YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE MIGHTY TO BE ROMANTIC—SKUTZ FALLS

I had never been to Skutz Falls before, but there are a few scenes in West Coast Romance Book 3 that take place there, so I figured I better get my boots on the ground and check these falls out.

I enlisted the help of my friend, who lives in the Cowichan Valley, loaded my kids in the car, and headed up island on a waterfall hunting adventure. If you don’t already, waterfalls (and hot springs) are one of my favourite things.

Sometimes, when there is a location I would like to use in a book, but I can’t go and see it, or I haven’t been there in a long time, I will cruise Google to get the lay of the land. But Skutz Falls is only about an hour-and-a-half drive, so I knew I needed to go and see them for myself.

So, yes, the first time I viewed Skutz Falls, I was standing at the base watching the water come roaring over the top… and it wasn’t what I was expecting.

I have spent quite a bit of time on the Cowichan River where Skutz Falls is located. I have ridden down it on a tube almost annually. I had seen the signs on the river warning about how much further it was to the falls. I also knew that people had died tubing over the falls.

So imagine my surprise when I actually saw them.

I think my friend might still be laughing at me.

Skutz Falls isn’t a giant, cascading waterfall. It’s more like a mini-waterfall. But even mini-waterfalls are amazing, and you can still feel the power of the water as it rushes by.

Besides, she might have led us a little astray on the hike—don’t tell her I told you; I think it might be a secret—so she can’t tease me too much.

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There are a couple of trails that you can take to get to Skutz Falls, but you don’t really have to hike to view them. There is a parking lot just a few hundred metres (or a few hundred yards, if you’re from south of the border 😉) from the falls.

But I wasn’t going to drive all the way up there to just scramble down from the parking lot, so we planned to do a loop hike. We parked at a lot just a little bit away from the falls and consulted the map that had been very generously placed there by park staff—Skutz Falls is located in Cowichan Valley Provincial Park.

And that’s where things went a little haywire. I, personally, blame whomever it was that placed the sign. Who orients a sign with a map on it, so that it’s facing south?

Well, let’s just say that we went east when we should’ve gone west.

It wasn’t really the end of the world, because the trail loops across a trestle bridge and joins up with the Cowichan Valley Trail on the other side of the river. It makes a nice loop. The problem was that I had told my kids that we were going for a short hike and then a swim in the river.

Which is what would’ve happened, if we’d gone west. But we didn’t…

We ended up going for a long, hot hike, and then a delicious swim in the river next to a baby waterfall.

You should’ve seen their faces when they saw the waterfall 🤣.

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The Skutz/66 Mile Loop Trail is a beautiful hike, but it isn’t for the feint of heart. It has some pretty steep sections, and there are a few places where the river has undercut the banks, making for some unstable ground along the edges.

You are good as long as you stay on the trail. Parks staff have done an excellent job of parking the dodgy places.

We hiked through expanses of forest that were so thick with ferns that the fronds looked like they were shag carpet—only a very pretty and vibrant carpet—not like the shag carpet I remember from my childhood <<shudder>>.

The trail was lined with berry bushes, especially red huckleberry, so the first part of our hike was rather slow, because one of my twins was too busy picking berries to get anywhere fast.

At one point I had to point out that we were actually hiking slower than we did at Cape Scott with our heavy backpacks on, and if we didn’t pick up the pace a little, then we would make it to the waterfall (which I still believed, along with my kids, was a giant thundering waterfall) sometime after dark.

We didn’t actually tell the kids that we had taken the longer loop. What they don’t know… right?

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By the time we actually arrived at the falls, I was sweaty and ready for a swim.

Even though the waterfall is small, the area below the falls is very narrow, so you can still feel the power of the rushing water. It’s almost like the waterfall is horizontal. If that makes any sense at all.

Unfortunately, the area directly next to the falls isn’t exactly picturesque—there is a man made fish ladder that has seen better days. But you only need to look downriver or upriver, ignoring what’s behind you, to take in the beauty that is the Cowichan River.

We chose to move down below the falls to swim. Once you get a little down river, it widens, deepens, and slows down, and there is a nice area to swim. There is just enough current to have a little fun without having to worry about any nine-year-olds getting swept downriver.

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As I hinted at the beginning, this entire adventure was research driven. I knew that Skutz Falls would play a significant role in the meeting of heroine and hero in West Coast Romance Book 3.

And after having been to the falls, I think the scenes are going to be even more amazing, because the only thing better than a sassy woman being forced to hang out in nature, when she would rather be anywhere else, is to have the promised waterfall be more like a bump in the river.

Alright, it’s time to get back to editing, otherwise the love between Claire and Spencer will never get a chance to get out of my head and into your life 😉.

Happy reading and happy wandering,

This adventure took place on 13 August 2020