Thursday, June 20, 2013 (Monkman RV Park, Tumbler Ridge, BC)

We were in the middle of our exercises this morning when our cell phone rang.  It was Lorne, the jet boat operator confirming our ride to Kinuseo Falls today.  It took us by surprise because we were supposed to call him at 10:00 and it was only 8:50.  We made arrangements to meet at 11:00...guess we had better get our butts in gear, we still hadn't had breakfast or showered.

We headed out at about 10:15, but before going to the meeting area, we had to stop at a bank in town. This monument was beside the parking lot...

We were to meet Lorne a mile past the Lions Campground, cross the bridge and turnoff to the right...there would be lots of room to park our truck.  We arrived just before 10:45 to find Lorne all ready and set to go...

This is "Captain" Lorne...78 years young!

And we're off....it's an hour and a half boat ride to the falls...

 

We passed this old cabin...

A little windy back here...

Interesting Cliffside...

In for a bit of a rough ride here...

We went under a couple of bridges...

And the Falls...

Kinuseo Falls is taller than Niagara Falls at 60 metres (197 feet), and is at the northern end of Monkman Provincial Park, 63 kms (39 miles) south of Tumbler Ridge...

Lorne pulled the boat over to the riverside and Steve jumped out and tied us up.  There was a trail that went around to a point...unfortunately, the river is too high to go all the way but we still managed to get some good pictures....

Then it was back to the boat...

Our next stop was for lunch at a cabin that Lorne and some friends built years ago...

Time to go...the mosquitoes were getting pretty bad...

The scenery is really quite spectacular...especially when the sun came out...

Steve caught a glimpse of this coyote swimming across the river...

This is an old mining area...

An Osprey Nest...

A cable car crossing...

And we are almost back...

We were back on land at 2:15 after a great trip.  We signed Lorne's guest book, paid him and thanked him so much for a wonderful day.  Lorne usually charges $125/person and only goes once the boat has four passengers.  Since it was early in the season, he agreed to take just the two of us out for $150/person for the 3 1/2 hour trip.  The only other jet boat tour company charges $200/person no matter how many passengers they have.

We still have time to go to the Dinosaur Discover Gallery!

Opened in 2007, the Gallery is located within the Peace Region Palaeontology Research Centre and is the only facility of its kind in BC.  Informative presentations tell the story of the dinosaur discoveries. On display are a number of authentic Tumbler Ridge dinosaur footprints and full-scale paleontological exhibits.

These are fish...

It was going on 4:00 by the time we got home.  Steve wanted to go fill the propane tanks so while he did that I gathered laundry and put on two loads.

I should mention also, that our "mouse problem" seems to be rectified....we have not seen or heard them for the past couple of days....looks like the Fresh Cab and steel wool did the job!

We plan on leaving tomorrow...we wish that we had been able to go explore the trails on our ATV's but we basically lost two days because of rain...plus we were a couple of weeks late starting this trip so we were anxious to get going and continue our travels.