May 24–Cascade and Rolley Falls, Stave Powerhouse

Today we visited two waterfalls and then went to the visitors center at a retired hydroelectric dam.

First up was Cascade Falls Regional Park. This waterfall was so beautiful that it, unfortunately, made the next one seem kind of pathetic.

It was about a 45 minute drive from the campground so we wanted to do as much as we could in the area but it made for a long day.

It was a very short but steep walk from the parking lot.

We liked the huge stump with eyes.

The final climb on stairs.

Before the suspension bridge over the canyon.

It was very stable, as long as it was just us on it with nobody being a comedian and jumping around. It was not too bad for Jennie.

There was a viewing platform on the far side, for the face on view of the falls.

I couldn’t decide which one of these I liked better so I included both. A wider one with more of the side view.

A taller one with more of the top and bottom.

And the photosphere.

I went back out on the bridge to do another photosphere. As I was doing it I actually bobbled the phone. It gave me a bit of a heart attack.

The resulting photosphere. I tried to remove the bridge so we could see straight down but it looks weird.

And the view from the bridge to the falls. Each of the these is made up of a 4 shot panorama.

And the view downstream.

This family arrived just as we were about to cross back over the bridge. The dad, being a dad, had to do some jumping so we waited until they were done before crossing and heading back to the car.

The flowering shrubs are REALLY in bloom here. On the way to Rolley Lake Provincial Park we passed by this amazing garden. Unfortunately it was on a narrow twisty road with no place to stop. We could just grab a few pictures as we went by. Judging from the sign in the garden they get a lot of unwanted visitors.

We first went to the day use area of the park to have lunch with more screaming school kids playing football.

The hike to the falls is about 4 km return and mostly flat.

The section along the lake is very wide.

I forgot to take a picture of the section from the end of the campground but it was a lot narrower and rougher. In a short while we came to a bridge over the creek.

As I said, Rolley Falls was kind of underwhelming after Cascade Falls.

Looking down, Jennie wondered what this strange purple coloured fern was. Then she saw the spray paint on some of the logs.

I took a photosphere anyway.

This is the only falls mentioned in the park literature. Other sites mention another larger falls just downstream. They said it was a steep climb down and the views were not great. They were correct on both counts.

This was the view from one lookout.

And from another one slightly farther down. What is showing is about half of the length of the falls.

I went down a bit farther and managed to find a way into the canyon but by now the falls were too far away and there was no way I was climbing through that jumble to get closer.

So we trudged back of the steep zig zags and then along the rest of the flat trail back to the car.

I had read that there was a retired hydroelectric generating station that BC Hydro had turned into a visitor’s center. The Stave Falls Generating Station was built around 1910 and retired around 2000. The entire station is now a museum.

Outside there were some display on power distribution.

After paying our $5 senior admission we watched a short rather cheesy movie about hydro power. Then we checked out a few rooms of electrical displays.

A Tesla Coil, safely in a Faraday cage.

Jacob’s Ladder.

A plasma ball.

The display were quite interesting.

They also had a large Tesla coil demo run by one of the staff. The coil is so loud that we had to wear hearing protection.

They also had some displays of old electrical appliances and equipment.

Then we went into the generator hall. Because it is not operating we could go right down and get up close. The closest one is cut open.

 

The control panel.

Outside were the old penstocks.

Then down to the floor.

The fifth generator was added later and it is of a different design.

By now it was near to the 4 pm closing time.

Just down the road is the new generating station. It only has two generators and creates twice as much power as the old one. There was a cat walk where you could walk out and see the water exiting the station.

It is hard to judge the scale but there was a lot of water blasting out of there.

And then the drive home.