The Town of Lake Cowichan
So we stopped in this town for a quick check and discovered that it has an awesome information center with some old trains from the big logging in the valley. And we love trains, so we had to check them out.
We found a nice little park with a fountain and some great wood carved signs, which showed us even more that this is a logging town. And from here we were wandering over to a little Japanese sounding park and found a bridge: which I thought was super cute but also even better was one way you could see all the way to the lake and in the other directions are the lucky ones having a river-waterfront house with lake access….

 So is Lake Cowichan a lake or a town?

• First time I heard it I thought it’s the name of the lake, but then soon
  discovered it is also the name of the town at the lake
• It’s a town with a population of 3000
• With Mediterranean climate it has warmest mean year-around temperatures
  in Canada with an average of even in winter of 6C – no wonder the first nations
  called it the ‘land of the warm’
• The Lake is the largest freshwater lake on Vancouver Island

 Camping at the lake
So they have a provincial park right on the lake: sound perfect or? So we drove out to Gordon Bay and we discovered the campsite is in the forest surrounded by trees – no warm sun rays to warm us in May… ok that is not what we want, so after a shower we decided to turn around and remember there was another campground in the town.

And that is when we discovered the Lakeview Park Campsite: it is full in summer but in May you have the best site with lake view and a lot of sunshine. And to get spoiled besides showers we had electricity!!!
So that is a place we loved: sitting in our chairs overlooking the lake…. Sunshine in the morning – sunshine in the evening – the best views… a short walk to the beach and to:

 The boardwalk
That is so cool: you walk down to the swimming boardwalk with benches and you can relax and overlook the lake… so we came to check it out – we came again in the evening to see the sun setting and to read and soak up the last warm sunshine – we came in the morning to see the flat surface of the lake… I think we came here quit often, because it is so cool….

You wonder what is better our super cool campsite or this boardwalk… so this is one campsite where you can spend a lot of time.

 Youbou
Sure there is a road going around the whole lake, but only part is paved: we went around the northern side of the lake until the road ends and that’s when you come to a town named ‘Youbou” and you wonder what kind of name this is

Why a town at the end of the road?

• Original a mill town
• And that cool name comes from 2 employees from the Empire lumber company
  which operated the first saw mill here: Mr. Yount was the general manager and
  Mr. Bouton was the president
• Yes and it is still a town with a population of 1000

And in this tiny little town we found a nice park with another floating
boardwalk… perfect for a picnic and sitting on the boardwalk to hang our feet
in the water, admire the snow on the mountains.

What a great place!!