Campbellton

The river is the reason anyone settled here. It comes down from Strathcona's lakes, past Elk Falls, and spills into the passage at the north edge of town, carrying the chinook, coho and pink salmon that made Campbell River famous. The flats at its mouth became the first townsite, and the area still feels a little apart from the rest of the city.

The best-known address is Haig-Brown House. The writer and conservationist Roderick Haig-Brown lived here with his wife Ann from the 1930s, fished the river below the garden, and wrote some of the most loved books about rivers and salmon ever published in Canada. The house is now a heritage site run by the Museum at Campbell River. Its gardens and riverbank are open to wander, and it hosts readings and events through the year.

Nunns Creek Park is a pocket of forest with trails right in the neighbourhood, and the estuary nearby is one of the city's quieter places for birdwatching. Herons work the shallows, and in autumn you can watch spawning salmon push upstream.

Campbellton has long been where the work got done: mills, yards, shops. It's still more practical than polished. Local plans to rebuild it as a 'River Village' have brought new businesses and a slowly growing food scene. For buyers it's one of the more affordable parts of town, and it sits at the start of Highway 28, the road west into the mountains.