Bella Coola - by Natalie

  





 The kids will eventually be adding their experiences and doing their own entires on this blog. They have reminded me that they are still on Summer holidays and that blog entries are like school work. 😆 

    We took the Ferry from Port Hardy to Bella Coola ($1000 for a 10 hour ferry), however; the Ferry turned out to be quite the experience. We saw Otters, Seals, Orcas, Humpback whales, and even porpoises playing in the wake of the boat.  The inner passage was so beautiful with the mountains and green water. The water was greener than Kalamalka lake. 

  


BELLA COOLA


After the long day at Sea, we arrived in Bella Coola and got to our campsite at Rip Rap Campground. What a great set up. The best part of this campground was definitely the people camping here.  Why is that??? Well, back when we were getting excited for this trip I realized I couldn’t plan 13 months of travel. Adam and I decided that google was not going to plan our trip. We want to let the people we met along the way guide us to what we should see and do. The campers at Rip Rap were the perfect example of this. I met two couples, while doing laundry at the campsite, who proceeded to tell me about everything we needed to see in the area. Some of the stuff was marked and other places weren’t marked along the way. They sent pictures of locations and wrote down directions and activities for us to see. They even texted us to follow up once we had left. This just melted my heart.


Our first day in Bella Coola was eventful to say the least. It was inspired by the people I met earlier that morning. We started by driving to see Clayton Falls. Sadly, it was uninspiring so we quickly moved on to hit up the local First Nations Gallery to look into getting a guide to see the Petroglyphs. One lady at the campground told us she called the number on a poster in town. The cost was $50 per person for a guided tour, however, her guide turned up very high and talked about the Petroglyphs being from Aliens and UFO’s. So, I decided to talk to the Gallery directly and maybe get a family rate. When I went to the Copper Sun Gallery I was told it was $135 per adult and $65 per kid. Sorry! That is out of the budget, especially since I know my kids, and they will not be paying attention, so it really would only be for Adam’s and my interest. I was about to leave when she said that we could go unguided for free but I would have to register my vehicle and assume all liability. I told her, absolutely! I gave a donation of $50 and got the directions from her. 

We drove through the reserve to the location. We then proceeded to walk the trail. We came across a First Nations guide and his group. He asked us who we were with and I told him our experience at the Gallery and that we registered our car and came up. He told me were were supposed to have a guide, but he was good about it and said that we were here now, so he let us continue on. He just asked us not post pictures on social media, which I agreed to. I did post a few pictures below, but not sure if this blog counts as a social media platform or not (Thoughts??). Once we reached the end of the trail there were many petroglyphs all around on the rocks. So beautiful and hidden throughout, everywhere you looked. There we met Bryan Apps a local white guy who calls himself the unofficial keeper of these glyphs. He has been adopted by the First Nations (his words) and has been married toto an Indigenous lady for 25 years. Bryan cleans the Petroglyphs and explains them to whoever wants to listen. When I asked him how he knows what they mean, he said they talk to him! He has a Youtube series called “Rebirth in the Stones” -a 5 part series about these Petroglyphs. I have yet to look this up so not sure how authentic the series is. When Gibson asked him how the Petroglyphs were made, and he told him that it was like play dough. Huh? After that comment I felt some of the authenticity slip away. He proceeded to chat us up for a solid 20 min. Wyatt just loved the cocker spaniel dog named Dakota that Bryan had. His take away from the whole excursion was that this is the type of dog he wants when we get home. Okay then!


After the Petroglyphs fishing was on the agenda. Not salmon this time, but trout. We headed to the Atnarko river. This was fun. We hit up a couple spots along the river and got a few fish. Many too small the keep, one we did.  The fishing came to an abrupt halt when Wyatt unknowingly hit a wasp nest with his fishing rod on the backswing and they attacked. He was stung 3 times. Screaming kid = time to leave. On our drive back to the campsite we saw one black bear crossing the road, and a Grizzly momma and her cub. Momma stood on her hind legs to defend her little cub as they ran into the road side bush. Feeling good about bringing our bear spray everywhere.


Today, brings us to more fishing this morning. The boys all went out as I felt the need to catch up on the ongoings of our trip.

 

When they returned they told me how they met the guide from the Petroglyphs and the First Nations man told them a better area to try for Trout.  It ended up being their favourite spot while in Bella Coola. 


Lets reflect on tenting! Tenting takes some serious skill. What skill you might ask? Patience, organization, time, energy, ingenuity and flexibility. We don’t have all those skills yet but we are working on it. 


Adam and I have decided that to really enjoy a place you need 4-5 nights there. If it’s less than that you are rushed. Tenting takes more time for set up and clean up than we figured. It also takes more time to do all the daily tasks. You can’t be in a hurry. We have yet to hit our groove. I also don’t know when I will get used to missing the comforts of home, but I have not complained too bad, yet!


Okay maybe that last comment was a lie. The cooler for a fridge is mighty challenging. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Also, being creative with meals is on my mind constantly. It was super handy that the boys caught fish daily in Bella Coola, but I can see myself getting over the fish quickly.

Sleeping on the ground has actually been something I can’t complain about. The tenting makes bedtime difficult with the bright evening sky, and early morning sun.

 

Well that is enough reflecting for today. 



Side Note:

Okay, so I am learning this blogging thing. I’m having a hard time placing pictures in the areas I want and not sure if it’s me or the program (most likely me!) So I will just write my entry and put all the pictures at the end. Hope that works.














Location: Bella Coola, BC V0T 1C0, Canada

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