Journey to Hecla Island

 My sister Micaela and I woke up bright and early on a beautiful Saturday morning, the second day of September. Together we prepared coffee and breakfast and then proceeded to pack our bags for the day. We drove two and a half hours to Hecla Island listening to the local radio station while catching up on our latest news. When we finally reached the Hecla sign our initial thoughts were “wow, what a beautiful, small Icelandic settlement”. Crossing the bridge to enter this village was so cool because as you look out the window, on either side of the vehicle the glistening water seemed to meet the sky. I’ve only seen a body of water this big when I was in Vancouver city on a harbour cruise. There is just something so magical about bodies of water. Looking far out into the distance, I couldn’t feel any more united with the world and how even being surrounded with endless hatred I am able to find small moments of pure happiness.

The Harbour Gull beach is covered with small, pebble-like rocks to large hand-sized ones all of which are flat. Due to their unique shape, Micaela and I managed to pick a few for ourselves to take home. How cool would it be to paint neat designs on them? We swam on the main beach and slowly explored the other parts of Hecla Island while snapping many photos!

Regardless of the size of this village, there are four lighthouses. In one of them located right beside the restaurant and marina, is free for any personnel who wishes to climb the steps to the lookout tower. This lighthouse overlooks the stationed sailboats where most early risers gather to fish for catfish. The remaining three were once purposeful as guidance to the fishermen but now serve as a historical monument to Hecla. Should you ever find yourself travelling to Hecla, there is another lighthouse situated at the entrance of the island. There are a few plaques mounted inside the lighthouse explaining the history of Hecla and how the Icelandic settlers came to transform this small village into a wonderful tourist attraction to this day. Across from this giant lighthouse and Hecla Provincial Park sign are several ancient wooden posts which at the time we believed were to be garbage (sorry). Only then did we read that these posts were once a dock for the ferry-boat that transported cars and passengers in and out of Hecla. How cool is that? Another interesting feature to this island are the vintage sailboats displayed ashore throughout the village. Unfortunately, we didn’t snatch any pictures of these so a mental photograph will have to suffice.

Written by Tessa R. Adamski