Wildlife Cruise through the Broken Group Islands

The wildlife cruise was one of the highlights of this trip.  We lucked out with a beautiful day that started out with a mist which helped give the islands an added ambiance.  The mist cooperatively disappeared at the right time to allow the boat to go through!  There were ample sightings of wildlife, starting with a great blue heron near shore, a couple of bald eagles, ample sea lions, seals and sea otters with cubs, even a bear with two cubs and a bonus whale sighting without even needing to chase it.   

The boat cruise started in Ucluelet and cruised through the Broken Group Islands to the south of Ucluelet.  These islands looked magical in the mist and when the sun broke through, we saw some beautiful rock formations on the islands.  It was a relaxing five hours on the boat with the occasional excitement from wildlife sightings.  A delicious gourmet lunch was served on board - a perfect break after the excitement over then whale sighting.  It was then a leisurely cruise back to Ucluelet, wrapped up with a black bear and cubs sighting - a perfect end to the cruise!

This was what greeted us at the beginning of the cruise

This Great Blue Heron was waiting for us beside the dock

Then another one flew by the boat mid-cruise

We saw two bald eagles on different trees, lots of sea lions including what is considered a rare sighting of a Steller Sea lion in these parts.

Steller sea lion

The beauty of the seascape often took my breath away - it was sometimes Wow! at every turn and almost impossible to put the camera down.  I had two cameras on me - one for landscapes and one for wildlife.  It was a constant scramble to pick up one or the other!

Then came the cute sea otters cuddling the cubs!

Seal and pup

The Humpback

Mama bear and her two cubs

The mist was gone and these beautiful rock formations were revealed

Between Tofino and Ucluelet

The 40 km between Tofino and Ucluelet is occupied mostly by the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, with stretches of long, beautiful beaches along the coast.  We stayed in Ucluelet, a ten minute walk from the Wild Pacific Trail.  I hiked the Lighthouse Loop of this trail for several hours in the morning.  It was a relaxing, leisurely hike, no steep inclines or descent. At one point, I pondered whether I should descend to a steep rocky incline to get a better perspective with my camera but thought better of it.  Another photographer was considering the same descent - his wife was hanging around to call for help if needed...;-)

There were so many spectacular viewpoints together with some amazing trees along the trail it was almost impossible to put the camera down.  Every turn brought a new angle of the coast, with little inlets and islets all along it.  Take a look at the photos to see for yourself.

Sunrise in Ucluelet

An unassuming lighthouse but it's the namesake for the trail so I have to include a photo

Looking south with the Broken Group Islands in the distance

All along the trail were trees in all kinds of shapes, trunks bent into beautiful curves - I'm guessing it's caused by the wind on these coasts but I could be wrong.  It's not hard to imagine what it would be like on a windy day though!  

Here is an interesting tree on a tree!

Yes, this is the spot where I considered climbing down for a better view, but didn't.  It turned out to be unnecessary anyway as every turn yielded a different perspective. 

The same islet from two different angles.

Close to the end of the loop trail is Little Beach in Ucluelet.  It's small but picturesque.

Little Beach

Wickaninnish Beach is much bigger and popular with surfers.  There was not much of a sunset that evening because of low clouds and impending rain in the area.  But the beach is still beautiful.  I was able to catch some surfers packing it in for the day. 

The Road to Tofino, B.C.

I visited Victoria and Nanaimo on Vancouver Island back in 2005 and it had always been my wish to visit the "wild" west side of the island.  It took me 17 years to get there, although it was only the not so wild area between Tofino and Ucluelet, it was a taste of the Pacific Coast.  Thinking back, the landscape is very similar to the Pacific coast off Washington and Oregon which I visited in 2018.  Sunrise and sunsets on the Pacific are legendary and I was lucky to experience a few of those in the few days I was on the island.

The B.C Ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo was a two hour ride with beautiful vistas of the coastal mountains and a bonus whale sighting. 

From Nanaimo, it's several hours' drive to the west coast cutting across the middle of the island.  There are a few scenic stops on the way, including the goats on the roof of Coombs Old Country Market, the awe-inspiring Cathedral Grove and Wally Creek.

Goats on the roof at Coombs

Cathedral Grove - a spectacular cathedral of nature. Some of the trees are more than 800 years old and 30 ft in circumference.

It's not a very long trail but you'd spend most of it looking up!

New life on what looked like a dead trunk

This is probably the tallest and oldest Douglas Fir at the grove

Wally Creek with its beautiful backdrop of the island's mountains must be very impressive in the spring when the water would be rushing down it.  

With construction on the road and possibly a half hour wait to get through, we managed to make it to Long Beach just barely catching the setting sun and a few surfers packing up to go home.  It was a magical time of day on the Pacific coast.