We continued our driving exploration in Vancouver.  We drove out past Whistler to Pemberton.  There were a lot of people out on hiking trails probably because the weather was beautiful.  Our first stop was miles off the main road to Mamquam Falls.  My husband thought it would be a quick easy hike, but it does have some steep areas first down a construction road and then into the woods.  The forest was unreal and so was the color of the water.  

We stopped at Green Lake to take pictures of its amazing color.  There were other areas that were filled with people in tubes and boats enjoying the water. My pictures look like no one was there, but that is not true. 

Our next little hike was to Nairn Falls.  This trail was on a cliff!  If you slipped, you were going right into the river.  The woods were quiet and cool.  We had to hike up a giant rock to get a view of the falls.  It reminded me of an area near where I grew up called Three Pools. There were several different sections of waterfalls and pools.  

The next day was a Saturday.  We knew that there would be even more people out and about from the city. We were not expecting the crowd at Lynn Canyon. We had to wait in line to cross the swinging bridge.  As I walked on it I thought, how much weight can this thing hold?! There was an another bridge in the same area, but we left because it was just too crowded.  

We found a trail in a lovely residential area that was beautiful and quiet. We were passed by several mountain bikers, but it was still a really lovely trail to walk.  

There was a birding area that my husband wanted to check out and instead of birds, we spent a good amount of time watching a river otter swimming. His head is just a brown dot in my picture, but he was so cute.  I also spotted some purple starfish where the river met the ocean. 

In order to get away from the crowds we stopped at a fish hatchery.  It was also full of tourists!  It was really neat to see the fish though. 

Finally we drove to the top of the hillside to get a nice view of Vancouver before we had to head to the ferry dock to line up for our trip over to Vancouver Island. 

I couldn’t believe the number of cars that were lined up for the boat!  We left the car in line and walked over to the small town in Horseshoe Bay.  We took some pictures of the water and my husband got a donut from a highly rated donut shop.  We got back to our car before they announced loading time.  

The ferry must have held over 100 cars.  We got out and went up the top deck in order to look for whales. There were so many people with dogs, which really surprised me. We had to sit behind some plexiglass to get out of the wind as we got closer to the island.  There was another deck that was inside and air conditioned that had a gift shop, a coffee/food pick up area, and a regular cafeteria style dining area.  We were happy we ate before boarding because the line for the cafeteria was quite long.  

We stayed in a lovely bed and breakfast called Cornerstones.  I wish that I had a picture of the house.  We had a room with a balcony that was lovely to sit on in the mornings.  You could see the ocean and one morning I saw a bunny.  It was very peaceful.  They gave us a menu for breakfast that we could choose from two options and all the food was delicious.  I feel that the owners were super thoughtful with how they set up the rooms and a common area with all the needs of the guest already anticipated.  I was very impressed with Cornerstones. 

The next morning we drove north of Qualicam Beach, where we were staying, to explore some other towns.  We stopped at Cathedral Trail first since the owner of the Cornerstones said it would be busy.  We were lucky and beat the crowds.  It was a lovely short walk through some massive trees and growth.  It was quiet until you got closer to the street. 

Our next hike was down to the Hole in the Wall, which was next to the Coombs Creamery.  It was not a long walk, but it is all downhill.  I thought it was worth the view. 

We headed to Campbell River and saw some really neat driftwood sculptures.  

We also stopped at a park to see some chainsaw sculptures as well. There must have been some sort of contest there at the park because you could see all the sawdust and some wood chips. 

We drove by the 50th parallel, which has its own bar. 

Elk Falls swinging bridge was our next destination.  They are doing construction in the area so the trail deviated a bit from normal.  It was mostly in the shade and only got steep with the stairs.  You can walk down to view the falls and you can walk over the bridge to see the falls from the middle of the bridge.  It was really neat, except when my husband decided to run on the bridge and made it swing.  

We had dinner that night at Cuckoos, which was jam packed.  It had lovely ambiance.  We liked taking pictures of the goats on the roof. They also had a produce market, international food store, donut shop and creamery, but everything was closed after we finished dinner.  We went the next morning and picked up some lunch for later. 

After the market we headed to Duncan to check out the totem poles.  You can follow a clearly marked trail around the town to see all of them.  We had a good time doing so.  Here are only a few:

We also visited the Museum of Man, which is a private collection of Jim Shockley who is famous for big game hunting.  Apparently he has his own tv show.  It was a really neat museum, maybe a few too many taxidermy animals for me, but there was all kinds of cool native art and tools. 

We had a lovely walk by the water before we headed to dinner before waiting for the ferry. The ferry was an hour late.  They had to switch them because one was having mechanical difficulties.  We sat inside, but I got up several times to get some fresh air on the upper deck.  There were fewer pets on this trip.  

We stayed in downtown Vancouver at the same hotel we stayed in before we flew to Australia.  We took our time there to just relax. We drove by the totem poles in Stanley Park before dropping the car off and heading to the airport. 

The Vancouver area is a really neat area to explore.  There are so many islands that you can visit and trails to hike.  It was very beautiful and I would love to return and explore it even more.