Checking out the Medicine Bowls on the Brown's River near Courtenay

 by Keith and Heather Nicol

The so called Medicine Bowls and on the Brown's River near Courtenay offer another way to see this river which is normally hard to access. A previous blog this spring discussed the accessing the water falls lower down on the Brown's River from Piercy Road. If you missed that and want more info - here it is- https://keithnicol.blogspot.com/2025/06/waterfalls-on-browns-river-near.html. The Medicine Bowls are also well worth a visit and like we have discussed in other blogs-if you can ride a bike there instead of hiking then count us in. In this case the river has carved a series of bowls and waterfalls in the rock but actually swimming here should be done carefully as a monument near the site records the deaths of 2 teen age friends that died here in the summer of 2001. 

                                                                            Biking up the access road

To access the Medicine Bowls simply type in "Medicine Bowls Parking" in google maps and it will lead to a large parking lot just off of the Forbidden Plateau Road. Depending on where you live in the Comox Valley the actual distance will vary but from our house it is about 15 km (1 way). From there the trail- actually a road - heads uphill and we opted to bring our bikes since the whole route appeared to be easy to do on a mountain bike. The trail is less than 2 km 1 way so if you don't want to bike it is an easy walk to the access trails down to the river. Once up the main trail we chained our bikes to a tree and then headed down several different trails that access various parts of the Medicine Bowls. These trails are steep and some use ropes to descend so will not be suited to young children or those people not comfortable on steep slopes or using the attached ropes. We went on a dry day but the steep trails accessing the river would likely be very slippery in wet conditions. This is a very scenic spot but use care around the river since in places the mossy rocks are very slippery. See you on the trail.

 

                                           Be careful along the river's edge since there are lots of areas of slippery moss