Whistler to Qualicum Beach, British Columbia

Squamish railway museum Squamish railway museum

Heading out of Whistler on the "sea to sky" highway, we stopped at another railway museum - this time at Squamish. Because of the railway's importance to British Columbia's early history, the train is well chronicled by museums.

squamish railway museum squamish railway museum

It was only when we got on The Canadian ourselves a few weeks later, that we realised that it too was a museum piece. The Squamish Museum was a bit difficult to find. It was run by enthusiastic amateurs, who had put a lot of work into restoring an amazing amount of rolling stock.

Ferry to Vancouver island Ferry horseshoe bay to Naianimo Vancouver Island

On to Horseshoe Bay, and the ferry to Nanaimo, home if the notorious Nanaimo Bar a rather sickly, and usually synthetic confection that thends to haunt Canadian restaurants and bakeries. It must, I assume, be universally liked by the Canadians. An agreeable ferry trip only lasting an hour and a half.

Around Qualicum Beach we found the old cedar forest a delightful place to walk around.

Waterfall near qualicum beach Giant Cedars at Qualicum Beach

And the river is now damed futher upstream as part of a hydro-electric project. Vancouver Island is big on hydro-electricity on account of its high rainfall.

Sunset on Qualicum Beach

Having checked in to our accommodation, The Cottage B&B, we walked down to the beach at Qualicum to watch the sun setting.

The Cottage (TripAdvisor) The house is on a busy main road, but we were not disturbed by the traffic at all. The small balcony on Oceanview is a very pleasant place to sit and enjoy a glass of wine while watching the sun set - you can also go down to the beach and get an even better sunset there. The breakfast was good, but was the same each day - scrambled egg. The Cottage own web site

Return to British Columbia by car