I have always wanted to do one of the long ferry rides up the coast. The ferry we took goes up a long inlet to Bella Coola, and it takes about 10 hours. It is famous for the spectacular West Coast scenery. We were at the ferry dock in Port Hardy before 6:00 am, and we sat in the waiting room with coffee with everyone else. We boarded the ferry, and for the first hour it was still kind of dark and foggy. Fortunately there was lots of room on board so I stretched out on a seat and had a nap.
As the fog started to lift there was a kind of rainbow.
During the day there was the great views of the mountains along the inlet.
The ferry was not that busy, so we met many of the people on board. It was funny that over the next week, we kept bumping into people we'd met on the ferry. There was also a person from Bella Coola Tourist Information, who gave us lots of useful information about shopping, what to see, the road condition, etc.
By 5:00pm we pulled into Bella Coola. We picked up some groceries at the local Co-op and made our we about 10km east to Hagensborg where our hotel was, the Bella Coola Mountain Lodge. We made dinner in the room and just hung out there for the evening.
The next morning we got up early and headed back to the dock, for a half day of kayaking in the Bella Coola inlet with Aegir Kayaking. It is a one-man show with Hunter, our guide, providing kayaks, and taking us around the estuary at the end of the inlet and then down the other side to the side of an abandoned cannery. It was a fantastic, sunny, calm day for kayaking. Hunter was full of information on the local ecology and Bella Coola in general. I didn't know what to expect about Bella Coola, but I thought it was interesting when he said we should think of it more as a mountain town, rather than a coast one. And it's true. The local mountains rival what we saw in the Rockies. And there is a ton of hiking to do, although it is more difficult to access. While kayaking we saw salmon coming into the estuary, and eagles. We stopped at the old cannery site for lunch and then headed back.
Afterward we poked around the town of Bella Coola itself for a bit, looked in some art galleries, but the place is very small. There is actually more towards Hagensborg. Hunter told us that on Thursday, the little place beside our hotel has good pizza, so we went there for dinner. In general, it seems many of the shops and restaurants seem to open kind of randomly now and then. Very laid back.
The next day we drove east toward the Belarko Bear Viewing Platform, which is run by BC Parks in September when the grizzly bears come down to the creeks to fish for salmon. Before we went there, however, we stopped in at a place the Tourist Information person told us about: a day use area and campground called Fisheries Pool. It is inside the Tweedsmuir Park area. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, we knew something was up. There was a group of people at one end, all pointing their big cameras off to one direction. We parked and walked toward them, and sure enough, there was a grizzly fishing in the creek. He was not bothered by us at all, although everyone was good about keeping their distance. After he caught something he went into a shaded pool to eat, and then walked down the creek right past us.
This year apparently the pink salmon run was very good. Looking into the creek you could see was full of them.
For lunch we stopped at the beautiful Tweedsmuir Lodge. The staff were really great about letting us hang out for a bit.
In the afternoon we did the short Burnt Bridge Loop Trail hike for a couple of hours.
It has some great views of the mountains in the area.
For dinner, Hunter had told us that Friday at the local legion was a burger and beer night, so we went there. It turned out that most of the people we met on the ferry were there as well, so it was a lot of fun.
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