The Glacier-Whale and the General Strike: Comox Valley Walking Tour

The Comox Valley's eastern shores pack a remarkable amount of history, ecology, and culture into a surprisingly compact stretch of coastline. On this walking tour along the Courtenay Airpark, you'll trace the connections between Indigenous heritage, labour history, and the natural ecosystems that have shaped this corner of Vancouver Island.

The tour starts at the Courtenay Marina, beside the Courtenay River – the shortest navigable river in North America. You'll follow the airpark pathway along the riverbank, where floatplanes dock and birders scan the water for Great Blue Herons and eagles. Along the way, a hilltop lookout offers views across the estuary toward Denman and Hornby Islands, and you'll learn how 1,200-year-old Indigenous fishing weirs, still visible at low tide, may soon be designated a World Heritage Site.

The route continues along the Courtenay Heritage Walk, past the estuarine salt marsh being actively restored by the Comox Valley Project Watershed Society, before looping back behind the airpark through a recovering Garry Oak meadow. The tour ends at the Comox Valley Rhododendron Garden, which has showcased over 140 varieties of rhododendron from around the world since opening in 1997.

On this 45-minute tour, you'll have a chance to:

• Stand beside the Guardian Pole, carved by K'omoks Nation member Everson and erected in 2022, depicting an ancestral origin story
• Hear the Legend of Queneesh, a K'omoks story of how a great white glacier-whale saved the people from a catastrophic flood
• Learn how decommissioned ships – including the 1876 windjammer Melanope – were deliberately sunk off Royston to create a logging breakwater
• Follow the story of Ginger Goodwin, a coal miner whose 1918 death near Comox Lake sparked Canada's first general strike
• Watch light aircraft and floatplanes take off and land at one of the few aerodromes where the public can observe from close range
• Discover how strong afternoon thermal winds draw performance sailors, windsurfers, and kitesurfers to the Salish Sea

Bring binoculars, keep your eyes on the water and sky, and enjoy every step of this layered coastal walk.