Into the Wild on Vancouver Island

A black bear flips over giant beach boulders as though they were mere rubber balls then paws at rock crabs hiding underneath – a bountiful seafood feast at the water’s edge. We watch transfixed for a good ten minutes, before motoring slowly out of Ucluelet.  Ucluelet and its more gentrified sister, Tofino, are two tiny towns (population each about 1,600) anchoring a spectacular 26 mile stretch of rugged coastline on the west coast of Canada’s Vancouver Island. Visitors come for hiking in the rainforest, surfing, fishing, wildlife viewing, kayaking, beachcombing, soaking in natural hot springs and storm watching. In March, they come to see an estimated 20,000 Pacific grey whales pass close to the coast on their annual migration from Baja to Alaska.  Fine seafood restaurants and luxury lodges – including Tofino’s Wickaninnish Inn, rated among the best resorts in Canada – ramp up the “wow” factor on getaways here.

We too have come to eat, drink, play and relax. Today we’re on Wild Pacific Sailing’s Pegasus, headed for the protected Broken Islands Group, part of the area’s Pacific Rim National Park. And the black bear we spied isn’t an unusual sight in this neck of the woods (we see another eating purple salal berries by the roadside a few days later). But spotting this bear is a great start to a great day out on the water. Thick fog envelops us as we pass fishing boats in the Ucluelet harbor but eventually the sun breaks through by the time we reach the Broken Islands Group, a marine park with 100 unspoiled rocky islands. It’s a good time for Captain Bobby Sherlock to pour some chilled white wine! He serves it with smoked cheese and salmon first then sears Albacore tuna and whips up a fresh goat cheese salad which he artfully presents for lunch.  On the sail back, George takes the wheel as Bobby teaches all of us landlubbers a little about sailing (although we still can’t figure out why ropes are called “sheets”).

Back on land and a day later, we lace up our hiking boots and hit the trail – or more precisely, the Lighthouse Loop section of the Wild Pacific Trail.  It has to rank right up there as one of the world’s most magnificent walks. The 1½ mile gravel trail traces the edge of the dramatic black lava rock coast at the tip of Ucluelet, affording eye-popping views of crashing waves and tidal lagoons. Just past the Amphitrite Lighthouse, we see a deer feeding by the path.  Other sections of the trail can be accessed right outside the door of our swish Ucluelet lodge, the Black Rock Oceanfront Resort. From one side of Black Rock, we walk to five canopy platforms giving us bird’s eye views of the scalloped coast. On the other side, the trail leads to a beach where fat orange and purple sea stars nestle in tidal pools beside sea urchins.

More hiking paths entice us. On the Nuu-chah-nulth trail in Pacific Rim National Park, interpretive storyboards showcase the cultural and natural history of the First Nations people who lived in this area for millennia. One board, for example, explains that western red cedar is the “tree of life” because its inner bark could be woven into cradles, diapers, clothing and food baskets. The trail starts from the park’s Kwisitis Visitors Center, where you learn that this coastline is part of the “Pacific Graveyard” – the site of more than 2,000 shipwrecks. A poignant video details the particularly tragic sinking of the passenger ship Valencia in 1906, en route from San Francisco to Seattle that claimed over 100 lives. The thick vegetation is so impenetrable here that shipwrecked survivors who were lucky enough to make it ashore often perished because there was no way to reach civilization. This led to the construction of the lifesaving West Coast Trail.  Part of the national park, the 48 mile trail is now a famous, though challenging, six day wilderness trek for adventurous backpackers. The Visitors Center also overlooks one of the park’s star attractions – Long Beach. Stretching for seven miles, this wide, log-strewn swath of fine grey sand, lapped by wicked waves, attracts hardy surfers. On a previous visit on a blustery rainy day, we took a surfing lesson and discovered (not surprisingly) that surfing is indeed a hard sport to learn.

But on this September visit, we’re revelling in blue skies and warm sunshine. On our last day, we zoom out in a high-speed boat with Jamie’s Whaling Station. Destination? Hot Springs Cove – a series of natural mineral pools in a remote provincial park, a 1½ hour boat ride from Tofino through Clayoquot Sound. In 1993, mass anti-logging protests drew international attention to the sound which is achingly beautiful and pristine (and now protected), laced with fingers of cedar and fir forests reaching out to lush mountainous islands. The area is also rich in marine life. We see sea otters poking up through the glassy water – one floats on its back, cracking a sea urchin on its tummy. We also pass several seals hauled out on a small rocky islet, soaking up the sun. Upon reaching the Hot Springs Cove boat dock, we stroll along a one mile boardwalk to the springs. Previous visitors have carved their boats’ names in the boardwalk’s cedar planks – “Elsie II,” “Esperanza,” “Spirit of Tsutil.” One plank even has a wedding proposal: “Clara Richardson, will you marry me?” (Wonder if she said yes…)

At the springs we change into swimsuits in a rustic wooden changing room, put on water shoes and clamber down the rocks. Deliciously hot water, heated from deep within the earth’s surface, bubbles up through the rocks and cascades down into rocky pools, each big enough for one or two people to loll about. At the lowest level, the water is cooler as it mixes with the cold sea water splashing up and it’s fun to try the different pools.

On the return trip, our captain gets word that a pod of Orcas (killer whales) are frolicking nearby in one of the passes. We veer off for a look. Sure enough, we see two of the black and white creatures spouting and diving. And then – in one of those OMG experiences – they rise up just feet from our boat, seawater dripping from their sleek powerful bodies, as if to say hello, before they dive back again and swim off into the open ocean.