Lights in the Valley
Vallea Lumina illuminates the night with a magically animated forest tale.
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We were somewhere around Nesters, on the north edge of Whistler, when the whining began to take hold.
“Are we therrrrrrre yet?”
To his credit, we were coming up on 10 p.m., well past my eight-year-old son’s usual bedtime.
“Almost, bud; power through. It’s gonna be worth it, Vallea Lumina!!!”
I hoped I was telling the truth. Vallea Lumina—lights in the valley. A forest adventure hung on a story about two hikers who’d disappeared in coastal rainforest. But how? Why? Snatches of information had been leaking on social media and in the local coffeeshops for a week, hushed gossip told with bright-eyed excitement: floating lights, talking trees, shooting stars, a stardust bridge of epic proportions. We needed to see for ourselves.
The shuttle dropped us at The Adventure Group’s Cougar mountain basecamp and into another realm. Campfires, music, s’mores, and a host of fully kitted-out forest rangers. Every twenty minutes a new batch of eager hikers hit the trail in search of adventure, and the obligatory selfie shot at the massive Lumina entrance gates.
By the time we stepped through and began hiking up into the glowing trees, my son’s soggy mood had grown into enthusiastic excitement. “Where were the hikers? Maybe aliens got them? Those lights could be spaceships! Look there’s a clue!”
There’s something enchanting about a walk through the forest at night, but with state-of-the-art light, sound, projections and creativity at every turn in the path, every sensation is elevated. Skipping uphill amidst the glow and night song, my son was instantly impressed, pushing to the front, searching for the next part of the story.
“Is that stardust? Look at that spiderweb? is that real?! Whoa, those mushrooms look magic!”
Magic indeed. The way Vallea Lumina incorporates and accentuates the surrounding landscape is impressive and inspiring. An hour later, we skipped back into basecamp, stoke level high.
“Can we do that again?”
The hype is real; Vallea Lumina is a living, moving hybrid of technology, natural beauty and pure creative magic. Vallea Lumina is worth skipping bedtime for.