| Carmanah Giant (Sitka Spruce) Altitude: 60 m (197 ft) Location: 48:36:56-124:43:05 48.61555-124.71806 10U 373375 5386145 (24 km W of Port Renfrew). (7 km S of Carmanah Mountain). Ranges: Pacific Cordillera / Insular Mountains / Vancouver Island Ranges  Access: Can be accessed by hiking down Carmanah Creek on old trail from the Bonilla Mainline or Rosander Mainline. Description: The Carmanah Giant is a 400-year old Sitka spruce, is 9.4m around and 95m tall - the tallest tree in Canada and thought to be the tallest Sitka spruce in the world. The reason this particular tree has survived is probably because it is down in a deep ravine, and thus sheltered from the wind. The Carmanah valley is home to some of the largest known trees in Canada. There are also some western red cedars here are estimated at 1,000 years old. This temperate rainforest contains nearly 2 times the biomass of a tropical rainforest. History: The trail was built in 1988 by Randy Stoltmann and the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, in order to stop the destruction and logging of this area by Macmillan Bloedel. | ||
Trip Reports | Subject Photos | |
| 1988.06.30 Robin Tivy Visited Carmanah Giant Steve Grant and I bicycled over there with regular 10 speed bikes via Cowichan Lake, and hiked down into the Carmanah valley on the Western Canada Wilderness trail. While we were there, the western Canada Wilderness Committee had brought in all sorts of artists, photographers and wilderness lovers on a big bus. Everyone had hiked down the newly constructed trail to "Camp Heaven Junction". The next day Steve and I hiked down the trail on the east shore of Carmanah Creek to the giant tree itself. The trail was somewhat rough. There were several viewpoints overlooking the big canyon of Carmanah Creek, with hundreds of deer ferns shimmering in the light breezes on the specacular canyon walls. I've never seen anything quite like it. We then cycled on various logging roads and connected to the Gordon River Road to Port Renfrew. From Port Renfrew, we returned to the Schwartz bay ferry via Victoria. |
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