Rhododendron Lake

Rhododendron Lake Wild pink rhododendrons bloom in late May and early June at Rhododendron Lake which is situated just south of Parksville. This lake can be accessed from the Northwest Bay Logging Road. If you stop at the Tourist Information Center in Parksville they have maps and detailed instructions on how to get to the lake. It is about a mile and a half from the Tourism Center to the turn off and then about a 9 mile drive on the logging road. The Northwest Bay Logging Road starts out very well but there are some very rough spots and the day we went none of those we saw in regular sedans made it up to the lake.

The materials say that there are picnic tables and a trail which circles the lake.
When we visited in June of 1998 the trail was rather overgrown. We were wearing shorts and did not relish the idea of clearing brush with our exposed shins so we just explored the side of the lake closest to the parking lot. The area has been logged so it is relatively open.There are informational signs about the various species of shrubs and trees native to the locale. We did not find the picnic tables but I cannot say we looked very hard.

The rhododendrons themselves are all of the same variety, Rhododendron Macrophyllum. They do not have the large blooms of some of the domestic varieties and the plants do not have great numbers of flowers. There are, however, many of them and so the whole lake side is dotted with the pale pink clusters of blossoms.