1995 Vancouver Island Trip

Saturday, July 29

Day 9: Gold River, Quadra Island & Cortes Island

Upana Caves We drove south from Vernon Lake, where we had spend the night to Gold River. Gold River is a relatively new town, founded in the mid-1960's, to accomodate the workers and families of a newly buildt pulp mill. It still feels like a young town. We found a deli open early in the morning and waited for the Travel Information Centre to open. They told us about the Falls @ Upana CavesUpana Caves which were about 15 miles west on a gravel road from Gold River. The caves are worth the trip as they have some small waterfalls along the trail and also water flowing into underground caves. We went back to Gold River and took Highway 28 east through Strathcona Provincial Park. Strathcona is a large park with lakes and forested woods and waterfalls that would be anice place to camp for a weekend. We didn't stop here today as we wanted to go to the northen gulf islands today. We continued to Campbell River which is a larger town up north that is right on the water. It's in a nice setting surrounded by forests, water and islands, that is not very populated in the outlying areas. From Campbell River we drove south and took a ferry to Quadra Island. We drove from one ferry landing to another to catch the ferry to Cortes Island. Cortes is not very populated, they only have 2 or 3 restaurants as we ate at one that had a large outside deck with good food. There is a long beach covered with large pebbles, that is part of the Provincial Park. We drove around the island but not alot ot see as the north part is not very accessible. We stayed at Smelt Bay Provincial Park which is on the southern part of the island. The 20 campsites were grouped in pairs, and was only half full.

We drove 150 miles today. 1600 total

  • Day 10

  • Introduction