Fall hiking along Black Creek at Miracle Beach Provincial Park, Comox Valley

By Keith and Heather Nicol

   On Thursday,  October 19 we were invited to Christine Gornall’s place for lunch and since she lives

Fall colours are impressive at Black Creek

on nearby Seaview Road she suggested a walk along Black Creek. We were impressed by the fall colours and there are lots of big leaf maples in the area which added lots of bright yellow to the walk. We could see Coho salmon swimming upstream taking advantage of the recent rains which added some much needed volume to the stream.

     We walked out to the ocean but by this time the clouds had changed to rain so we opted not to walk along the ocean but return the way we had come.  Christine had some hot soup waiting at her house for lunch so we cut our walk short vowing to return to this area on the next sunny day to explore it more before the fall colours start to disappear.  Also it pays to bring a tripod since if the day is overcast not much light makes through the trees. Miracle Beach Provincial Park is located off highway 19A mid way between Comox and Campbell River. See http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/miracle_bch/ for more information. The parking lot we used is at : 49 50.950N, 125 06.037W. 

Heather and Christine walking along the trail

Black Creek has lots of autumn leaves in full colour at this time