Fan Account of Adventures in Squamish.

A fan account of searching out some Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Filming Locations in and around Squamish, B.C.  

And...after FINALLY checking your blog for first time since returning, I see you've hit all the Squamish sites that I did. Great job! I spent all of Fri., March 18 (my second day in Squamish) on the wrong side of the Squamish River before getting a tip from a road utility crew re: Paradise Valley loca where you photographed the Summit "circus."  I have similar pics, along with Stawamus Chief parking lot, movie theatre (where I saw the awful [my opinion] "Red Riding Hood" two nites after Rob & Kristen did) and Executive Suites Hotel. I also got a couple nighttime shots of Pepe & Gringos restaurant the nite after they were there and learned from bartender that Robsten mobbed by teens 1/2 way through dinner and that they were staying at Executive, not the Holiday Inn like the teens who swarmed me in the parking lot checking-in insisted.

While checking out on Sat., March 19, a clerk mentioned finding a map/diagram  showing piles of logs with numbers. That was the final piece of the puzzle regarding the wolf log loca down by Howe Sound. As I mentioned to you by cellphone text, I first came across Untitled Sports Movie trucks at roadside Murrin Provincial Park on Thurs., March 17 as you come down the hill into Squamish before Stawamus Chief. The friendly young security guard said there wasn't actually any filming there, but that trucks were coming and going all day (the first 3 pics attached here). I deduced it was a staging area, but for where?

The next day (Friday) after spending all day finding Paradise Valley loca, I went back to a Viewpoint pull-off just down hill from Murrin Park and saw a crane truck coming up steep private road that goes down to Watts Point down on the water on Howe Sound (see 4th pic [828]... and very last pic [964] that should be 5th pic, but I just loaded it). Chatted with operator and learned he'd provided rain cover all day for actors working with cardboard wolves!! That was all I needed to know. But it was getting dark so I decided to visit the next day.

On Saturday parked at Viewpoint pull-off, went down dirt access road to a locked gate with a caretaker house up a driveway in sight of gate. Got nervous and was going to give up when a man walked over to the gate and came towards me. He said he had permission to be down by water to count herring eggs. Said no one down there, but caretaker had dog. He departed up the road and I because the gate was open, I went through the gate and eventually crossed train tracks as nearing water [pic 967]. After another 1/4th mile or so was at water level with great view across Howe Sound of Squamish and Stawamus Chief cliffs [996].

Then I was suddenly there!  Picture # 983 was my first sight of log pile/barge-loading area that was the filming location. I walked as close as I dared and took several more pics (and video) including # 986 and # 992. The next three [#s 1119,1120 + 1121] were manipulation/zoom-ins that I did later back in the U.S.  There are obviously various groupings of logs and possibly humans or more likely vampires were interacting with wolves? (ie., the reason for the cardboard "placeholder" wolves?).  As I said in my text, it's a very distinct and dramatic location even without the piles of logs (see views taken across water and looking back the way I came [987, 988 + 990]). It should be pretty obvious if/when it appears in B.D.

Unfortunately, just like Twilight's baseball field and Edw & Bella talking-down-by-the-river loca.s in Oregon (both of which I found after leaving B.C...with more gate jumping!), this loca would be hard to see due to the trespassing problem. 

Anyway...to wrap my over-long log pile tale: As I was quickly, but "casually" walking by the gatekeeper's house when I heard a young boy's voice suddenly yell "Dad, Dad!!" a couple of times! I thought "This is it."  I'm either going to hear a man yell...a truck start up ....or the approach of a large dog (which I was carrying a stick to defend against). As soon as I got out of sight of the house I tore off up the hill to the pull-off. I've never been so glad to see a car in my life and I didn't stop 'til I crossed the Squamish town line!

Thanks again for the wonderful tour, all the great conversation and info, and for your on-going coverage of the now-dwindling last weeks of B.D. filming in the great Province of British Columbia!