The Enchanted Forest

On our drive back to Vancouver, we stumbled across one of the most amazingly green parks ever!

I'd never seen so much of my favorite things... ferns, moss, and pine trees, all in one place!

Literally everything was covered in moss, and the air was the freshest I'd ever smelled!

It was amazing how the altitude made such a difference in temperature and snow cover.  It was probably 55*F this day here.

This tree was awesome!  It was covered in beautiful lime-green moss, head to toe!  It looked so soft!

Even the water had a green tint to it.  It was so clear!

This babbling brook came from a much larger water source, we would soon come to find out.

The trees here are incredible.  The ground is so rocky, so there are shallow roots everywhere.  

And not to mention, this is the part of the country that definitely grows the biggest trees I've ever seen.  Look at the size of that trunk compared to Robb!  It must've been huge in it's day.

This was incredibly interesting to me.  One giant tree had died, and from it's trunk, grew two new trees.  It looked like one giant trunk, and then separated the higher you got.

Side view of the same tree.

I think these were baby cedar trees.  Since we don't have them around here, I'm not too familiar, but since they were GIANT pine trees with soft needles, it was a pretty good guess.

Giant cedars lined our path.

I seriously loved being in this forest, and could've stayed for days!

So, this is what we stumbled upon!  The whole point of this park!  This was the biggest waterfall I'd ever seen.  It literally was the entire face of this mountain.  

This is Shannon Falls, third highest waterfall in all of BC.

The falls are 1,099 feet high.

I found this fun fact:  This park holds significant spiritual value to the Squamish First Nation, the first people to live in this area. They told of a two headed sea serpent, Say-noth-ka who lived in and around Howe Sound. According to legend this beast travelled both on land and in water. Some versions say it was Say-noth-ka who formed Shannon Falls by slithering and twisting his powerful body up the mountainside on repeated expeditions, Say-noth-ka gradually wore down a spillway for those cascading waters.

This is one of my favorite photos of the whole trip. (Click to enlarge) I love how the trees look like they're all leaning in to each other.  Doesn't it look like a good place for fairies or gnomes to live?

It was strange to come from a place covered in snow to see beautiful pink flowers showing signs of spring!

As we drove away from the park we caught one last glimpse across the bay of the snowy world we had come from.