Bella Coola

I hope that I don't take as long to write this blog post as I did the last one. Let's see. I'm doing well. Currently, we have -14 degrees Celsius and a lot of snow, not as much as in Bavaria, but enough for me to finally wear my kids' winter boots.

Last time, I left off with a very steep road and a surprise. Here's the surprise:

Bears!!!

And this time, not black bears, but grizzlies! There was actually a bear viewing station on the road to Bella Coola and we were lucky!

We had to wait at a small passage until the rangers cleared the path as safe via radio. Then we entered an enclosed area where we had a direct view of a section of the river. When we arrived, everyone else was already very excited because in the distance on the left, you could see a bear mother with two somewhat older bear cubs :)

All three came towards us and started catching fish and enjoying them. It was amazing!

This whole journey to the furthest corner of the West Coast was very special. When we started at the beginning of the 'Freedom Road', it was 0 degrees Celsius with snow and mainly evergreen forest and swamps. When we reached the valley, it was 14 degrees Celsius with sunshine and rainforest. A completely different world.

Bella Coola is not administered by the Canadian government, but by the Nuxalk people who live there.

After our bear adventure, we had to find a place to sleep in the rainforest. We found:

The Gnome Home is run by an elderly German man. Not that we chose this campsite because of that, it was simply the cheapest. The man was probably already 80 years old and had a medieval-looking metal device to process credit cards for payment. It suited him perfectly. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it.

After the steep drive on the gravel road, our car looked like this:

The next day, we drove towards the coast and the landscape reminded me a lot of the Marlborough Sounds in New Zealand. Covered rocks, waterfalls, and uh Germans. We actually only met German tourists again :D

wet roundabout

A waterfall...

and a water bender ;)

Afterwards, I wanted to see the "petroglyphs". Petroglyphs are rock carvings that are said to have been created about 5000-10,000 years ago. Unfortunately, neither Lea nor Eva were interested in organizing a tour with a native guide, despite my protests. I would have liked to learn more about the petroglyphs, and it was recommended everywhere to ask a guide. Well, in the end, we tried to find the entrance to the petroglyphs ourselves, which turned out to be quite difficult, and when we got there, I felt out of place. There is a reason why the place is hidden away from the main road and there are no signs leading to it. You might read between the lines that I'm still annoyed about it. But I have already made up my mind to visit Bella Coola again someday!

Monkeys? Aliens?

The petroglyphs are really impressive, and luckily, I was able to have a conversation with a Native who has been visiting the site for years and cleaning the drawings with a scrub brush made of moss. My theory is that the Polynesians found this place and immortalized themselves with rock carvings. Some of the drawings reminded me a lot of Maori motifs. The Native's theory, on the other hand, was aliens, which I could definitely see. And many of the drawings look like monkeys. But there are no monkeys in North America.

Even though I don't believe that aliens left the monkey drawings, I must agree with the man that the place has something magical about it.

In the afternoon, we explored a few smaller hiking trails. Unfortunately, the trails in and around Bella Coola are not as well-maintained as those maintained by the government. Most of the hiking trails in Bella Coola are maintained by volunteers, and we were told that the younger generation is not as interested. But that's okay because the cedar forest is incredibly beautiful, and I have once again realized that I feel most at home among all the moss, messy branches, and giant trees.

My new home

It was always a bit foggy but warm, and everything was fine until dinner on the 2nd day. I had made grilled cheese sandwiches, and we had a kind of "common room" at the campsite where we could eat. We had just finished and were looking forward to a cozy game night because we had light (!) and it was warm (!) enough. 

We didn't cook on the 100-year-old oven ;)

So we were washing the dishes and wanted to bring the boxes with food back to the car. Eva and I were still packing up, and Lea had already started walking ahead. So Eva and I started walking with the boxes when we saw Lea slowly walking towards us. When she reached us, she just said, "Go back! There's a bear at the tent!" and Eva and I were like, "Yeah, you just want to trick us." and Lea said seriously, "No, there really is a bear!" Well, Lea saw a bear, a black bear, and they both looked at each other and were equally surprised to see each other, and then the bear disappeared into the rainforest, and Lea walked back slowly, backwards, because you're supposed to look at the bear while doing so. 

The bear's paw print, we documented everything! 

So she did everything right, and so did the bear ;) We talked to the wife of the campsite owner, who is Canadian, and she said, "Yes, we're in the Greta Bear Rainforest after all, there are bears here" :D Of course, we were still allowed to sleep in the common room because she understood that we felt a bit uncomfortable spending that night in the tent. Lea freaked out a bit and was afraid of every noise for 2 days and didn't want to go anywhere alone at night. So Eva and I took turns going to the bathroom, so she didn't have to go alone :D

So our new sleeping place looked like this:

The door is barricaded with a chair :D

Our campsite was in Hagensborg. If you think it sounds Scandinavian, you're right. The settlement was founded by a Norwegian, and there's also a "Norwegian Heritage House" two houses down. The Bella Coola Valley area is very sparsely populated, with about 2000 people living there.

Nothing going on!

On our 3rd day, we tried to visit Mt. Gurr Lake (see map) and had to drive almost an entire mountain to get there.

The incline and the road were worse than the steep gravel road into the valley and all the other roads I have ever driven on. We were afraid every 2 minutes that we would damage the car. In the end, we didn't find the trail because, as expected, there was no sign. The description said "At the second big rock, turn left" or something like that. Very helpful. The view was still beautiful, and the drive back down was terrible. I have never been so scared and sweaty at the same time.

Then we did the "Snooka Trail" and tried to forget about the start of the day :D

I talked a bit with the wife of the campsite owner when we said goodbye, and she told me that she used to live in Fort St. John. Fort St. John is 15 hours from Bella Coola and is located in northern British Columbia. She then moved to Hagensborg with her husband and has been living there for 37 years and teaching. She said she was pretty happy when she got the offer to teach in Bella Coola because the weather is so nice. In Fort St. John, it snowed regularly, even in July :D

The next day, we started making our way back to Jasper and visited a hiking trail in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park. On this trail, we met a few park rangers who asked us how we liked Canada, what we thought of the parks, and gave us a link to a questionnaire right away. Very goal-oriented :D The trail was super beautiful, and there was even a river to cross without a bridge and a river with a bridge ;)

without a bridge...

 with a bridge :)

Afterwards, we drove back to the bear station to see if we could get lucky again, but unfortunately, we had no luck. However, when we were out of the valley again, we saw this:

It was just there :D we didn't encounter a single car on the way.

The dangerous gravel road was a piece of cake on the way back :D

That's it for now. I hope you still enjoy the blog, even though my parents think my German expression has become terrible. Maybe I'll write the next entry in English ;) It will also be very blue, with a lot of postcard pictures!

See you soon

Lea 

*Bonus material*

Another look at the fancy house

Riske Valley