WATCH: Hundreds of fallen trees and others that are deemed dangerous are keeping several Vancouver Island provincial parks closed.
Barriers are up blocking traffic and visitors from getting into some B.C. provincial parks, like Little Qualicum Falls Provincial Park west of Coombs.
At nearby Englishman River Falls Park in Errington, the gate remains closed, but that wasn’t stopping dozens of people from venturing into the park Friday to see what damage the storm left.
“Lots of trees down, lots of widow-makers up high that need to be cleaned out,” said Shannon Dunlop, who was visiting the park.
Massive trees came down in the storm and still block the road to the main parking lot.
Anne Crossley has lived in the area for over 20 years and Friday, over a week after the storm hit, she still can’t believe how big the storm was and the damage it left behind.
“Big gusts of wind. Sustained long gusts of wind and my husband was remarking how it sounded like an excavator was working beside our property knocking trees down,” said Crossley.
“I’d say close to a hundred trees came down in the park and there are some big ones,” said David Leslie, who lives just outside the park.
Just off the road, trails are now lost under even more big trees, mostly cedars that came crashing down.
“It’s nothing like I’ve ever seen,” said Chelsea Crossley. “I live in Victoria so the drive up was more and more destruction as I came up island and this is just crazy.”
BC Parks says parks on the mid and south island took the brunt of the damage with primarily downed trees over roads and leftover hazard trees.
Park Operators have initiated post-storm assessments.
A list of closed parks midday Friday included the following:
Little Qualicum Falls
Englishman River
Bamberton
Montague Harbour
Macmillan
Maquinna
Roberts Memorial
Hemer
Visitors can check ahead by visiting a link here.
Dean Stoltz
