Stamp River Park is located north of Port Alberni. This was my first trip there and I was kind of disappointed about the scenery. It doesn’t have the same appeal and photographic potential like Little Qualicum Falls Park. Nevertheless, I tried to make the most of it by hiking the trail which runs alongside the river. Nothing like a nice quiet hike in the woods.
The campsites at Stamp River are not that numerous but there is hardly anyone here. Some sites back onto the river and are reserved but I found one surrounded by forest and about 10 feet away from the banks of the river so I concluded that this was the best campsite in the entire park. I found a short trail created by others which heads along the bank of the river just back from my site. It heads into the open forest and connects up with the road. Then it is just a matter of walking up the road and taking the trail which enters the forest. The short cut from the back of my site cuts off some distance of having to walk in the opposite direction to the campground entrance then walking back up the road.
I decided to explore the lower part of the trail first. I had stayed overnight and it was 6:30 am when I hiked down to the fish ladder. The river was swollen and carrying huge volumes of water. It funnels through a narrow canyon which seems to be the only photogenic part of the river.
But to get there, I had to go around the protective fence and scramble down to some rocks. There seems to be numerous fish swimming in the calmer parts of the river but unfortunately fishing is prohibited in the park.
The trail continues by contouring up high and then down to the river again. At a footbridge over a small creek, I photographed the swirls of the current before heading up a small hill and continuing to the end or start of the trail near a road.
I hiked back and took the trail which heads 7.5 km upstream. This is a forest hike which doesn’t allow much views of the river because of the brush along the shoreline. Just as well because the river is uninteresting; a wide body of water lined with trees and bush.
The forest hike was nice although it does get kind of monotonous. The forest is mostly open but does get enclosed in from shrubs and tall trees in places. Not the type of environment where you want to meet a bear. There are hundreds of ferns here; many are 3 to 4 feet in height. I was glad about the lack of wind which makes photographing the vegetation easier. The tall ferns are susceptible to a slight breeze. One thing I can say is that the forest is lush and typifies the environment of this province.
I could see that this forest had been logged at one time. There are tree stumps with notches in the trunks for springboards. Logging must have occurred before the area was given park status.
I walked over a footbridge and photographed the creek with a huge skunk cabbage (leaves) growing along the bank. Just across the footbridge, there are small wooden benches along the banks of the river; one of the few clear areas where one can sit and relax.
The trail continues with a few ups and downs as it moves away from the river then contours back down to the banks. I started to encounter some bear droppings on the trail but no signs of bears. I thought it was unusual that I hadn’t seen signs of bears up to this point.
I stopped hiking after walking for 3.5 hours. I hiked back and went down the embankment to sit under an overhang where a large tree root was exposed. A private place to sit quietly and eat my lunch.
The lack of biting insects made this event quite pleasant.
I felt tired when I arrived back to camp. There wasn’t much to do except wait for dinner time and maybe try to get an evening shot of the sunlight reflecting off the clouds. The only problem was that there wasn’t any good vantage point to take a photo of the clouds and river. I went back and forth along the river bank until I found a decent place where the bank had eroded and sparse vegetation lay along the river bank. The cloud was on fire but was drifting away so I had to get a shot off quickly. I think this was the best shot of the entire trip.
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