No driving today. Well a bit but it’s nice to be here for two nights. I was under the impression when we booked this site that it had access to a string of waterfalls, but in fact they are all further back down the terrible road. So we’ll see them on the way out. We were feeling hikey though, so after a vast pile of pancakes eaten in the picnic bench in the sunshine we drove to the trailhead and began walking along the edge of Clearwater Lake.

Gradually the trail rose, and then not so much gradually, as steeply and soon we were sweating our way through old growth forest with horsetails and plants with huge leaves  that suggested the presence of dinosaurs. That was interesting for a bit but then it was muggy and buggy and steep with no view and we were all a bit fed up of it to be honest. There was an open overlook down to the lake and a bit further up, a basalt outcrop which sort of suggested the Easter Island statues. Sort of…

 

We had lunch up there in fierce sunshine with the rocks throwing off heat, and then tramped back down. The redeeming feature of the hike though was that once back at the lake, there was swimming!

 

 P and T plunged in and swam a good way out while I paddled and pottered. It was a nice spot and cooled us all down before the final bit of the hike.

 

We had supper in a cafe cabin along from our site. The campsite owner’s son – a gregarious young guy – fried us some trout and very good it was too. He explained that because it’s a park they can’t use the fish from the lake, so it comes from another lake not far away where it’s frozen and sent here. I suppose that sort of makes sense… Tom wants to go back there for breakfast tomorrow. We shall see…