May 23 – Teapot Hill Hike

Today we drove a short distance south to Cultus Lake Provincial Park and climbed Teapot Hill. It is a 5 km return trip that gains 280 m in elevation. After, we went to check out the beach for a short while.

You first climb a gravel road and then branch off onto the Teapot Hill Trail itself. The trail is certainly not about the lookouts. When we got to the first one we asked someone if the next one was better. They said no and they were correct.

The real reason people do this trail is that it has been turned into a treasure hunt. Once you turn onto the trail I would guess that about 60 teapots and cups have been hidden along the trailside.

Just as we got to the trailhead a school bus had dropped off a load of kids. Thankfully we are very slow hikers, examining every nook and cranny. They are not. Just as we got to the end of the trail, they were heading back down so we never really saw much of them, although we did hear them from a long way off.

The gravel road is a constant climb, steep but not bad enough that we were out of breath. It is also in the shade which was great on this hot day. There were also lots of huge mossy trees to look at.

Some mushrooms and tree fungus to examine.

We saw a lot of spider webs suspended on long lines high up between the trees.

This one refracted the light to give a rainbow effect. Depending on where you stood it would go from purple to green.

A photosphere when walking up the road.

Once we turned onto the Teapot Hill Trail the hunt began. Our first find.

I am going to post way too many of these but it was fun. Can you see this one at the base of the large stump.

In a hollow log at the far right.

Not a lot of effort was put into this one, right next to the trail.

This green pot was tough to see.

Under a suspended tree.

This one didn’t look like a teapot but had one drawn on it.

An interesting root system on this tree.

Another tough one. A flash of white and red.

A little house teapot.

Someone even just left a tea bag on a stump.

Some more interesting ones.

They used tape to try and turn a mug into a teapot.

This one was signed by a lot of people, in the glaze.

Here is the “lookout” at the trail end. You could not even see the lake.

We did see a small snake sunning itself.

Even though this is only a mug I took the picture because we have been to Pikes Place Market in Seattle.

I am not sure how they impaled this one without shattering it.

Our lunch stop and the better lookout.

At least we could see a bit of the lake.

Heading back down. We caught a few more that were better visible from this direction.

Very small in the tall trees.

We drove the short distance to the beach. Everywhere around Chilliwack there is some tree that is giving off huge amounts of fluff. We see it in the campground but it was really thick here.

Little snow piles beside the walkway.

We found a shady spot to have a snack.

Watching the guys goad each other into crazy jumps off the dock.

This guy was surfing the wake of the boat. He is not using a rope. He also looked a bit bored.

And then back home.