Salt Spring Island

 

 The main village on the island is Ganges. As you could well imagine there are numerous art studios and lovely restaurants Had a delicious lunch in a shore side cafe overlooking the marina and the ocean beyond. 

                             Quaint old stone church along the country road.

    This park is for tenters only, with most of the sites situated along the waters edge. There are 78 sites for walk-in camping and 8 where you can drive to your site. The park is over 1300 beautiful acres of rolling grassy meadows, woodlands and 7 km of amazingly beautiful shoreline. From the shore one can view the occasional passing Orca whale, seals, sea lions and numerous birds singing in the trees. 


   As you will read on the sign, (double click to enlarge), that the Ruckles came to Salt Spring Island in the early 1800s, slowly cleared the land and started their farm. A small section of the land is still farmed, but most was donated to create the Provincial Park.

       

                                  Beautiful scenic tent sites

                            Many miles of Tranquil shoreline


Our time is going by quickly now that we are approaching our departure date of April 29. We have seen so much of Vancouver Island, but there is more we want to see before we leave, it is all so beautiful. So todays trip, was with friends we have meet here in the park who are from St Thomas, about an hour from our Cambridge home. On a beautiful sunny morning they picked us up at our trailer and we enjoyed the drive south about an hour to Crofton where we caught the ferry to Salt Spring island. For years we have heard about this pretty island as a home for the Hippy generation in the sixties, as well as US draft dodgers during the Vietnam war. In fact, most of the arrivals to this tranquil island in the sixties were and still are today, artisans; paint, pottery, glass etc. There are dozens of art studios throughout the island as there were on Gabriola Island .


As far back as 5,000 years it was home to the industrious first Nations people, who lived all along the west coast of Canada. There are about 10,000 people living on the island today. 


It was a wonderful day trip and one more thing crossed off the bucket list.