June 20 – Nymph Falls and Paradise Meadows

The forecast for Wednesday and Thursday look kind of lousy so we are trying to cram the “must dos” into the next two days.

First we did a short walk to Nymph Falls. Then we drove to climb up about 3000 feet in elevation to the Paradise Meadows Trail. It is in a corner of the huge Strathcona Provincial Park near the Mount Washington Ski Resort.

It is just over 1/2 km from the parking lot to the falls on a very easy trail.

We didn’t need the rest but what a great bench.

The falls are really a set of rock shelves that the water cascades over.

From the upper viewpoint.

Off to the left is a set of steps they blasted into the rock a long time ago so that the fish can get up and down the falls more easily.

And a photosphere from here.

Nymph Falls Upper Viewpoint Photosphere

To get to the lower viewpoint you can take the easy way and walk down the trail a bit and climb down a short bank or take the rope down a steep rock. We both tried the rope.

While Jennie was still up top, I took a panorama back up to her.

And she took one down to me.

And another photosphere from here.

Nymph Falls Lower Viewpoint Photosphere

Jennie went down to investigate the very bottom. You can just see her at the far left.

Jennie thought these water filled depressions looked like fish.

Nothing but rocks in the potholes.

Jennie likes the water action shots.

Eventually we walked a little farther downstream. Looking back we could see that there was a whole other side to the falls that had been hidden by the trees in the middle.

We went back to the falls to find a spot to have lunch.

More shots of each other.

It is relatively safe to swim here and we saw a few people go in but the water is still very cold.

After a while it started to get busier which meant that it was time to move on.

It was steep climb up Mount Washington. It was actually three separate climbs with some flat in between because there were three separate chain up areas for use in the winter. It must be a real pain to do and undo them three times. Or maybe you just do it once depending on how low the snow has come.

Unfortunately there were not a lot of views back down to the coast form the road.

 

We popped in to check out the ski hill first.

In the summer they do run one of the chairlifts to the top, where there are some hiking trails with great views, but they don’t start daily operation until next week. They did say they were going to run it yesterday, for father’s day but in the morning I had checked their webcam and it was completely in the clouds. I guess they were in the dark half of the sky yesterday while we were in the sun.

Jennie really wanted some pictures of the mountains off in the distance. She even climbed this open grate staircase. The platform she was standing on was also open grating.

 

The long tunnels had signs saying that they were something to do with tubing so I assume that is how they send the tubes back up the hill and keep the snow off.

On to Paradise Meadows. This is an fuzzy over zoom of the park map but we just did the two bottom loops. Centennial Trail and Paradise Meadows, totaling only 3.5 km and it was almost all boardwalk.

I have got to say that I was a bit disappointed by the trail. I guess our timing was wrong. Short term, in that it had gotten quite cloudy and grey. Long term, in that we were too late for all the spring flowers.

Jennie did find a few.

There were still some patches of snow in the shady spots.

Looking back at Mount Washington.

The trail is marked as accessible. There are ramps on all the steps. If you are in a wheel chair then they will loan you a chair with a single wheel and two people, one in front and one in behind, will take you around.

The bridge at the end of the Paradise Meadows Loop.

A rare burst of sunshine.

Civilization encroached on the view at the end.

And then home.