Country Roads of Western BC by Liz Bryan

Author:Liz Bryan [Bryan, Liz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-926936-83-3
Publisher: Heritage House
Published: 2011-05-23T16:00:00+00:00

Both the Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve and Mount Tzouhalem Ecological Reserve have wonderful displays of spring wild-flowers, including carpets of blue camas.

From Maple Bay, turn left onto Herd Road, a pleasantly hilly, twisty and rural route. There are several choices of roads north (if you’re headed for Crofton, take Osborne Bay Road), but this route drives all the way west to Mays Road, one of the most idyllic country roads imaginable. Along this narrow, rollicking lane are mossy barns, a blueberry farm, a garden selling squash and sunflowers, a cattle ranch, meadows with sheep and goats, and a vineyard, all nicely bordered with old rail fences and tangled hedges of blackberry and snowberry and set against a backdrop of mountains. This is a road to walk rather than drive (or at least to drive slowly), and more than once. Mays Road dead-ends at Highway 1, but before it does so, it meets Bell McKinnon Road for a straight shot north to the curvier Westholme Road, which is bordered by more old farms and barns. This road becomes Chemainus Road (Highway 1A) as it winds through the Halalt First Nation reserve and then crosses the Chemainus River.

Chemainus is a small town whose livelihood since the 1860s has depended on the lumber industry. When the industry declined and the mills closed, Chemainus became a tourist mecca, but only because someone had the smart idea to transform the town into an art walk of history—giant murals were painted on every available wall, depicting scenes of past eras. Soon busloads of visitors were coming to gawk and staying to appreciate the lively little streets full of Victorian cottages, shops, an active theatre and old wharves. Kinsmen Beach Park is a good place to watch both sunsets and sunrises. Small ferries cross the Strait of Georgia to Thetis and Kuper islands.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.