Nairn Falls Provincial Park, British Columbia - May 29th to 30th, 2022
The best part about bad weather is that it makes you appreciate the good weather days all that much more. After spending a rainy and cloudy day in Whistler, the weather cleared up while we were staying at Nairn Falls.
Sunday was a short driving day. We were just moving from Stawamus Chief Provincial Park to Nairn Falls Provincial Park. After spending most of the day in Whistler on the way (Whistler, British Columbia - May 29th, 2022), Nairn Falls was about another half an hour drive from Whistler. During the drive, Keith still felt the need to point out each Tesla car that we passed. Since we’ve crossed the border into Canada, it seemed to us that there are more Teslas, especially white ones. So Keith keeps pointing them out along with noting their color. Ann is still not quite sure why.
When we arrived at Nairn Falls, we needed to fill up our fresh water cans. There was a fresh water station, with a hand pump. Ann hasn’t seen one of those since she was a kid in Toledo, Ohio. There was a park she went to often that had a water drinking fountain on a hand pump. It was a lesson in team work, because it took two people to get a drink, one person pumping while the other drank. We would try to pump a drink by ourselves, but when you tried to run around to the fountain after getting it flowing with the pump, the stream would fade before you could get a slurp in.
At Nairn Falls, the water pump was a bit of a workout to fill up two six gallon jerry cans. The stream of water pulses as you pump, so only about half the water makes it into the can. Just like from our childhood, it was a lesson in teamwork. We took turns pumping so as not to wear ourselves out.
After a stroll around the campground, we were ready to call it a day.
Monday was a day of easy hiking, at least compared to the Sea to Summit Trail we did two days prior (Squamish, British Columbia - May 27th to 28th, 2022). We did two different trails. The first one was to Nairn Falls and the second one was to One Mile Lake. For both hikes, we left right from our camp site. The two trails were in opposite directions from our campsite, so we were able to stop back at our Red Tail Lodge (our van) and fix ourselves a nice lunch in between the two hikes.
Since we had seen two bears in Whistler the day before and there was a sign posted in the campground that a bear was sighted in the area the week before, we both carried our own cans of bear spray (paid link) on our hikes. We attached them to our belts so they were easy and quick to access in case we needed them. We probably should have carried them on our Sea to Summit hike, but we talked ourselves out of it, since there seemed to be a lot of other people on the trails. We noticed some others carrying bear spray, but it seemed like more people were wearing bells, either on themselves or on their dogs, which jingled as they went down the trail. The park operator claimed that there were only black bears in the area. There are no grizzly bears near the park.
Noticed we said “park operator”. In the states, we would normally call the park staff “rangers”, but they seem to call them “operators” here. To us, “park operator” sounds more like someone who owns and operates a private campground. But that is not the case that we’ve seen so far in the Canadian provincial parks.
The trail to Nairn Falls follows alongside the Green River. The falls themselves are pretty impressive. In our minds, they are more impressive than Brandywine Falls that we visited the day before (Whistler, British Columbia - May 29th, 2022). Nairn Falls are also more interesting than Shannon Falls that we visited a few days ago (Squamish, British Columbia - May 27th to 28th, 2022). Nairn Falls are a series of falls that wind around a narrow, rocky canyon, with the water flowing underneath a small land bridge along the way. You can see the water gushing up from below the rock.
From our campsite, the Nairn Falls trail was 2.5 miles with an elevation gain of 459 feet that we completed in an hour and 20 minutes.
After lunch, we started up the trail to One Mile Lake. The trailhead was right next to our campsite. The trail soon joined the Sea to Sky Trail, not to be confused with the Sea to Summit Trail we did earlier in the week. The Sea to Sky Trail starts in Squamish and runs north for 180 km (112 miles) to D’Arcy.
The One Mile Trail is through the woods, but follows pretty close to the highway, so there is some traffic noise. Luckily, it is not a very busy highway. As we approached One Mile Lake, there was a nine hole disc golf course right alongside the trail. We do not play disc golf, but it was not hard for us to tell that this must be a difficult course to play, due to all the trees. We wonder if anyone has developed the skill to ricochet the disc off the trees into the basket. We’re sure people have tried, both intentionally and unintentionally!
By the time we reached the lake, the sun had come out in full force and the air temperature was in the high 60’s F (close to 20 C). For a change, it was a gorgeous day. There is a one mile trail that encircles the lake, with most of it on a boardwalk. We’re glad we decided to go around the lake. There were snow-capped mountain peaks in several different directions and you cannot see all of them from one side of the lake. The lake itself was very peaceful, with lilly pads that were starting to bloom. A long boat was out on the water that resembled a dragon boat, being propelled by a group of kids who were getting a paddling lesson, complete with a drummer to keep the beat for the paddlers.
By the time we returned to our campsite, we had gone 4.7 miles with an elevation gain of 522 feet in two hours and 25 minutes. We combined the two hikes together to count as hike number 16 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2022. So our combined totals for the day were 7.2 miles, and elevation gain of 981 feet in a total time of three hours and 45 minutes.
Since it was such a beautiful day, we spent the rest of it sitting in our camp chairs, soaking in the sun and breathing in the fresh air. Now this is the life!
The weather is a lot like life. Just as the bad weather days make us more thankful for the good weather days, the low points in life help us appreciate the high points all the more and hold them precious.
Check out our related video: Nairn Falls Provincial Park, British Columbia
(Ann)