Tofino, Vancouver Island, BC
May 26, 2023
On Tuesday, May 23, we left Campbell River and headed 164 miles to Tofino, which is on the west coast of Vancouver Island. When I made this itinerary, I did not fully understand the topography of Vancouver Island. There is a spine, or ridge of mountains, that runs up the center of the island and makes for a very scenic drive across the island. Scenic here can also be read as curving, twisting, with steep inclines and declines, narrow roads, blind corners, and wow there isn’t room for the semi and us on this turn. Thankfully Larry is a great driver!
First we drove south on the east coast back towards Nanaimo to pick up the Pacific Rim Highway at Coombs. We passed Cathedral Grove that we had visited on May 17 before stopping for a place called Hole in the Wall. We parked on the narrow road shoulder and found the trailhead for a short hike to where a creek now runs through a hole blasted in volcanic rock for a long-removed water pipeline. It can be busy but on this morning we had it to ourselves.
The next break in our drive was a stop at Sproat Lake Provincial Park to see one of the best panels of petroglyphs in British Columbia. It was more of a stroll to view the Petroglyphs, and very surprising to compare how much they have faded in comparison to the informational sign about them with a picture from 1970’s.
We completed the “scenic” drive at Wickaninnish Beach on the west coast near the visitor center of the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. On our beach walk there we saw our first surfers – this is where Canada goes to hang ten!
The Rain Forest Figure 8 trail was on the way to our campground, so we enjoyed this walk completely on boardwalk-with lots and lots of stairs-through the lush vegetation.
I had booked us a site very close to the beach at Surf Grove campground in Tofino, so we could enjoy walks on the beach and long sunsets.
Wednesday morning we carefully timed our walk on Chesterman beach to see the tide pools. We had read that difference between low tide and high tide on these long shallow beaches made a huge difference in where you could walk. There were plenty of starfish and sea anemone to see, and even an island you could only reach at low tide.
This little guy is a long way from shore!
Afterwards, we had delicious seafood tacos at TacoFino food truck with the guava soda as a nice taste contrast.
We spent time in the afternoon talking to some tours we had booked for June and July. We decided to change the paddle whitewater rafting in Denali for an oar trip so I wouldn’t have to paddle (July 1 update-the paddle trip I had originally booked was canceled due to high waters making rapids being too dangerous so we ended up being on the only trip available anyway – Yay!). The ice climbing adventure on the glacier will have to be for Larry only (this trip anyway!) but they’ll take pictures for me. Thursday we hiked the Wild Pacific Trail Lighthouse loop in the beautiful morning light. There were sweeping views of the Pacific and clear blue skies for the Amphitrite lighthouse vista.
We then made sure to get to Florencia Bay at low tide for another lovely beach walk.
Sunset back at our campground was the perfect time for Larry to capture some “endless summer” photos of people on the beach! He even shared their photos with two very appreciative surfers.
It was the best ending to our stay in Tofino.
“Life is a lot like surfing… When you get caught in the impact zone, you’ve got to just get back up. Because you never know what may be over the next wave.” – Bethany Hamilton, professional surfer and shark attack survivor