Capturing the Art of Nature
Elaho and Squamish Valleys
The Elaho / Squamish area is full of amazing adventures and I am always excited to return to the area. Today we checked out a section at the start of the Elaho we had skipped past previously.
Category
Serendipitous Discoveries
2012
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I really enjoy driving up the Elaho and seeing the beauty of this area surrounded by high mountain ranges and glacier capped peaks. I have seen very little of the area due to the time it takes to arrive on scene, but when I do get here I am never disappointed. This winter we drove the Squamish mainline twice in the deep snow hoping to reach the start of the Elaho but both times fell short of our goal. Today the snows are gone on the lower levels and the road was busy with recreational users so we were able to finally get to the Elaho River and enjoy the breath-taking gorge and amazing ice-capped peaks.
After fighting with some construction delays on the highway we finally arrived at the start of the mainline and our planned adventure. We soon noticed that the early section of road was recently graded and the horrible pot-holes cleared up – that sure made for a more pleasant start to the drive, the last time this area was not at all a fun bit of road. Driving on the road did get rougher as we journeyed deeper.
We eventually came to a heavily wooded area with a small pond off to the east side of the road. We stopped to gather a few reflection shots of the new growth with its fascinating greens that spring brings out in the rush to return life back to the forest. I was still playing with my polarizer and experimented with the look of the shot through it. I am still not certain I like the results of using it but I am forcing myself to use it the next few trips to see if I can get more out of the scenery with it. Some shots are vastly improved others not at all, but the overall feel of the photos is different and I still have to decide if I like it.
Shortly after the pond we came by a stand of moss covered trees that called out in a loud way to Geoff, so we parked and got down into a small stream bed to gather a few photos of the trees with their moss chocked branches. We were now fighting the odd drop of rain, so I didn’t want to spend much time out here away from the safety of the truck – such a wuss. Done with the trees we made for the truck and continued on up the road. Soon we reached the turn-back spot of our previous trips and kept on going – no snow to hinder our ambitions today. We came by a few other vehicles where the occupants were out fishing or hunting in the surrounding bush. We also came by one side branch along the river that we drove that gave access to a number of great camping spots, but we were not staying the night so on we drove.
Finally we reached the bridge over the Squamish that provides the access to the Elaho valley. Over it we zipped and saw a few more groups camping along the river. We made our way directly to the viewpoint of the Elaho gorge where we stopped so I could gather a few more photos of the gorge. I never get enough of this view, today I found a trail leading to a small ledge where one had an even better view of the river far below. Reluctantly we left the gorge view and set off up the Elaho for the first bridge and our intended section for driving. The road seemed quite clear of debris and we thought it must have some activity of some sort occurring on it.
Not much beyond the bridge the road forks, we chose the right branch first and continued west along the south side of the Elaho. This road slowly gained elevation as it hugged the north slope of ice-cap peak. We came by one small waterfall, Geoff stopped just past it and in backing up got perilously close to the edge of the road, I yelled out to stop so he could get out and check his position to see how he should drive to get safely back onto the road. It wasn’t too serious a challenge yet but it could have been with a moment more of backing-up! We decided it wasn’t a good spot to photograph due to obscuring brush so we continued up the road.
Only a few dozen meters further we came by the main stream of the small creek and here we had an amazing waterfall. There was a fair amount of brush blocking a good view of the falls here as well, but we felt it would be worth the effort to clear some of it. So while I hacked at some of the closer branches, Geoff got out the chainsaw and made for the larger clumps along the edges of the drop. After 45 minutes we had most of the weed-trees removed and I was able to gather a good number of photos. Geoff found one more clump half way up the drop that he wanted to clear so he set off to deal with those trees while I waited for him to be done. That last bit of effort cleaned up the scene even more. Done with the site we packed up and started to leave when Geoff noticed that his clip of 22mm bullets had gone missing! After searching the area around the foot of the falls we gave up and continued up the road.
We soon switched back on the slope and were about to re-cross the same creek but here we ran into the first snow of the day and it stopped us dead after only a few meters and with it being lunch time we decided to eat. So out came our cooking equipment and Geoff made a small campfire. Once done with eating Geoff set-up a couple of our juice bottles as targets and we took a few shots for target practice. I actually hit the bottle far more often than I had expected! As we returned to the waterfall Geoff had to try and find that clip once more. This time he climbed up to the spot half way up where he was clearing and there he found the clip fallen down in a small pool of water! He was quite happy and we left the area in good spirits.
We were now back to the first fork and we started down the left side. This fork traveled along the valley in the eastern direction and soon was showing signs of less use. We had rocks to squirm between and trees to cut and drag out of the way it was slow going in spots but we did come by a bridge over a deep narrow gorge with an amazing view of the small creek below. There were a couple of trees growing out of the rock face that caught my eye which in their spring colours offered a lovely photograph. Continuing along we soon came by a particularly difficult area with both downed trees and scattered boulders. We almost called it quits at this point but the road bewond looked good and so we decided to see if we could clear a path through the mess. We did and soon had open road for some distance.
We came by another fork, this led over an old bridge which had its surface layer rotting away. I didn’t like the look of it so we skipped it and continued up the road. This lead to the higher slopes and soon we were climbing up steep road looking out at some amazingly large cedars and original growth trees. They were quite a sight to see and the forest around them quite different from the normal regrowth areas we see. The road soon split into a number of short sections which we drove. The main road was blocked by a mud-slide not much below the snow line so that kept us from reaching the end of the road. We returned back down past the big trees and there we stopped to climb up a ridge along the side of the road. This exposed a deep cut into the side of the mountain where a huge avalanche had cleared the forest a few years ago. The devastation was still easy to see and the gouge in the flank of the mountain quite amazing. The top of the crevasse was hidden in the clouds far above and on looking at the map, it touched on the glacier near the peak of Ice-cap Peak.
Done marveling at the immensity of nature, we returned to the truck and soon found ourselves back at that rotting bridge. Well it was just too much fro Geoff to ignore and after walking it and looking it over in more detail, he felt the basic structure was sound and so we drove over it into a heavily reforested section. We came by a sign describing the zone as a research area and to leave the trees alone! They we planted in two modes – one randomly and the other in straight lines, the latter seemed quite funny to look at. We were able to drive in to near where that base of the avalanche had dumped its debris before being stopped by trees across the road. So it was now getting quite late in the day and we decided it was time to head out and home before we were even more exhausted.
Driving back past the Elaho gorge we saw a large group of people out admiring the view – it does seem to be a popular place to view the wonders of nature. Near the confluence of the Elaho and Squamish the ground is quite level and filled with swamps and ponds. Here we stopped by one next to the road to gather a few more reflection photos before heading out. Unfortunately, shortly after taking the first couple of photos the rain came and gone were our reflections on the pond! So, back to the truck and we soon were out of the backcountry! All too quickly I my opinion.