Campbell River

June 30 ~ July 2

The northern coast of Vancouver Island is mostly about big deal fishing.  We weren't planning on doing that, but wanted to see some parts off the normal path.  Campbell River is its gateway. We're staying at Salmon Point Marina Resort (salmonpoint.com). And it’s Canada Day weekend – equivalent to our July 4th – and the place is packed with families and dogs…..that’s the bad news….the good news is we got a front row ocean view spot. There’s also a pretty good restaurant on site. Had to have salmon in the Salmon Capitol of the World.

This weekend is “Transformation on the Shore” (Campbell River Shoreline Arts) which turned out to be the highlight of our visit to Campbell River. It is a cedar log carving competition that is in its 14th year. We visited every day, sometimes twice a day, to see the progress. It was fascinating and truly a demonstration of an artistic craft rarely seen.. They start with a log about six feet high and maybe two feet across. Then they start hacking away…..chain saws, axes, chisels and saws fill the park with a deafening noise. There are categories ranging from professional to novice and at the end of the four-day competition $12,000 in prize money will be awarded. Can’t believe how much we get into this. Unfortunately we are leaving Campbell River before the end, but we followed them most of the way through the process. Here's some of our favorites in the making.

The Campbell River Museum (crmuseum.ca) is a wonderful surprise. It features truly fabulous exhibits on the history of the area from the First Nations aboriginal tribes through its role in the 18th century logging and fishing industries. We’re thrilled to find a museum of this caliber in this small little town.



Canada Day in Campbell River is full of activities. The resort kicks the day off with a pancake breakfast in the clubhouse that Rick has to drag me to, but it turned out great. Two pancakes, two eggs, sausages, juice and coffee is $5…I get half of that for half the price.



The parade in town is of the neighborhood variety…cute with every club, scout troop, team and civil servant strutting their stuff. The antique fire engine didn’t work out too well though.

The fireworks do not start until 10:22! It is 5p.m. with really nothing left to do and it’s a half hour back to Tor then back to town again later. We sadly decide, though fireworks are near the top of all time favs, we will forgo them….we are asleep long before they start.

Three full days is a long time in Campbell River. Fortunately found a terrific inn, Painter’s Lodge (painterslodge.com), which is primarily for fishing, hoping Rick would go out on a trip….didn’t work out, but we had a nice lunch on a beautiful day.

And, of course, back again for one last look at the carvings. Really want to know who wins…later we found this list of the winners. Click the link by the names of each contestant to see the transformation from log to finished art.

We've been caught in a buffalo jam, a donkey jam and a mule deer jam, but I would sincerely like to know who has ever been caught in a naked alpaca jam!?! 



The weirdest thing about this little jaunt up the coast to the Salmon Capitol of the World, is we can’t find a decent fish market! The hinterlands have been interesting, but can’t wait to get to a little civilization in Victoria tomorrow.