Experiencing an ancient forest on BC Highway 16
On Day 46 – Wednesday, June 8th – we stopped to see BC’s newest Provincial Park, an ancient forest east of Prince George that volunteers have put 14,000 hours into developing. Walking all the trails that have been built among the massive cedars was a powerful experience.
This was a fairly long day – 400 km (250 mi) from our overnight spot at the Freson Bros. grocery store in Hinton to Purden Lakes Provincial Park. Click here to open an interactive version of the map in a new window.
We got away from Hinton just after 09:00, heading west on Highway 16 under skies that were far friendlier than had been forecast.
We’d be re-tracing our route for the 80 km to Jasper before continuing on into new country. Three bridges east of Jasper are being rebuilt, but delays were minor. Two vans full of Asian tourists apparently thought that the delays were too long, though, screaming by us on a double solid in a construction area – a few minutes later, we passed them as they were getting out at a photo stop. Idiots.
The weather stayed good enough to make a stop at Mount Robson Provincial Park. Mount Robson is the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies at 3,954 meters (12,972 feet).
Mount Robson has very special memories for Cathy, who spent a few days hiking to and on the mountain about 25 years ago.
The small interpretive centre on the lower floor of the visitor centre is very good, but few people go down to see it. The history of tourism on the mountain is very interesting.
We’ve seen very few traffic accidents during the trip. This one just west of Mount Robson was an odd one – a semi had gone into the Mount Terry Fox Provincial Park rest area at high speed, lost control, took out three lights, jack-knifed and crossed the highway where he flipped into the ditch. Thank heaven nobody else was involved – or so it seemed from the type of equipment and traffic control being used in the cleanup.
I had read a few weeks ago about the creation of a new provincial park at The Ancient Forest, and it was on my must-see list for the trip. We reached the site just before 3:00 pm, and were surprised to see no signs about it being a park, and by the overgrown picnic area in particular. The steep parking lot wasn’t very rig friendly, but I decided to park on the side of the short access road down by the highway where it’s level, and have a look at what’s there.
This is the entrance to the forest that’s been developed by the Caledonia Ramblers Hiking Society of Prince George. The Ancient Forest is part of the Interior Cedar Hemlock forest, the only known inland temperate rainforest in the world.
The first Ancient Forest Interpretive Trail was officially opened on June 4, 2006, and there is now a circuit with a couple of branches, most of it on boardwalks.
Many of the western red cedar here are over 1,000 years old. To get this one in a photo I had to create a panorama with two 18mm verticals. There are many interpretive signs along the trail system.
The beauty and the power of this forest is breathtaking. When I lived in the Fraser Valley 30 years ago, I knew where to find old-growth forests like this, and spent a fair bit of time in them, in places like the lower Carmanah (years before it became a park in 1990), Stein, and Chilliwack River valleys. To once again walk among the ancient ones was a very moving experience.
This story of the saving of this forest goes back to 1990, but it got critical in 2005 when, as Block 486, a license was issued to log it. The paint from the timber cruising done then is still visible on some trees.
Here, the boardwalk goes around a fallen giant.
A side trail leads to…
… a waterfall, Treebeard Falls, 34 meters high.
I’ve seen a lot of this “gold dust” on old trees, but didn’t know until reading a sign in The Ancient Forest that it’s Gold Dust lichen, a delicate species that’s unique to old-growth forests and only found in abundance on trees over 250 years old.
Protection has been put in place for many trees that have been damaged by people climbing on them. Much of the bark has been torn off the lower part of this tree. Some people just don’t think, even when they come to a place like this.
A great deal of thought has been put into signage, which includes this one: “Look Up At The Cedar Circle In The Sky”.
And yes, I probably wouldn’t have looked directly up to see it without the sign’s help.
Me at “the Big Tree”, which is apparently almost 16 feet in diameter.
The side trail to The Big Tree goes under another fallen giant – head clearance is almost 6 feet.
The boardwalk-builders had some fun here, putting it tightly between two trees.
Cedars sometimes grow in circles of 3 to 5 trees. It’s not known why, though some speculate that a tree starting life in a shady spot will grow laterally in search of light, and can sometimes touch the ground and root itself.
Walking back to the motorhome. We spent an hour and 20 minutes at The Ancient Forest. Cathy walked the 500-meter universally accessible boardwalk, and I walked the full circuit and side trails with the exception of the Driscoll Ridge trail, which is 15 km long. All in all, an exceptional stop that I’m sure will remain one of the highlights of the trip.
Just after 5:00 pm, we reached Purden Lake Provincial Park, and were soon set up for the night in a very nice site.
The flat light didn’t do justice to Purden Lake, which I expect is beautiful on a sunny day. That night, we had another extremely violent lightning storm, though we didn’t see much because we were in a dense forest.
After some discussion about the route home, we decided that historic Fort St. James would be our destination for Thursday.
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