June 1 – Iona Beach Regional Park

It was time was a change of venue, away from waterfalls and mountains. Today we went to the beach.

Iona Beach Regional Park is on the other side of the city so we braved Vancouver traffic to get there. I don’t mind heavy traffic but in a new city trying to follow a GPS that doesn’t always take the smartest route can up the tension level a bit.

The park has a huge intertidal flat between two very long jetties. Low tide today was at 2:20 pm so I knew that we would not get caught by the incoming tide.

The south jetty is artificial and I think it is just the output pipe from the waste water treatment plant. It is 4 km long and you can walk out to the end.

The north arm jetty seems natural. The park map says you can walk 3 km out but from the map I am sure it extends much farther. It may only be safe to 3 km. We didn’t even get that far. With all of our meandering on the tidal flats I think we only went about 2 km one way.

 

The south jetty seemed like a walk for exercise, with not much to look at so we explored the north natural jetty.

The two sentinels guarding the park entrance.

In the parking lot, this bird came right up to everyone, as I think it was used to getting fed.

Down to the beach, across a mat to protect the sand.

The high today was only supposed to be in the mid to low teens and this area is known to be very windy so we both wore our winter jackets and did not regret it. We did get a few sunny breaks and the clouds did make for some dramatic skies.

We walked along the shore for a while but were mostly out on the flats.

Lots of huge logs.

With the airport just next to us, there was a constant line of planes doing their landing approach.

Definitely a big sky kind of day.

When we had arrived there was a school bus in the parking lot but no kids to be seen. After we were safely down the beach they came out but stayed by the entrance.

I am not sure what Jennie was taking a picture of.

As we got farther out the wind picked up. We used this old log as a windbreak for lunch.

Sunny skies.

Lots of logs upon the shore.

It was a long way out to the water’s edge.

We only saw 5 other people out as far as we went. One guy was walking his dog and these 4 people with huge backpacks. With the amount they carried I guess they spent the night out at the end.

Jennie likes to explore more than I do so I got ahead of her.

A photosphere.

You can just see her as a speck about 1/3 in from the left.

We got out far enough that the jetty was narrow enough to see both sides, with a line of angry dark clouds in the sky.

The same picture as a panorama with some foreground.

And a photosphere.

We could just barely see what looked like a beacon at the end of the jetty.

We had taken a very wandering route out but took a more direct route back to the car.

I wanted to at least take a look at the south jetty. First some pictures from this platform.

Just looking at it, it was hard to believe that the jetty is 4 km long.

It gets very windy out there. They have two wind shelters part way out. The one you see below is 1.3 km away. The second whiter one 2.5 km away.

There is 1.5 km between the white shelter below and the end. I think the mountains you see in the background are on Vancouver Island near Nanaimo.

I walked out a short way by myself.

The path to infinity.

And a zoom.

And a photosphere.

Back at the tower, a panorama looking at the north jetty. We got out past that standalone group of trees. The end is still far off to the left of that.

We spent about 3 1/2 hours here and then did the 1 hour drive home in even more traffic.