Whale Tales from the West

After our short stay in Alberta we returned to British Columbia to explore more of this unique province. We left Banff National Park and toured through Yoho National Park, Revelstoke and spent a few days in the Vernon/Kelowna area. We didn’t realize we were headed into the Civic holiday long weekend (British Columbia day in BC) with no plans and campsites were scarce. We managed to find campsites, but had to take what we could get and the campgrounds were very busy and not the type of campgrounds we would normally choose. We found a nice small beach on Okanagan Lake with a fantastic playground and sandy swimming area and spent our mornings at the beach. We also managed to squeeze in a visit with one of my cousins, Logan in Kelowna and one of Trevor’s cousins, Joe in Abbotsford on our drive towards the coast. We saw the start of a forest fire south of Kelowna and Harper made friends with a four legged “Piper”. Trevor got out for a day of fishing off the shore of Vancouver with Joe, while the girls and I toured Tsawwassen on foot, and got long overdue haircuts.

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Vancouver Island

We caught the ferry from Tsawwassen to Victoria and spent 16 days exploring the Island. The ferry takes about an hour and a half to make the crossing and is a very scenic trip through islands, we spotted some seals near the ferry on the crossing. 

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Our first stop on the island was a small private campground called Cedar Springs Ranch, our site was private and nestled in the tall trees of the forest. We did some hiking at Goldstream Provincial Park, which had some enormous trees and mossy forests along the river. As much as we would have liked to camp at many of the provincial parks, BC Parks is only open to residences of BC this summer so we had to settle for day use visits only.

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Our next stop was a couple of days in Qualicum Beach, the water was warm and we spent a couple of afternoons at the beach, where we swam, picked blackberries and even had a crab race.

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We toured a windy mountainous road to see the west side of the island, where we watched all the surfers in Long Beach, and managed to get in the 12° water for a very quick swim. We toured the towns of Tofino and Ucluelet and whipped up some blackberry jam.

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Back to the east side of the island and heading North we stopped over for 1 night in Campbell River. We hiked out to Elk falls and a very high suspension bridge and toured the BC Power interpretive centre and learned how hydro electricity is made. We also watched seals and tug boats bringing in logging barges from the Discovery Pier in Campbell River.

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My favourite spot on Vancouver Island was Telegraph Cove, a very small boardwalk community with only 10 year round residents. We stayed at the forest campground which was nestled in the mossy rainforest. The campground has two trails, one to the spectacular lookout along the Blinkhorn trail, which takes you through ropes and obstacles and wooden bridges deep in the rainforest and comes out with an overlook where you can see out over the Johnson strait. This is one of my favourite places I have sat with my morning coffee on this trip. The second trail is a short trail that takes you out to Bauza Cove, a great place to enjoy the afternoon sun. We even saw an Orcha swim by one afternoon.

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The highlight of Telegraph Cove was our zodiac whale watching tour with Prince of Whales Whalewatching. We suited up in the warm flotation suits and headed out on the perfect sunny, calm morning. We couldn’t have asked for a better day. Right away the naturalist on board spotted the blows of a pod of Orcha whales, soon other pods came towards us from the other direction and we were surrounded by killer whales- It was completely surreal. The naturalist was able to identify the whales and pods by the markings on the orcas. After seeing several orchas (around 30), we toured to Blackfish Sound, where we spotted an enormous humpback logging in the water (just hanging out on the surface) after a few minutes he did a deep dive, which you can tell by how they flip their giant tails into the air as they dive. The humpbacks will stay underwater for 10 – 15 minutes after doing a deep dive.

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The entire whale watching experience was fantastic- one of the big highlights of our trip! We were out on the water for 3 hours and the time flew by as there wasn’t a dull moment the entire trip – I recommend it for anyone who has the opportunity. We loved Telegraph Cove so much, we stayed an extra day.

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We headed north to explore Port Hardy and head out to the legendary Cape Scott Provincial Park. The gravel forestry road is 65 km to get to Cape Scott but from what we heard it was well worth the drive. The road was gravel and full of potholes but we thought it would be ok if we took it slow. About three kilometers down the road as we were coming through a valley, a logging truck came barreling over the top of hill. He touched his brakes, sending his trailer skidding sideways and a cloud of dust that completely blinded us in both directions. Once he got past, we all decided that it was best to call it off, as it was really not a safe drive in the motorhome. Trevor did a 15 point turn and we got out of there as fast as we could. Heading back south down hwy 19 we found signs for Nimpkish recreation area, pulling off the highway, we found the most beautiful lake front campsite along Nimpkish lake. The water was warm and the view was fantastic so we stayed for a couple of days.

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Our last few nights on the Island included a quick stop over in Campbell River and a couple of nights outside of Nanaimo, where we stayed in a campground with a terrific swim hole along the Nanaimo River. Vancouver Island had lots of surprises for us and a place we will definitely return to one day.

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