August 16th, 2018
Left this morning and headed to the north on the #16 Yellowhead Highway.
I made a stop at Port Clements. Taking a side gravel road through Port Clements I took a short hike on the Golden Spruce Trail.
This Golden Spruce was “a common spruce by scientific analysis, but with a mysterious abnormality that gave it is yellow-gold color”. This was a tree over 300 years and was the only one of its kind, having yellow, or golden, needles.
The sad thing is that a disgruntled former forestry worker (turned radical environmental activist) chopped down this giant tree in 1997 to make a political statement. What a shame.
Another 8km down this gravel road took me to a stop to hike in and see an ancient Haida canoe. This old cedar dugout canoe was partially carved in the bush but abandoned for unknown reasons. It has been here for over a century and the bow of the canoe points to the stump of the tree it was taken from.
I stopped in Masset, this is ‘Mile 0’ of the Yellowhead Highway. A nice town with reasonable prices for groceries.
Drove another 26km to Agate Beach and set up camp at the Naikoon Provincial Park – Agate Beach. This too was $18.00 a night and I could have had a spot right on the ocean, but chose to have some trees around me in case of high winds, which this area is known for and you can tell by the trees. LOL
Took a walk along the beach …. Felt like I was back in Nova Scotia. Found some agates along the way.
Drove a couple more kilometres up the road to the end. There was a totem pole here at this site and was also a site of a village with a longhouse.
At the end, you can drive your vehicle onto the beach, which I did. I didn’t stay very long as the tide was coming in. LOL
I parked just the other side of the river and did a hike to the Blowhole and to the top of Tow Hill. It was a beautiful hike and all by boardwalk.
The view was lovely.
It was an absolutely gorgeous sunset, I must say. A perfect ending to a super day!
