Explorers may have covered off much of what there is to be discovered above the ground.
But there’s still plenty to find beneath it. And Vancouver Island is just one place where you can do that.
Coverage of caves on Globalnews.ca:
Within Vancouver Island, there’s Horne Lake Caves Provincial Park and Outdoor Centre.
It’s a place where Myles Fullmer helps people descend into darkness and illuminates visitors with new discoveries.
Caves are places “where you can find yourself somewhere where no one’s ever been before, seeing things no one’s ever seen,” Fullmer told Global News.
There are over 1,600 known caves on Vancouver Island alone.
More have been mapped and explored there than the rest of Canada combined.
It’s an underground world of fossils and crystals that often go unnoticed until it’s time to descend.
READ MORE: 15,000-year-old caves discovered under Saint-Leonard park
As Fullmer leads tours into the caves of Horne Lake, he shows people drapery formations and stalactites, some of which are estimated to be around 35,000 years old.
“It makes you feel you’re only here for a second of time, maybe a blink,” said one visitor.
Caving may appear challenging, forcing tourists to go over river rocks and duck under low ceilings.
But there’s something satisfying in conquering elements like these, making into the dark and back into the light again.