A week after returning home from Ontario, we had a long time friend come stay for a few weeks. She had never been to the island, so we planned to show her some of our faves.
Hornby Island is one of the gulf islands north of us. To get there, you take a ferry from Bowser to Denman Island, then drive across to take another ferry to Hornby. We visited Tribune Bay beach which has a large protected sandy beach with interesting driftwood art. Then we went to Helliwell Park to hike around the peninsula. The hike is easy and very scenic. We always see a lot of shore birds and seals or sea lions.
French Creek marina is down the road from our home. It is a busy marina for fisherman and the ferry to Lasqueti Island (passenger only). There is a fish store, a very popular pub (they make great fish and chips), general store, harbour services, and charters. It is a great place to check out marine life, especially during the herring runs.
Little Qualicum Falls is a spectacular display when the water is running high.
Goats on the Roof is an iconic ‘tourist’ destination for anyone travelling this way. In fact, tourist or not, we go there to the produce market which is very good, and for the store which has things from around the world that we can’t find elsewhere.
Mt. Washington, Strathcona Park, an hours drive north, is a great destination year round. The day we went to do a hike there was a coating of snow on the ground making for slightly slippy conditions, but adding to the beauty.
Our friend had one destination request before coming to the island – a trip to Tofino – so she brought a tent with her and we booked a site at Greenpoint Campground in the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve for a couple nights. We piled into the camper van and 2 hours later arrived in Tofino. We purposely left very early so to have time to explore the town before going to our campsite. It was a glorious day for it. We explored the waterfront, checked out the marina and seaplanes, then the Vickers art gallery where out friend bought us a print as a thank-you – (we got to choose it and love it).
Still early in the day we decided to walk the popular and magical rainforest trail. As the name indicates, the trail, mostly boardwalk with a lot of stairs, meanders through a rainforest with giant cedar, hanging moss, bogs, and tons of large ferns. A dark and quiet place.
After a session of great ‘forest bathing’ we checked in and set up camp before heading to the beach for happy hour. We filled our sippy cups and walked a short, but steep trail to the beach and had it mostly to ourselves. It was very relaxing to sit and watch the waves for a bit before heading back for dinner. As we often do, we had pre-prepped the dinner elements at home to make the process quicker and easier at camp. Campfire was lit and we sat down to dinner and some catching up.
In the morning, after some steady overnight rain, we chose to drive to Ucluelet and check out the lighthouse trail, but the winds were fierce and cold – we bailed on that idea and instead explored the town of Ucluelet a bit and then went back to camp to relax for the remainder of the day.
In the morning we packed up and started the trek home, but had forgotten about the road closures along the Hwy, the only way home. We missed the window by 20 minutes and so had 3 hours to kill. Back to Ucluelet we hike the lighthouse trail and it was a lovely walk but again a little blustery. We then headed back to Hwy 4 to wait in line for it to open up – while waiting we made a bit of lunch. Gotta love having a camper for these times.
