Sechelt and the Sunshine Coast

Getting there - BC Ferries from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale

The Sunshine Coast is a short 40 minute ferry ride from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale with BC Ferries. For walk-on, the fare is quite reasonable.

If you have a bit of a wait before the ferry leaves, Horseshoe Bay village has a great waterfront for a brief stroll (you can leave the terminal area and get back in, with a ticket - or walk back to the car), and if you have time for lunch, stop at the highly recommended fish & chips restaurant "Trolls", and try their oyster burger. From the front windows, you have a view of the bay.

The sail to Langdale is like a mini-cruise with amazing views of the coastal mountains, frequently still snow topped well into the Spring. The ferry navigates around Bowen, Anvil and Gambier islands and you may see porpoises or dolphins playing in the wake, and if you're lucky - orcas. Once you disembark in Langdale, there's a bus that leaves right from the ferry terminal and takes you to the main shopping mall in Sechelt.

Langdale (ferry terminal) is right next to the town of Gibsons, which has fun shopping with many small artist shops along the main street.

Keep an eye out for the original ways people have 'sign-posted' their often hidden houses at the start of a long drive way along the winding road to Sechelt - with pieces of art, toys, or just a random chair so you can take a rest while waiting for the bus.

I find that traveling to the Sunshine Coast is like traveling to another country in another time; I come back relaxed and feeling I've been away much longer than a day.

Source: Google Map Car

Sechelt waterfront - Snickett park

Snickett Park is an easy walking path along the Georgia Straight sea. You can reach the path from Sechelt city centre.

Also along this walk, you can see the ancient logs on display with an interpretative sign at the Watermark condominiums, where they were found during excavation in 2016.

"Tony Greenfield of the Sunshine Coast Natural History Society (SCNHS) thought the logs might have some significance, so the excavation company piled them on the side of the development and eventually the SCNHS took ownership of the logs, moved them into storage and had them radio carbon dated.

“Our experts tell us these logs are actually 5,500 years old,” Greenfield said, noting that it’s very difficult to identify the species of logs as they’ve been underground for thousands of years." [source: Coast Reporter]

According to Terry Barker, author of "a Walk in Snickett Park", the park was named by Annie Whitely, a Yorkshire woman who lived near there in the early 1900’s. “Snickett” is a Yorkshire term for ‘narrow path’. [Source: Sunshine Coast Canada] (though Merriam-Webster defines snicket with one 't' as "something very small or insignificant" and Collins Dictionary mentions that in Northern England dialect it means "a passageway between walls or fences")

Rockwood

Site of the annual Sunshine Coast Festival of written arts, the Rockwood Lodge is Sechelt’s only designated heritage building. It was build between 1935 and 1936 and acquired by The District of Sechelt in 1986 and used for a variety of community purposes.

The garden around the Rockwood lodge (open to the public) is not very large, but has beautiful trees and shrubs and many rhododendrons. And during Christmas, the garden is decorated with lights!

Sechelt Marsh - the most adorable duck pond - EVER!

The Sechelt Marsh is a small bird sanctuary and circular walking trail of about 1.6 hectares. More information here.

John Rodgers, an ornithologist from Sechelt, the Sechelt Garden Club, and R.D. Harris from the Canadian Wildlife Service, suggested to The Nature Trust of BC to purchase the property and keep it in its natural state. This fund agreed, purchased the property in 1975. A sub-lease for 20 more years was granted in 1999, beginning a new era of cooperative Marsh development and maintenance with the Parks and Recreation Department of the District of Sechelt.

For the Thirsty lot

Persephone Brewing is situated along the road between Gibsons and Sechelt, and Tapworks Brewing in Gibson itself has a great tasting room as well.

The liquor store in Sechelt mall has a great selection of craft brews, we even found the hard-to-get "Ultra Destroyer" from the Squamish brewery "Howe Sound"!