Fall is a good time to visit the Elk Falls suspension bridge

 by Keith and Heather Nicol  

With the good fall weather holding decided to check out Elk Falls near Campbell River and the suspension bridge that has been built there in 2015.  The suspension bridge spans Campbell River in Elk Falls Provincial Park and offers stellar views of the river as it plunges 25 meters over a picturesque waterfall.  The suspension bridge opened in mid May, 2015 and normally would attract lots of people during the summer. But with Covid 19 and the spacing requirements on the bridge and associated trails we didn’t visit during the summer. But with cooler fall weather and fewer visitors we basically had the place to ourselves which was great.  The suspension bridge spans Campbell River in Elk Falls Provincial Park and offers stellar views of the river as it plunges 25 meters over a picturesque waterfall.   Note the empty suspension bridge in the photo above. And for a bonus BC Hydro was releasing more water on Thursday, Oct 29 when we visited so the falls were especially scenic. According to the information we saw BC Hydro will releasing more water on Nov 4 and 5 and 11 and 12 so these days might be good times to see the falls in full force.                                        Heather looks down at the 25 meter falls from one of the viewpoints  To get to Elks Falls Provincial Park drive through Campbell River and take the road toward Gold River. Simply follow the signs to the turnoff to the Elk Falls trails and suspension bridge. The bridge is roughly 1 km trail from the parking lot and the wide gravel trail is suited to just about all walkers. We also walked an 800 meter side trail to get down to the river and another lookout. We saw some neat mushrooms and the vanilla leaf understory was changing colour which really added to our walk.                                                   A side view of the falls and canyon from a another viewpoint There are also other hiking trails in the area but we recommend the 800 meter Old Growth Loop which passes by some huge trees that have never been logged. These trees also managed to avoid a devastating fire in 1938 which burned much of the timber in the surrounding area. Evidently 1938 was the driest summer in 64 years and the forest was tinder dry. The fire was evidently set off by a logger who accidently dropped a pick on a rock and a spark set off the dry grass near his feet.  For more information on the park see: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/elk_falls/                                                                 The vanilla leaf understory was changing to yellow which added to the beauty of our walk