a BC Hydro guy up in the bucket of his truck crane picking them. We all tasted them and agreed they were "not bad" but had a weird taste.

 Another beach and another huge pile of driftwood!

Oh... look at that one!!!

It's perfect!!! I'll take it...

There were even a few busted sand dollars...

After our beach visit, the rain came in earnest so we went to look at the local First Nations museum - no cameras allowed inside...

But they had some interesting totems out front...

And a seaside pavillion with a few more.

That's a thunderbird (eagle) on top... and I think a person down below... maybe a bear.

 I think the canoe needs to be bailed out.

They also had some petroglyph boulders that had been rescued from the beach - so that the waves don't erode them anymore.

They are much harder to see in the rain without any sun shadows...

Die-hard beachcombers that we are... another visit to a beach was in order. Apparently a pod of whales hangs out around here... but we didn't see any.

But did find somebody's lunch site... those are pretty oyster shells.

We also visited the local lighthouse... (just so Hammie can see that we have some as well!)

It has a pretty Hammie-red top.

Looks like the lighthouse keepers have a nice garden as well. Most of our lighthouses were automated about 10 years ago but a few key ones still have keepers.

And finally... this island is full of foxgloves!!! Growing everywhere along the road sides...

So pretty... and we only have one in our yard... so we rescued a few baby foxgloves - they only bloom in their second year so this way we'll have some that will bloom next year!

Ahhhh... sigh.... what a great holiday. Although I think we could have picked up a bit more driftwood...

Quadra Island - Petroglyphs

Good morning! My goodness, look at the view out our lodge window! I totally missed that last night in my exhaustion.

This is nice!!

Let's have a look around here this morning.

Hmmm... the lodge says that there are petroglyphs down on the beach on some granite boulders... Optimum viewing is 10:30 am (combination of sun and tides). (And yes... this adventure is getting posted weeks after we were there!)

Wow... what a grand hall!

Alright... let's go find some petroglyphs...

I think they are this way...

Cool... not a petroglyph but interesting...

Ohhh... these are interesting... they are apparently part of the petroglyphs but just indentations in the stone that someone carved 1000s of years ago...

It's a good thing Mama knows her rocks otherwise I think I'd be looking at all the volcanic boulders as well.

Hmmm... maybe I can see some from up here...

Ummm... help?! Stuck!!!

OH!!!! I found one!!! Do you see it??

It's a face of someone...

Carved into the stone...

And here's another one!!! Some of those round indentations and a face...

I think this one looks like an angry sasquatch...

And another one!

This one looks angry too...

Apparently there are more than 50 petroglyph boulders... we found 4 which is pretty good I think...

There's an eagle up in that tree! Do you see it? Mama, can you get a better picture?

Ah... OK... much better picture!

Quadra Island - Beachcomber Bear

I'm on a holiday!!!! Oh boy... We drove up island and came to a place called Miracle Beach. It was quite nice but mostly a rocky beach...

They had a map where you could look across the strait and try to identify the mountains on the mainland... hmmm... shouldn't there be an Alexander Mackenzie Mountain somewhere?

Alright, time for lunch!

Ahhh... after a satisfying lunch of salmon and honey, I'm ready for more adventures.

Hmmm... we saw some people out there digging for things... buried treasure or maybe clams or sand dollars? We won't find out because we are hitting the road again.

We made it! We are on the ferry to Quadra Island... it looks kind of weird because it has a bear high cargo hold for semi-trucks and logging trucks. Not much of a view from where we were either.

Hmmm... I think we should go out back and see what we can see.

And as soon as the ferry started up, everyone in the car agreed because we were parked right next to one of the engine vents - beary noisy!

Ah... that's better...

Bye-bye Campbell River...

Hello Quadra Island and adventure! The ferry ride was only 8 or 10 minutes, barely enough time to take some photographs.

After getting off the ferry, we headed for a place called Rebecca Spit. It's supposed to be beary cool...

This looks promising...

Oh... my... goodnes... Driftwood as far as the eye can see...

And more driftwood this way. Apparently there is even more in the winter-time. Hard to believe.

Righto then... let's see what we can find!

Ooohhh... I like this one... can we take it home?

I think this one looks like something... a dragon? a giraffe?

Whew... after gathering a bunch of driftwood, we went to a local pub for a bit of a drink. They had a big propane tank out front...

That someone had painted with orcas... cool!

And finally our room at the lodge... I am one pooped little bear...

But I like the art in here... more orcas!