We drove about 135 miles today to visit the town of Port Hardy. Port Hardy is the largest community on Vancouver Island North. It is the northernmost point of the Island Highway (aka Hwy 19), site of the regional airport and the starting point for the BC Ferries Inside Passage route to Prince Rupert, an epic ocean journey along the Discovery Coast Passage to the mid and north coast and the Queen Charlotte Islands.
Black bears are a common sight along the highway as they feast on the sweet grass in the summer months. We are happy to report we saw a huge one. I grabbed the camera as we pulled over to get pictures, I was not fast enough, he was gone in a flash. We also saw four black-tailed deer, one crossing the road. One was on the side of the long three-mile dirt road we have to drive back to the RV Park. He was very friendly, he watched us as I took pictures and barely moved. Someone might have been feeding him before. He reminded us of the tame ones in Colorado at Mountaindale RV Park.
It started to rain on our drive there, this is the first rain we have had since moving to the Campbell River area. My pictures are cloudy because of the rain, I am adding the best ones. The flowers in the area were outstanding. It was a fun town for a visit, it would have been much more fun in the sun. :-) We have now driven to the most southern area in Victoria to the most northern in Port Hardy. We only have about a week left, hoping for good weather to visit a few more islands on our to-do list. Check back later for more adventures from Vancouver Island.