British Columbia Magazine

Taves Family Farms in Abbotsford opens its autumn season with two runs. The Magic of Sunflowers goes Aug. 20 to Sept. 6, with pathways of sunflowers and zinnias, a hidden gnome home, and vintage props for photos. The Magic of Fall follows Sept. 12 through Oct. 31.

Sunflower season adds butterfly releases Aug. 21 to 23, golden-hour after-hours access on Aug. 22, 23, 29 and 30, and Sip 'n Stroll evenings paired with Taves Estate Cidery on Aug. 21 and 28 for guests 19 and older.

The Magic of Fall spans more than 30 acres and returns the Most Magical Pumpkin Garden in Canada, alongside a new foliage-draped Autumn's Lane, three corn mazes, a new 150-foot slide, u-pick orchards, and resident alpacas, goats and a miniature horse.

The farm sits on 50 acres of apples, pears, plums, pumpkins and other crops, and marks 36 years since the Taves family first opened it to visitors.

https://www.bcmag.ca/step-into-a-storybook-at-taves-family-farms-this-fall/

Vancouver Island is home to an estimated 7,000 to 12,000 black bears, and the mainland inlets across from Campbell River and Vancouver Island North are prime grizzly territory, with Bute Inlet and Knight Inlet drawing tours specifically for that reason. Tofino offers shoreline black bear viewing, best in spring when bears emerge from hibernation and forage at low tide for crabs and shellfish.

Campbell River and Vancouver Island North run boat trips into the inlets, with fall being peak grizzly season as salmon runs pull bears in from the coast, pink salmon peaking in September and coho and chinook running through October and November. All tours worth booking go through Commercial Bear Viewing Association certified operators, which include a conservation fee that supports bear protection.

Full guide here: https://www.bcmag.ca/your-guide-to-bear-viewing-on-vancouver-island/

A short walk to a waterfall can turn into an overnight wait if conditions shift. Rain can wash out a trail, a minor injury can stall a hike for hours, and much of BC's backcountry has no cell coverage at all. AdventureSmart recommends carrying 10 essentials on every hike, regardless of length: navigation tools, a headlamp, fire-making supplies, a signalling whistle, extra food and water, extra clothing layers, a first aid kit, an emergency shelter, a multi-tool, and sun protection.

One thing worth knowing before you go: a phone's GPS still works without cell service, since it pulls directly from satellites, but offline maps need to be downloaded in advance or the app may have nothing to display once you lose signal. Before heading out, always tell someone your route and expected return time. Full guide at the link in bio. What's always in your pack?

https://www.bcmag.ca/hiking-must-haves/

Big Lonely Doug stands 230 feet tall with a 39-foot circumference in a clear-cut on Vancouver Island, making it the second-largest Douglas Fir in Canada and estimated to be over 1,000 years old. The old-growth forest that once surrounded it is gone.

This tree is what remains. Vancouver Island still holds some of BC's last patches of ancient forest, small and isolated, cut off from the biodiversity that made the original ecosystem function.

The Douglas Fir is one of the longest-lived tree species in BC, with some individuals exceeding 1,500 years. Anyone who spends time in BC's backcountry has seen what the land looks like before and after.

Photo and context courtesy of Liron Gertsman Photography, who had exactly five minutes of clear skies to capture this shot before the clouds rolled in.

Have you visited Big Lonely Doug or any of Vancouver Island's remaining old-growth stands?

Black-tailed deer are one of the most commonly encountered large mammals along BC's coast, found from Vancouver Island through the Lower Mainland and up the length of the coastal mainland.

They are a subspecies of mule deer, distinguished by a shorter, darker tail with a black tip running its full length rather than just the underside. Unlike many other deer species, black-tails thrive in dense, wet coastal rainforest and are often spotted browsing on salal, huckleberry, and young conifer growth in recently logged or regenerating forest.

They tend to be smaller and more solitary than their interior mule deer relatives, adapted to the thick cover and steep terrain of BC's coastal ecosystems.

📷 Vanessa Schmidt ( via instagram)

Kalamalka Lake near Vernon can shift from deep blue-green to vivid turquoise within the same season, and sometimes within the same visit. The lake sits above limestone deposits left behind after the retreat of the Fraser Glacier, and as the water warms, tiny calcium carbonate crystals form and float near the surface, reflecting sunlight and producing the colour change.

As summer progresses, the crystals eventually sink and the effect fades. It is one of the few lakes in the world that changes colour this way, and one of BC's most visually striking. Full story at the link in bio. Have you seen Kalamalka in different colours?

https://www.bcmag.ca/lakes-of-many-colours/

The Golden Jewel Beetle is native to the Pacific Northwest, found as far north as southern BC, and it is one of the more visually striking insects you can encounter in the province. Adults are large, nearly an inch long, with an iridescent metallic green body and copper or green undersides. Larvae feed primarily on Douglas Fir and other conifers, but only after the tree has died, making the species part of the ecological process that breaks down dead wood in BC's forests.

What makes this beetle particularly remarkable is its larval development timeline. A Golden Jewel Beetle emerged from a staircase in Essex, UK, after spending at least 47 years as a larva inside the wood, and BC records suggest the species can take at least 70 years to emerge in some cases.

📷 (via instagram).