Kettle Valley Railway's Othello Tunnels

Outside Hope, BC there are five train tunnels (officially abandoned in 1961) that cross the Coquihalla River Gorge. Designer Andrew McCulloch was hired by Canadian Pacific Railway in the early 1900s to build the line that would connect the Kootenays with the coast. Not only a brilliant engineer, McCulloch had a real passion for Shakespeare and the stations along this Coquihalla section were named after characters from the bard's plays. Station names such as Juliet, Romeo, Lear and Othello could be found between Hope and Brodie.

Today there are no tracks running through the tunnels, just smooth easily accessible walkable paths. In a couple of the tunnels the walls and ceilings weep. The dripping echoes in the dark adding wonderfully to the atmosphere. The colour of the raging river below the bridges in places is a tropical turquoise as it froths and pounds against and around startling rock formations, in other places, it is deep green or black swirling pools.

The trail the length of the tunnels and bridges is flat and very easy to walk. There are also places along the path, for the slightly more nimble, that allow access down to the river itself. And along the wide flat path leading up to the tunnels are the occasional benches to sit and listen to the river or just sit and rest for a spell if you want to.

One last note: the park is a pet friendly area.

Heritage walking tour of New Westminster

Strolled around with some members of the Royal City Photography Club this evening through New Westminster's Queen's Park. Some beautiful old homes line the narrow streets. The oldest we came across was built in 1894.
It's hard to imagine something still standing after that long, let alone in live-in-able condition. And some of these old gals are absolutely beautiful. Pristine, immaculate lawns, gingerbread details all in shades of the period and beautiful lead glass windows. Some sample details....

21 freckles has a blog

Oh boy, another blog on the internet. Who's going to have time in their day to read it. Who's going to want to read about the stuff posted here? Maybe nobody, maybe the odd traveler looking for something new s/he hasn't read before. Probably nobody.

But for those who pass this way, here's some of what this blog will be about....

Most of the images posted here will be from and around the lower mainland.
Some might be nice, some might be shite and some might be experimental.
But images there shall be. Sometimes just one. Sometimes a collection.

So, keep checking back from time to time. There may be images here that will be worth taking a look at. Or not.
But it would be great to have visitors and to get feed-back on some of the photos - glowing praise and constructive criticism welcome. Flaming will be poo-poo'd and and make this blogger very sad. So Here's to 21 freckles being a blog worth adding to your daily, weekly, monthly visit. All welcome. (except those that make baby Jesus cry)