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Carmanah Walbran
Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park is the hike that's worth every second of the bumpy, windy, pothole filled road that it takes to get to it. Minutes from the parking lot on the first stretch of trail you are greeted by large trees, creeks and moss covered forest floor with a boardwalk fit for a hiker, and by that I mean it's quite old and not much easier than walking the forest beside it. Shortly into the hike there will be a junction, right, leading to one of the largest trees I've ever seen named "Heaven Tree", or left, to the Three Sisters and Paradise Pool. Continuing right along the trail will take you through broken boardwalks, uprooted trees and past many large trees. These trees don't even compare to the size of the Heaven Tree which I could probably fit 10 of myself or more reaching around. If you take the left trail, the Three Sisters, which are three massive trees with the same base, are only about 3 kilometers up. Along the way there are many more large trees, boardwalks and stunning forest sights. Past the three sisters is the end of the maintained trail, and the rest of the 3-4km route out to Paradise Pool. This trail can be a bit confusing but it is marked with some intermittent flags along the way out there, but once you reach paradise pool there is a sign that lets you know. Although paradise pool is a stunning little spot, the water is very cold all times of the year but it is a nice deep pool, fit for swimming. In total if you are going to be going all the way from Heaven Tree to Paradise pool following the trail, you're looking at about 16km of hiking. Carmanah is located along Rosander Main after the road out to Nitinat Lake, a well marked road.