by Keith and Heather Nicol
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| The bedrock has been carved into interesting shapes |
On Tuesday, July
4 we had occasion to be pop into Parksville for a few hours and decided to head
into the tourism office to see what we might do. The attendant told us about
the Top Bridge Regional Park which was just around the corner. “You will love
the suspension bridge” she told us “just watch for Chattell Road and turn right”.
Finding the entrance to the park is abit tricky and we initially thought we
were heading out on Highway 19 but then we saw Chattell Road out of the corner
of our eye. For those handy with a GPS the coordinates for this key turn are:
49 17.776 N and 124 15.439 W.
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| Two girls jump into the Englishman River | |
We followed
Chattell Road for a few hundred meters past a rifle range and then the road
changed to gravel and began to descend. We arrived at a large parking lot with
the suspension bridge across the Englishman River right in front of us. The
coordinates of the parking lot are: 49 17.867 N 124 15.924 W. There appeared to
be hiking opportunities but at this time they also seemed to be closed due to
water main construction.
But we saw lots
of people hanging out on the rocks and jumping off a ledge into the deep water
below. It looked like fun but we didn’t have our swim suits to try it out. The
bedrock here is conglomerate and it has been carved into interesting potholes
and ledges making it a very scenic area for swimming. We can see why this is a popular local swimming area. We ate our lunch on the rocks
and made a note to come back when the hiking trails were open and to bring our bathing suits. For more
information see:
http://www.rdn.bc.ca/cms.asp?wpID=2614
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| Heather crossing the 81 meter suspension bridge |
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