Exploring a River of Fire

 Um... Hullo... what the heck is that tree doing??? Peeing???

 Oh... there's a pipe coming out of the tree with water... we think...

Mama says it is stream water that has been piped up and through the tree... and that the locals here get their drinking water from the tree (stream)...

Are you going to drink from that? Nope.. not a chance... Mama did drink from it... we fully expect her to turn into some weird forest creature or break out in spots or something...

We are on a mini-road trip today!! This time we are going even farther north.

Blueberry wants to go 4-wheel driving in this tractor we found... not a chance!

It was quite misty this morning but...

We saw some truly spectacular mountains through holese in the mist...

We are going to the lava beds!

This is the northern tip of Lava Lake

And you can see the glacial meltwater colour in the water.

Ooooh... gorgeous!! If you turned that tree reflection on its side... you'd have a pretty good forest monster!

Seee!!!!

Nope... it's not Mama... she's still behind the camera...

There are interpretive stops along the way...

Where we can go on little hikes...

We are now walking on the lava beds... ooh!

The lava field goes up that valley for several kilometres, until you eventually reach the tiny little cone...

Unlike the regular west coast volcanoes, which tend to be more pyroclastic and explosive (think... Mt. St. Helen's)... this one is more like the ones on Hawaii... and expelled a truly astonishing amount of fluid lava that ran for many kilometres and pushed the Nass River all the way across the valley.

We are learning a lot!! But Mama says we cannot hike to the cone... hiking on the lava beds is not... easy.

The local first nations have a story about the lava beds... Cause this volcano only erupted 300 years ago. Local youth were apparently tying burning sticks to the backs of the salmon (torturing animals will never end well)... and the local gods were unhappy and caused the volcano to erupt to punish the youth (and a bunch of other people).

We noticed a lot of moss on the lava beds and Mama says it wasn't always like this... or the little trees everywhere...

This area has fewer little trees. Mama says it's because the gravel logging road which crosses the lava beds kicked up a lot of dust over the years which settled on the lava and gave the moss a toehold... which then gave little plants a toehold... which then gave little trees a toehold!

The next stop is a waterfall! Let's go...

There it is!!!

That's beary pretty... I'm sure there is more flow in the spring and fall.

And then another stop...

Let's go along this pathway...

And we found this river... where did it come from???

Apparently this river appears and disappears through the lava, which is beary porous.

Oooo... and another waterfall!!!

The turqouis colour of the water is beary pretty.

Blueberry thinks it's almost the same colour as his plush... not quite.

Further along... we came to this info stop which said there is a tree cast our there...

Over in that wasteland of lava?

Mama says she's been before... so... alright... let's go.

We are much farther away from the cone here and you can see great broken slabs of lava... that's because the flow was starting to cool here, and the top would harden, but then the lower parts were still flowing, so it got all jumbled up.

Do not fall down a hole. Do not fall down a hole!!

It just keeps going...

Plants really will try to grow anywhere!

This section almost looks like a parking lot, it's so flat...

But where are we??? Are we there yet? Are we lost???

Oh wait... there's a sign... hooray!!!

But where's the tree cast? Over there???

Let's get a bit closer... avoiding the holes...

Do not fall in a hole!

That thing over there??

Ooo... it's a tunnel in the lava!!! Well... it's a tree cast... the tree was carried off by the lava and before it disappeared completely, the lava hardened around it. And when the tree finally rotted away... we were left with a cast of it! Cool!

That is pretty neat... but we are NOT crawling through the cast... no... Not even posing in it.

Do these cracks go down forever? There are all sorts of nooks and crannies down there...

Oooh... see the big jumbles!!! It's like a lava wreck!

Oh yay! We made it back to the road safe and sound. Whew!

Blueberry, who never goes anywhere, got a bit of scuffing on him...  He is now a certified adventure stuffie!

And one more adventure... this time, we are going through this gate...

And along a road... see all the pine trees growing on the lava... lots of dust settled here.

And we came to this... ooooooo

It's the suspension bridge to Gitwinksihlkw... this used to be the only way into this community (back in the day)... they now have a real bridge over the river, so nobody uses this bridge anymore.

Or maybe they do... it does still seem to be maintained...

I think when tourists use the real bridge to visit the village... they can walk on the bridge from that end.

We came the less touristy way...

Alright... how brave is everyone?

Sandy... Super brave!!!...
Blueberry... I think I need to find the bathroom...

Not so bad...

Sandy: Let's do it!!
Blueberry... bathroom... stat...

Fine... group photo and then...

I'm on the bridge!!!

There's a nice view of the river from here...

It's not so bad, although it does jiggle alarmingly as one walks...

I can't imagine this being the only way into the community for so many years... hauling groceries and everything across here!

Ooooh... Mama's sister has gone across too!!!

That was cool!

Then we headed back...

And stopped here... cause there aren't a lot of trees here, and you can get a sense of how much lava there is here.

Blueberry got a bit freaked by the bridge and had to be carried back... 

He's still a young adventure stuffie...

We stopped along here as well, for more blue-green pics...

There is lava here as well, but the valley is narrower, so sediment from streams off the valley sides has provided a big foothold for trees....

It's beary pretty though.

After resting in the car... Blueberry has his adventure mojo back, which is good... cause we are making a couple more stops on our way back to camp! But that is for another blog post!