July 30,31 – To Salmon Arm and Roderick Haig-Brown Park

It’s kind a negative post but that’s how I feel. I apologize in advance.

Yesterday we made the move to the Viewpoint RV Park near Salmon Arm. It was an easy drive following the river valleys of the North Thompson and then Thompson Rivers so no big hills to climb or go down. It was a nice change.

Then along the shores of Little Shuswap and Shuswap Lakes.

To be honest I am not sure why I planned this stop. I think it was the last one I did when planning the whole trip and really didn’t put enough effort into it.

First, there is the RV park. It is called Viewpoint but there is no view. The Trans Canada Highway is right on our doorstep and we are right at the bottom of a steep hill. This means there is a constant stream of trucks making a lot of noise either going up or coming down. The traffic never lets up, even late at night. Just on the other side of the highway is a CP Rail line.There are not a lot of trains per day but the ones that go by literally make the ground shake. The RV sways so much that you feel it in your stomach.

The park only has 13 sites,4 of which are tent or small trailer only. This is most of the park.

I felt bad for the guy beside me as I really hemmed him in.

Out at the front, this is the only view. Right across from us, it is all trees.

One saving grace is that there is good internet. For the last few weeks there was no cell coverage and the internet was terrible.

Second, after being in the wilds of Bella Coola and Wells Gray Park, coming back to “civilization” is kind of depressing. Salmon Arm is not a huge town but with the highway running through, it is always busy. Just getting out on to the highway from the RV park can be a challenge because there are seldom breaks in the stream of cars.

Third, coming here in the middle of summer was not a great plan. I know it is hot everywhere but this is the low country of BC. I should have planned to be up higher and cooler. To add to it, we are supposed to get rain most of the week but it will still be hot.

Fourth, there really isn’t a heck of a lot that we are interested in doing around here. This is basically cottage country with things on the huge Shuswap Lake dominating most of the activity choices. Any of those things, I could do for free at our cottage. To top it off, 3 of the places that were at the top of my list have been closed due to flood damage in the spring.

Today, we went over to Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park and to continue the negative vibe, I think I picked the most boring of its trails.

The park is long and narrow as it follow the Adam’s River down to Shuswap Lake. It’s main focus seems to be the late summer and fall salmon run.

The park website said the the “River Loop Trail was closed due to flooding”. Since the map doesn’t show a river loop trail I assumed it was the the ones going up river to the Canyon Area in the middle of the map. Now I am pretty sure they meant the area down by the lake. So we missed the canyon.

We headed to the northern section of the park. I had read a blog post that talked a lot about the Lower Flume Trail and barely mentioned the Upper Flume Trail so we did the lower trail. I found out later that the upper trail had a nice waterfall.

The Lower Flume Trail was basically a 4 km flat walk through the forest and along the river’s edge to a small point where the river has a bit of a whirlpool.

The one thing that had attracted me to these trails was that the description said that it was a nice, cool place to go on a hot day. That at least was true.

The trails get their name because there used to be huge wooden log flumes, even over tall bridges, to take the logs down Bear Creek to the Adam’s River. Here is an example flume section with the more modern transport method roaring by in the background.

The trail picture were taken on the way back.

We crossed a couple of very new aluminum bridges. I assume some old ones recently washed away.

I had a minor scare on the way out.

We came over a small hill and I saw those dead branches, sticking up on the left, moving around quite a bit. Also, randomly, every few seconds I heard a very loud and deep thumping sound. I thought, “OK, What large animal is rooting around in the dead tree?”

Then I realized that the dead tree pointing at the river was under the tree with the branches. It went a long way out into the water, Every time a wave would hit, it would jump enough to bounce the other log around and hit the ground with enough force to make the noise.

The noise startled me again on the way back.

There was not much to see on the trail, just the wide fast flowing river.

At the end of the trail we came to a point that split the water flow. Part of it swirled swirled around into a small bay creating a beach and a slowing moving whirlpool.

I tried to take a panorama but the stitching software couldn’t match up the moving water that changed position from shot to shot.

The beach and bay are just to the left of the picture above.

The photosphere did work,

Checking out the beach.

We headed back down the trail to the car.

We decided to drive down to the southern section of the park and have lunch on the beach we had seen marked on the map. I guess it is not used very much, as the dirt access road off the main road was not marked at all. It also had some of the deepest potholes I have seen in a long time.

After a very short walk we had lunch on the shore of Shuswap Lake. There were lots of powerboats buzzing around.

This evening a thunderstorm passed over us but it did not rain enough to be really useful. Rain good, lightning bad. We heard some pretty loud thunder. No more fires, please.

July 29 – Dawson Falls

Today Jennie had an inside air conditioned day. It was supposed to get to the mid 30s (and it did) with no wind.

I had two more things to check off my list. I went back to the Dawson Falls, which were the first falls we visited last Tuesday morning. Then, we had been too early and the sun was behind it, giving terrible shadows. Today I waited until the afternoon (and the hottest part of the day). Some of the falls was in the shadow but at least it was front lit.

Warning, there are a lot of shots of this falls, first because it is massive and hard to get in one shot and second because I moved around to a lot of different places to try different angles.

From the parking lot, it is just a short walk to the “photographer’s viewpoint” for the long view. I wish I had taken a zoomed one from here.

From there it is another short walk to the official viewpoint at the brink.

Then I noticed an unofficial but well used path downstream along the shore to a rocky outcrop, for a more front on view.

The photosphere.

And a bit farther downstream. Each of these two images is an 8 shot panorama. I wish you could see them full size.

And another photosphere from here.

There is a trail in from the other side. I noticed a couple over there. Having them in the picture gives you more an indication of the size of the falls. She is on the rock and he is dangerously close to the rushing water.

If you drive around to the other side there is a short 1/2 km very flat trail in to that brink. You can see the fence in the picture above.

The unofficial trail down to the river bank was very short and very steep.

Partway down gave this view.

Another wide panorama from the river side.

The photosphere is once again much better.

There was a lip at this edge where I could get behind a bit of the falls.

Moving on, there was one more trail I wanted to checkout. At Helmcken Falls there is a short trail that continues down the canyon edge until you can see where the Myrtle River (from the falls) joins with the larger Clearwater River.

I couldn’t resist another shot of the falls as I went by.

There are warning sign for the trail about it closeness to the edge with no fences. Children and dogs are not recommended. I saw both.

I went far enough to see the join but probably didn’t get to the best viewpoint. I was just getting too hot and tired.

And another falls shot on my way back.

When I was at Dawson Falls I wondered how all that water could squeeze through the gap at Helmcken Falls but then you look at that massive column of water and the spray at the bottom.

Then back to the RV and some cool air. We are moving on tomorrow.

July 28 – Moul Falls

Today we actually only went to one destination. The hike in to Moul Falls is about 3 km and with the temps in the mid 30’s that was enough. We spent a lot of time in the cooler air around the falls just people watching.

One our way there we rounded a corner to this.

By the time I scrambled to get the camera from the back seat they were gone but then I remembered that we have a dashcam. It’s not great quality but it is a record of the event.

The first 1.5 km of the hike is along an old dirt road that seemed flat on the way to the falls but not so much on the way back. It was especially draining coming back as this section did not have a lot of shade.

Then the trail gets narrow and a bit rocky. It slowly descends to the brink of the falls. Here at least there was some shade.

About all you can see from the viewpoint at the brink is a bit of the falls and then down the canyon it has created.

Then a short and very steep trail lead down to the base of the falls, down the cliff in the left of the picture above. Also in the picture above you can see some people that have walked behind the falls to the other side.

With so much mist there were rainbows everywhere.

Part way down I took this shot from another viewpoint.

A bench to rest at, on the steep descent.

And down. It was another tough day for pictures with the very bright falls and the dark shadows of the undercut canyon walls.

This is a very popular hike but it never got too busy.

The photosphere from here.

I knew that the walk behind the falls was very wet so like a wimp I brought a rain jacket. I only brought one of them because I thought that Jennie would not want to go. At first I was right. Off I go.

A few shots from the waterproof camera.

Nobody lingered behind the falls because you really got blasted.

And over to the other side. When going over I only took the waterproof camera and my phone. I wish I had put my DSLR in a bag and taken it because its picture quality is just so much better.

The photosphere from where I was standing.

Looking down on the trail. The phone just can’t handle the brightness of the falls. Compare the detail in the water with the previous shots.

The photosphere from here.

And back to Jennie. The jacket did keep my head and shirt dry but the pants were soaked. They quickly dried in the sun.

We lounged around for a while and had lunch.

Then I convinced Jennie to go behind. Guess who got the jacket?

Standing just outside the really wet zone.

And a long shot back to Jennie.

Since I had nothing else planned for today, once we got back to the other side, we just people watched while our clothes dried out before heading back to the car.

The walk back was extremely hot and seemed to take forever. The dirt road also seemed to be much more uphill.