Giant trunks
Soaring straight.
Giorgio Galeotti — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Giorgio Galeotti — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Canmenwalker — CC BY 4.0 · GoToVan from Vancouver, Canada — CC BY 2.0 · Sang Trinh from Ottawa, Canada — CC BY 2.0
Cathedral Grove is a stand of giant, ancient Douglas firs on Vancouver Island. Huge straight trunks soar until they blot out the sky, above ferns, moss and fallen logs, with light filtering through the branches as if in a church. It lies in the 301-hectare MacMillan Provincial Park, 157 hectares of which is old-growth forest. Some of its trees are more than 800 years old and up to 9 m round. It is the only highway-accessible protected old-growth Douglas-fir forest in British Columbia, and in 2007 it made the shortlist for the Seven Wonders of Canada. You follow short trails and boardwalks among the trees on both sides of the road and stand beside the biggest trunks to take in their size. Part of the park looks onto Cameron Lake. It is about 12 km in a straight line east of Port Alberni. Take care crossing the highway between the two parts of the grove.
Soaring straight.
Among the trees.
Nearby.
MacMillan Provincial Park, Highway 4, Vancouver Island, British Columbia
Yes.
Yes, on Highway 4.