Vancouver Island 13: Denman Island

This morning we boarded the ferry to Denman Island. It was a rocky start: the 9:40 trip filled up so we had to wait for the 10:30, and once we got across, the google maps location for Denman Island Chocolate directed us to a little old church in the woods. But luckily, the wait to get on the ferry gave CLB more time to admire and photograph the colony of purple martins (and one elusive but beautiful barn swallow) living around the docks, and the rest of the visit was much better.

We startled a group of turkey vultures from a roadside garbage bag into some nearby trees on the way south to Boyle Point Provincial Park. Looking down from a high bluff at the southern tip of the island, we found more bald eagles, some seals lolling around in bays, and two racoons who seemed to live in a little cave right by the water and came out at low tide to hunt around for food.

We turned back north and stopped at the corner where all the action was — a general store, a taco truck, a cafe, a bookstore, a little hardware store, and an art shop. B got some great tacos, and CLB had a sandwich (in fact, "The Sandwich", their bestseller) from the cafe.

At the far northern end, we followed mostly unmarked and unpaved roads to an assuming trailhead, leading to some stairs down to the water. At low tide, a lot of the beach is exposed, and you can walk along a couple kilometers of sand and mud flats all the way over to Tree Island. The surface was littered with living snails and crabs, as well as lots of bleached clam and oyster shells. It was wonderful.

We fly to Newfoundland tomorrow!