by Keith and Heather Nicol
On Friday, May 29
we decided to check out Paradise Meadows in Strathcona Provincial Park since
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| Western Bog Laurel |
the last time we were there was in early April hiking in 20 cm of fresh snow.
This area is just a 30 minute drive from Courtenay –Comox and is a quick way to
get into the sub alpine. On this hike we decided to focus on some of the wild
flowers which we were told we easy to see along the Paradise Meadows trail.
This area is certainly popular and we were surprised to see the parking lot
near the trailhead virtually full when we got there. Fortunately there is lots
of overflow parking in the Nordic skiing lot nearby and we started out with a
visit Strathcona Wilderness Information Centre which we suggest especially if
you want to get hiking trail maps, brochures etc for the park. We were told
that over 10,000 people come through the visitor centre each year and we
thought the volunteers at the centre do a great job providing a much needed
service.
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| The board walk trail is very popular and has numerous benches enroute |
The Paradise
Meadows trail is about 4 km and you can do a shorter 2 km wheelchair accessible
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| Jeffrey's Shooting Star likes wet areas |
boardwalk trail if you have people with mobility issues or small children in
your group. There were about 17 species of wildflowers out when we did the hike
and there are markers identifying many of them along the trail. The trail also
gives views of Mount Washington Alpine Ski Resort as well as several ponds.
Also several other trails branch off from these trails providing access to the
higher mountains nearby. Our goal is investigate some of those trails in the
near future. For more information on the Strathcona Wilderness Institute which
runs the information centre see:
http://strathconapark.org/
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| You get good views of the runs of Mt Washington Ski Resort as well as small ponds |
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