British Columbia: Rainforest and Beaches

Week 10: Canadian Summer Staycation Series!

This is the tenth in a series of 13 weekly blog posts highlighting one iconic Canadian experience in each Province and Territory.

In this weeks’ blog post we’re visiting Tofino and Ucuelet located on Vancouver Island in the beautiful province of British Columbia!

Not to be confused with the city of Vancouver (located on the mainland in British Columbia) Vancouver Island is located in the Pacific Ocean, 97km west of Vancouver and 117km north of Seattle, Washington.

Tofino and Ucuelet (pronnounced You-CLUE-let or Ukee as it’s also known) are located along the West Coast of Vancouver Island, an area that’s one of my favourites in all of Canada.

If I didn’t have a desire to see the rest of the world, I would choose to vacation here every year spending time at one of the stunning beaches and walking the rainforest trails.

Joe and I have visited this area before and this summer we were able to take our girls with us for the first time and they also fell in love with the area.

Getting to Vancouver Island

To get to the island you can fly on a commercial flight, or for the more adventurous, take a helicopter or float plane and soak in the beauty of the island from the air.

There are also several ferries from Vancouver and from Washington State (when the US/Canada border opens again).

On our most recent trip, we flew from Toronto to Vancouver and spent a few nights there before taking the ferry (with our rental car) from Horseshoe Bay (Vancouver) to Nanaimo (Vancouver Island).

For our return back to the mainland at the end of our vacation, we took the ferry from Swartz Bay (Victoria) to Tsawwassen (Vancouver).

After getting off the ferry in Nanaimo it’s just over a 200km drive (approx. 3 hours) to get to Tofino and Ucuelet. We suggest taking your time to make a few stops along the way. We will be posting some stop suggestions in a later blog post.

Once you get to the end of Highway 4, you will have reached the Esowista Peninsula with Ucuelet at the south end and Tofino at the north.

Tofino

The village of Tofino has a very laid-back, yet artsy vibe with it’s quaint shops, coffee houses and art galleries.

It’s a very popular spot in the summer and we spent some time walking along the main street visiting some of the shops and stopping for ice cream.

The Roy Henry Vickers Art Gallery, located on the main street, is a Tofino landmark. It was built in the shape of a traditional Northwest Coast longhouse with a carved and painted cedar plank exterior.

We stopped in this surf shop to pick up a t-shirt.

The Beaches

The beaches between Tofino and Ucuelet are spectacular. There was so much to see and explore that we went to the beach area twice during our most recent trip.

Tofino is known as the “surfing capital of Canada” and we weren’t surprised to see many vehicles equipped with roof racks transporting multiple surf boards.

Being on the Pacific Ocean, the water is cold (even in the summer) so wetsuits are recommended when surfing here.

Our first day at the beach was overcast and windy making the conditions perfect for surfing (we even witnessed a few brave people on stand up paddle boards despite the waves).

We recommend exploring the beaches at low tide to search for sea stars, anemones and other marine life left in pools of water during low tide.

The girls were most excited about the sea stars that were all different colours and very large in size!

We don’t recommend picking up or touching any of the sea life found on the beach, but we picked this sea star up to put him back, right side up, on the beach.

We were able to explore a few of the sea caves more closely at low tide and were able to walk through this very narrow cave giving us access to the beach on the other side.

On our second day here, the skies were clear and blue giving us another beautiful day to explore the beaches.

We walked on the sandspit at low tide out to Frank Island. Note: Frank Island is private property with family cottages so we only walked to the edge of the island to avoid trespassing.

Pacific Rim National Park Reserve: Rainforest Trail

The Pacific National Park Reserve is located between Tofino and Ucuelet.

We took the girls to the Rainforest Trails in the park. This scenic trail has two routes, one on each side of the highway, winding through the temperate rainforest with giant western red cedar trees (some of the oldest trees in Canada).

We stopped for a quick photo opportunity underneath one of the fallen trees along the pathway.

The boardwalks help preserve the area by preventing people from walking off the trail. Note: The boardwalk can be slippery when it’s wet.

There are interpretive signs throughout the trail providing information on the history of the area and facts about the trees and plant life.

And…we just had to stop for another photo opportunity with this giant tree!

There are quite a few steps to climb throughout the trail so it may not be suitable for anyone with mobility issues.

Ucuelet

Ucuelet is located at the south end of the Peninsula, a short drive from Tofino, along the main Road. It’s not as busy with tourists as Tofino but still had a good selection of shops, restaurants and coffee houses.

The last time we were on Vancouver Island, we stayed overnight at a resort on the beach in Tofino which was nice to be close to all of the action.

This time we were looking for something a bit more quiet and less touristy so we stayed in Ucuelet in fully equipped cabin on Terrace Beach.

And the view of Terrace Beach from our bedroom balcony did not disappoint.

The Wild Pacific Trail

The well known Wild Pacific Trail curves around the rocky shoreline of the Ucuelet Peninsula with views of Barkley Sound, the Broken Group Islands and the Pacific Ocean.

It’s divided into three sections, the Lighthouse Loop, Brown’s Beach and Ancient Cedars. They are each less than 3km to walk.

The Lighthouse Loop

One of the Lighthouse Loop entrances was located right beside our resort so the first thing that we did when we arrived was to head out to walk the trail.

The total length of this trail is 2.6km and it passes by the Amphitrite Point Lighthouse.

We felt like we were in a Jurassic Park movie walking on this trail with the beautiful trees, moss and fern everywhere.

The trail pathway is pretty level and wide enough to fit 2-3 people.

There are many look-out points throughout the trail. We took a few moments at this one to enjoy the beautiful views from the top of the trail hill.

With another beautiful view…

And another one…

We really enjoy visiting this area of British Columbia and know that we will be back again some day soon!

We’d love to hear if Tofino and Ucuelet is on your bucket list. Let us know in the comments below.

And if you want to catch up on our other blog posts in this series…click on the links below:

Newfound and Labrador: Iceberg Alley

Nova Scotia: Tidal Bore Rafting

Prince Edward Island: All Things Anne

New Brunswick: Hopewell Rocks

Quebec: Old Quebec

Ontario: Tobermory

Manitoba: Going on Safari

Saskatchewan: Notoriously Moose Jaw

Alberta: The Drumheller Dinosaurs

Yukon: The Klondike Gold Rush

The North West Territories: The Northern Lights

Nunavut: Inuit Culture in Iqaluit

---

If you haven’t had the pleasure of traveling for a vacation within Canada before, now is the ideal time to do so.

With a decrease in the number of international tourists expected to visit because of the Covid-19 travel restrictions in place, popular tourist destinations within Canada will be less crowded this summer. Hotels and resorts have been offering discounted room prices and free room upgrades to entice travelers to book accommodations.

In addition to a less expensive and more enjoyable travel experience, the tourism industry in Canada has been hit hard by Covid-19 and they are going to need our help to recover as quickly as possible with our tourism dollars.

Let’s all do our part and help support our own economy and tourism industry to recover by choosing to spend money on Canadian travel experiences this summer.