May 9 – Sooke Potholes and Whiffen Spit

First a picture of low tide from our RV site.

First up was Sooke Potholes Regional Park. Next we went for a late Mother’s Day lunch at the Sooke Harbour House Restaurant and then for a walk out the adjacent Whiffen Spit.

The Sooke Potholes are in an section of the Sooke River where it narrows into a deep canyon. The swirling after some of the waterfalls has created some deep, clear pools.

The website for the park advertises that it is a great place to go swimming and I have seen lots of pictures of people jumping in the potholes but the only official trails near the potholes took us to two viewpoints that were high up on the canyon walls. There were official trails to two rocky “beaches” but they were on the flat, calm sections of the river. The only way to get to the potholes was to take some steep rather dangerous looking unofficial trails down the canyon wall. I think we were in the right place but who knows.

Anyway I took some of the unofficial trails. The first went down to where the canyon started.

Looking back up at Jennie.

Up river.

The crest of the first falls.

Closer to the edge. Another tough day for pictures. Deep shadows + overhead sun = lots of photoshop processing of the shots.

It was also not a great place for Jennie. To get the best views there was an unofficial trail that ran right along the canyon edge and I do mean the edge. Trail then 30 foot drop straight down and being unofficial they were very uneven.

She tried to do some of it but for most there was no way. Here is a real NOPE section. That is the trail on the left.

I went down a few of the sections to snap a few pics but felt bad leaving Jennie with nothing to do or look at while I was gone.

Another view of the first waterfall.

And straight down at the pool.

Looking farther down the canyon.

Down to the lower official viewpoint.

Directly below us.

Notice the two people down there.

Here they are working there way back to this side across a rather precariously placed log.

We moved on to the official upper viewpoint. The lower viewpoint is obscured by the trees in the lower right of the picture below. You can see the “bridge” log in the middle.

Got to have at least one flower picture.

I took a quick look at one of the beaches.

Onwards to lunch. I had read that the Sooke Harbour House Restaurant was the best in the area. Even google called it “upscale”. We looked online and the lunch menu prices were not that bad. Our lunch for two with desert was only $60. For dinner, on the other hand, you had to take the 4 course menu and it was $85 a person. Our lunch was great. 

Before going in we checked out the amazing grounds.

The parking lot.

They turned the lights into jellyfish.

The entrance mosaic.

Driftwood arbour.

The kitchen’s garden.

Our table turned out to be behind the middle window.

Once we were seated Jennie wandered around inside as we waited for our food. It was not busy at all. Only one other couple.

Just so we remember, Jennie had Grilled Sole over Risotto.

I had Lamb Stew over a huge Yorkshire Pudding.

Dessert was called Chocolate Lasagna. The whole meal was great.

 

As we were eating we looked across the bay and saw these condos being built in a great location.

I suddenly realized that we were looking at the other side of the condos that we had seen yesterday at Pike Point.

After, we headed down to the beach to start our walk out Whiffen Spit. The place is a hotel as well.

Heading out the spit.

The walk out the spit is just over 1 km each way. I am not sure how it came to be. It looked natural.

Jennie took the hard way for a while.

The tide was coming in. Here is the same spot on the way back.

1 km doesn’t seem very far but the people in the picture below seemed like they were along way away.

A bald eagle was surveying the scene.

Just to prove we made it to the end.

Once again Jennie took the hard way, part way back.

Looking back as we headed up to the car.

We stopped for some groceries in Sooke before going home.

(I did take a photosphere today at the potholes but it was garbage.)