Tuesday morning I woke up and looked out on my own private deck!
It was a bit misty but on the coast of BC we live in
hope that it will clear up!
After breakfast we set off for Long Beach, probably the most famous beach in the park.
I loved how you could walk and walk and walk!
As you can see we weren't crowded here! The tide was out but it was coming in and when I tried to video I was chased by a wave-I had to purge that video due to somewhat bad language!
Powerful waves!!!
Simply wonderful!
Driftwood and vegetation...
Just vast expanses…
Can you see the eagle on the tree branch at the right?
I believer we are visiting the Wickinannish Inn but you can see surfers in the left hand side if you look carefully!
A lovely walkway...
Look at those ferns!
Looking out into the ocean I see a paddler...
Middle Beach Lodge-never stayed here but has such beautiful views and it looks very cozy...
Before you get into Tofino you come to an interesting little "mall" and I wanted to check out a couple of places that had gotten rave reviews. First we had tacos at Tacofino!!! Absolutely delicious!
Some lovely flowers
Close up on those clematis...
Delicious chocolates and ice cream at Chocolate Tofino!
Here we are in town now and at the end of the Trans Canada Highway, a highway that stretches from Newfoundland to here and has to cross the Atlantic and the Pacific. I realized I have been end to end (well I have missed a bit in Northern Ontario as took a bit of a southern route for awhile although I took the train across as well).
Tofino was a bit torn up with construction…but we found our way around.
We visited well known artist, Roy Vicker's gallery and other shops
Sorry about the glare on The Healer
We visited Tofino Art Glass-what a pretty shop!!!
I always love clematises!
Soon we were heading back towards Ucluelet. We had a stop in the Rain Forest path...
s
In the interest of times we didn't do the whole walk!
We stopped again at Long Beach because it was now sunny!
Back to our beautiful view at Water's Edge in Ucluelet
We contemplated where to have dinner!
We ended up at Matterson House. It has a very pretty garden.
Here is a Himalayan poppy!
We enjoyed our meal here in this historic former house!
The next morning it was time to leave! What a lovely get away! We stopped in Port Alberni's Marine Park for a coffee.
A really fun trip is to go down the inlet to Bamfield with Lady Rose Marine Services. I finally did this a few years ago and really enjoyed the trip!
Port Alberni really is a lovely town!
We made a stop a bit farther along to Coombs where you can still find goats on the roof of the very neat country store there!
After lunch in Coombs we were on our way to the ferry terminal and heading back to Vancouver. I hope you enjoyed your trip!!!
I had been wanting to go to the west coast of Vancouver Island for some time and had been looking at advertisements for lodges etc. Then Club Intrawest where I have a time share announced that they were opening some units in Ucluelet. Ucluelet and Tofino are the two towns that are at each end of Pacific Rim National Park. As soon as I could several months ago, book, I did, and two friends and I went off to the island on Sunday.
carved cats in Qualicum
There are several ferry routes to Vancouver Island but this time we took the ferry from Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver to Departure Bay in Nanaimo which from where I live is the shortest route to get to our eventual destination which was the west coast of the island.
It was a beautiful sunny day perfect for ferry riding. The ride itself takes about one hour and forty minutes plus it's about a half hour drive from my house and then you want to get there early to make sure you make the ferry. You can make reservations but I figured mid day Sunday wouldn't be too busy.
nice winery but no one was there so we didn't buy any wine
Our first stop was in Qualicum where we had a nice lunch and did a bit of shopping. Then we were on our way to my the home of my old friends (as in high school and university) just outside Port Alberni. Port Alberni is kind of the gateway to the west coast. My first visit to Ucluelet was when we first moved out here in 1980, and Art and Jenny and their two children had just moved there from Fort St. John. But they have lived in Port Alberni for many years and Sandy and Val and I had a great time visiting them on their hobby farm.
in the Halsall's field
After a delicious breakfast, we headed off on the road to Ucluelet. It's a lovely drive on a twisty road. Until the late 70's it was a logging road. On my first trip, it was pouring rain and I had a logging truck in front of me, and one behind, but Monday was a perfect day.
Black Rock
We reached Ucluelet around 11:30 and found where I thought I was staying, at the Black Rock Ocean Resort. It was a stunning setting but I discovered we weren't staying there but at the Water's Edge Resort so we had a great walk and a delicious lunch before we went into Ucluelet to find where we were staying! Apparently I wasn't the first one to make that error!
We are on the Wild Pacific Trail.
The "beaches" in Ucluelet are rocky. I remember walking them long ago when the Halsalls lived in Ucluelet...
Here you can see salad berries...
I can imagine how wild this could be in the winter!
Here is a very helpful map of the Ucluelet area. When I first visited long ago in the early 80's Ucluelet was very much a working town of forestry workers and fishermen, but with changes in economy Ucluelet had to reinvent itself as a tourist town… By the way the Water's Edge Resort is right across from the harbour on the other side!
Here you can see moss on those trees- a real rainforest...
And here's a little sound...
looking out from Black Rock Ocean Resort
We found where we were staying but we since we couldn't check in until 4:00 so we decided to go the park! At the tourism information bureau, we purchased a day pass which would allow us to park anywhere until 4:00 the next day. And then we were heading to Pacific Rim National Park.
It was time to visit Wickaninnish Beach
A few warnings...
Trilliums peaking out here!
It was so lovely walking along the firm sand and hearing the crash of the waves…
Add caption
This was a display in the Interpretation Centre (well worth a visit for its many interesting displays). This particular display was of outfits designed from trash-very creative.
It is just so beautiful here
Looking out from the Interpretation Centre
A little history-this area was very important for defence during the Second World War and there still may be bombs that were never detonated!
Eventually it was getting to be late afternoon and we were looking forward to checking in. Our room was still not ready at 4:00 so we waited in the members' lounge and here is our view of Ucluelet Harbour!
By 4:30 we were in our two bedroom two bathroom unit with two decks-the front deck looking over the harbour. It was lovely
We later walked to the other side where there is an estuary.
It was quite spectacular
It was very pleasant sitting on our deck! It was really quiet and we saw eagles, seals, and ….
a deer...
We finally put an end to a perfect day! Stay tuned for our second day on the West Coast.
I loved how you could walk and walk and walk!
s
