Part of 2024-2025 Island Trip
USA ISLANDS 1 - USA ISLANDS 2 - CANADA ISLANDS 1 - CANADA ISLANDS 2 - USA ATTRACTIONS 1 - USA ATTRACTIONS 2 - CANADA ATTRACTIONS 2

Since I had less distance to cover than my 2022 road trip, I stopped at a few attractions along the way! It’s sometimes surprising what you can discover in any given region. There are some industrious people out there.

Cortes Museum

Very small place on Cortes, essentially just one room and a little gift counter. Cortes is hard to reach as you need to take a ferry from Quadra Island so hey make sure you time it well and if you’re lucky you can buy a local craft soap! Where else are you going to get soap made on Cortes Island? Huh?

The museum is mostly about people moving onto the island in the 1960s and 1970s

Roughing it with their vintage kitchen and just being hippies

Guy on the ferry assured me the horses were gorgeous btw

Thought this antique ( still working ) till was pretty awesome

Maritime Heritage Center

Located in Campbell River, this place’s claim to face is the B.C.P. 45 fishing vessel they fully restored as it was on the old 5$ bill. I was born in 1985 and I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of those bills ever so that gives you an idea of how old this is…

It's a good sized museum that'll take you a couple hours

A volunteer will bring you onto the boat so you can check out the fully restored interior

Yep that's the boat. Literally never seen this bill in my life

Best part of the boat

Another interesting artifact: This sailboat built by a one-armed blind guy

He was featured in magazines as a result of this quite impressive feat.

Lots and lots of ship models of all kinds here as well

Entire collection of ships in bottles

There's 2 levels of boat-related stuff. Engines, anchors, instruments etc.

All about the shipping/fishing history of the region

Giant lobster claw believed to belong to a 50+ year old lobster. One day I'll eat you. One day

Various navy officer swords from different militaries, including a Japanese officer katana

Campbell River Museum

A decent stop with this one, featuring many large sections about the region’s fishing and logging activities as well as a SUPER SECRET native american artifact area where you aren’t allowed to take pictures because “reasons”. There were many intricate costumes and wooden masks of all sorts as well as a plethora of typical weaved baskets, nets, arrowheads, flutes etc.

Outside the museum sits this "Steam Donkey" logging raft

It's interesting the forgotten creative machines people used in the past

Section on logging. It was quite something to cut down trees as wide as a house

The "Hitler" chainsaw, because it was made in Germany before WW2

Nicely restored logging truck

People were built different back then. This guy's probably like 20 years old

Next is a section on colonial housing/hotels/markets. Similar to many museums

Hundreds of artifacts like these for you to see

If you catch a big enough fish with just a rod you get to be part of this club!

Section about salmon fishing. Is this interesting?

Did I pay money multiple times to see these same cans? Maybe

They were hosting the "Dinosaurs of BC" small exhibit that was in Victoria last year

Courtenay Museum and Archives

The best museum in the region since it’s centered around dinosaurs. As it turns out there’s very many fossil finds of sea lizards around Vancouver Island. If you’re lucky and know where to look you might find fossilized mosasaur teeth, shark teeth, amonites and various sea life. Of course I never find shit.

This plesiosaur skeleton was found in the area and is one of the most complete in the world

Mosasaur. There's dozens of species, some growing as long as a bus.

Kind of just chucked a bunch of skeletons in a corner

All kinds of skulls. What can I say, I love dinosaurs

If you put dinosaurs in a building, I will pay money to see them. I don't care.

Edmontosaur skull. Notice the rows of flat teeth for grinding plants

There's a big section with lots of ancient sea life fossils and shells

A lot of these specimens were found by locals and donated to the museum

Never seen this anywhere, have you?

There's a small native american section here where pictures aren't allowed. Some museums don't care.

The second level is dedicated to the colonial era. They have one of those cool tree slabs

It's always crazy to read these and some of these trees are still around if you know where to find them

Some of these products have barely changed in 100 years. Still not dinosaurs

Old wagon used around town

They even stuffed the stairwell with a bunch of rusted old tools. You're pushing it guys.

Alberni Project

In a nearby mall you can find this tiny museum dedicated to the HMCS Alberni, a local ship that was sunk by a german U-boat during WW2. There’s also sections dedicated to remembering the German sailors as well as their U-Boat was sank shortly after right before the war ended.

The name of all crewmembers on both vessels

Comox Air Museum

I’ve driven/biked by this one several times while doing Mt Washington. It stands out with its Voodoo aircraft on display out front. That plane was flown around the air base in the 1970s before being retired from service. It’s one of the smaller air museums in the region though.

Actual plane set up across the street from the museum

The building used to be one of the barracks before being converted into this museum

Starts with a section detailing the entire history of the Canadian Air Force

Lots of info about the Voodoo airplane which was widely used post-war

Lots and lots of information about all the people from the region who served during WW1 and WW2

This caught my eye. A nurse had her patients draw something in her notebook before they left her care

There's maybe 50 pages of these amazing sketches and notes made by the airmen

Many of these were pretty well drawn too

Some of these guys must have been actual newspaper cartoonists

Tons and tons of WW2 artifacts and memorabilia

Looks pretty illegal

Another interesting thing: A Japanese balloon bomb.

They launched them from Japan and some floated all the way to the west coast

There's a few big pieces of hardware like engines, guns and bombs

And whatever this is

Comox Archives

Very small place, just one room. You can be done in under and hour easily. It’s conveniently located in downtown Comox, near the ocean. Actually looks like quite a nice little town to live in.

The familiar pile of old random stuff

Someone made this fun custom Monopoly board

Menu from the old comox hotel. Try and guess the year

Now this thing is cool. It's an old catalogue where people in the region could pool a huge order of stuff

It has thousands of pages all with this incredibly detailed artwork of everything they sold

Think of anything smaller than a car and this catalogue has it.

You definitely need some of that

Stop by, donate 5$, chat with the volunteers. It's something to do!

In case someone actually read this: Thank you! It’s just fun to get out there and visit, you can always force yourself to do something new and make memories any place you happen to be, even if something it’s not the most exciting things in the world. Like a museum full of rusty saws. You still remember it and come across all sorts of people with stories to tell.

All the links to Salish Sea Adventure:

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Canada Attractions - Part 2