About Me

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Delta, British Columbia, Canada
I took very early retirement from teaching in '06 and did some traveling in Europe and the UK before settling down to do some private tutoring. As a voracious reader, I have many books waiting in line for me to read. Tell me I shouldn't read something, and I will. I'm a happy, optimistic person and I love to travel and through that believe that life can be a continuous learning experience. I'm looking forward to traveling more some day. I enjoy walking, cycling, water aerobics & and sports like tennis, volleyball, and fastpitch/baseball. I'm just getting into photography as a hobby and I'm enjoying learning all the bits and bobs of my digital camera. My family is everything to me and I'm delighted to be the mother of two girls and the Gramma of a boy and a girl. I may be a Gramma, but I'm at heart just a girl who wants to have fun.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Campbell Valley Regional Park


Green, the colour of the forest, calms and relaxes. It also has a healing effect and is said to relieve depression and anxiety.

I had the most amazing day today - in the most awesome and sublime green environment of the Campbell Valley Regional Park, about a half hour's drive from my place. I'd heard of this place but hadn't yet visited it . After today's outing, I'll be going back to do more exploring.
Even the sign for the place was green. After parking the car in what I hoped would continue to be a shady spot, we found the entrance to the trail that we'd decided to do today. It's one of the shorter trails and with my bad back acting up lately, we thought that would be the best one to try. So off we went along the Little River Loop Trail, a 2.3 km easy walk that would take us through areas that made me think of Louisianna bayous, the California redwood forest, and alpine meadows full of blue lupine, white daisies, buttercups, and wild roses.
This place is HUGE with both a north and south entrance. In some areas horses are allowed and there is an off-leash area for dogs, too. Our walk was very quiet and we didn't meet anyone else until we were almost back at our starting point. It took about 45 minutes to do the 2.3 km but I was always stopping to take photos. Everywhere I looked I saw art. There is nothing more beautiful than nature and I just kept snapping away until D#2 began to tease me. But I didn't care. I thought of all of my blogging buddies and buddettes and how you'd enjoy seeing the photos. So here are just some of the many shots I got today. I hope you enjoy them and are tempted even more to come visit my little corner of Beautiful British Columbia.
The beginning of the trail.


Walking beneath a canopy of trees.

Giant ferns! Bigger than me!

This gives you an idea of the size of most of the trees!

D#2 walking ahead of me on the trail.


There were a lot of trees like this with moss hanging from them.


A little forest glade that we came upon.


I saw several enormous tree stumps; the one of the left is obviously a red cedar and I think the other one is, too. Just older. I don't think I could have managed to climb on top of them because they were that big. However, I could have crawled under the one on the right but I hesitated because of what might have been living there.























Periodically, we came upon these little wooden bridges that I guess go over the Little River. However, right now the river must be dry because there was no sign of it.

When I looked up.......waaaaaay up (like the Friendly Giant used to say)....this is what I saw.


When we were walking through the forested part of the trail, we came upon lots of buttercups and these wild flowers at the left. I'm not sure what they are, but they were pretty.
















Eventually, we came out of the forest and discovered we were in an area that looked exactly like an alpine meadow. For as far as we could see, it was absolutely full of blue lupine, white daisies, and dark pink wild roses. I must say I thought it was stunning.



Then again, we found ourselves again in a forested area with thick canopies and wild raspberries just ripening on the vines.








Do you remember that creepy scene in "The Wizard of Oz" when the trees came alive? Well, this tree reminded me of those trees so I just had to take a photo. I almost felt like saying "Hi" to it.

What an awesome afternoon in a location so near to my own home! This is a place where I know I'll return over and over again, especially in the autumn when the deciduous trees will turn brilliant colours and the sun will cast long shadows through the park's statuesque trees. For now, I'll leave you with this shot of the sun trying to get through the high canopy to reach the floor below. I hope you've enjoyed your virtual tour along the Little River Loop Trail at Campbell Valley Regional Park and you're calm and relaxed from all the green.

16 comments:

Jo said...

Leslie, those photos are exquisite. I have never heard of Campbell Valley Regional Park before. Where is it? It looks very much like Cathedral Grove. I have seen those wildflowers before, but I can't remember the names of them. They usually grow alongside Trilliums.

I love the shade of green - it's the pale green shade of new spring growth.

Gorgeous!

nancygrayce said...

What a beautiful place. We were walking on a similar trail in North Carolina one year with my MIL in front. I kept saying "now be careful." Suddenly I slipped and fell right flat on my bottom! I guess I should have taken my own advice.

Jo said...

Leslie, I'm pretty sure that flower is a Pacific Bleeding Heart (Dicentra formosa). I used to see them when I was a little girl growing up on Vancouver Island.

Leslie: said...

Thanks Josie for the name of the flower - I thought it might be a type of bleeding heart. The park is in Langley.

Anonymous said...

Sigh... it is a beautiful park Leslie... but not when you get minorly lost and walk aimlessly around it with three day camp kids behind you and a girl with spina bifida on your shoulders! eek! We roamed the outskirts of it for an hour before we found the rest of our group. I love nature... but...:) Glad you enjoyed it. I miss parks like that!

Leslie: said...

Oh my gosh Heather! If only I'd known of this place before - it really IS huge and for a while I wondered if we'd strayed off the trail somewhere along the way. There were all these other little paths leading off but we managed to wind our way through. I want to go to the south entrance next to see if I can find the little schoolhouse.

Daryl said...

Leslie ... fabulous photos and its so good to know you felt well enough to walk all that way!

:-Daryl

Michele said...

So pretty there... I loved the canopy of trees that arched downwards... I thought that was just way cool!

Country Girl said...

Oh, my gosh! The green is beautiful and so lush. Giant ferns, too! I've never seen that before.

When my husband was recuperating, and so full of anxiety, he used to watch golf. He said it was because of the color and the quiet.

Nice post. Oooo, look. Josie has a new picture.

Trubes said...

What wonderful pictures Leslie. I think one day DT and I should visit your wonderful country. I rather fancy doing the train trip from the East to the West.
Our three daughters grandparents family live near Calgary and they have extended an invitation for us to visit them some time.
Will have to wait until the wretched back is fixed though1
I hope you're not suffering too much with your's, as you were, before I went on holiday.
The pictures of your 'gran babies' are wonderful too.
Hope all are well and happy. Will e-mail you soon.

Di.xx

Trubes said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anne in Oxfordshire said...

Wow Leslie, what an absolutely beautiful find. Your photos are brilliant, you must definetly go back !!!

Petrus said...

This looks a great place to go walking and so green and relaxing ..

Getting out into the countryside for a walk is one of the best tonics you can have.

Cedar said...

What a beautiful place.

MedStudentWife said...

WOW !!Such beautiful pictures...

I'll have to put this place as a destination for Fidel& I to see :)

Thanks Leslie !

Jerez Sherry said...

Wow! Leslie, I never get enough green.. we live in heaven.. but who knew it would be the color of envy!
Old growth is fascinating...if the world only knew!