Trains and Grizzly Bears, A Canadian Roadtrip - Telegraph Cove to Tofino, BC

Wednesday, September 18

The weather prediction for today was mostly sunny, but it didn’t look promising as it was foggy and drizzly in Telegraph Cove.  We were up and on the road by 9:00 as we had an over six hour drive today to the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Before checking out, I walked down to the docks to take a couple of pictures.

 

We left Telegraph Cove and returned to Highway 19 and headed south.  As we drove south there was quite a bit of construction going on so we experienced some delays, but otherwise, an uneventful morning.  The one thing we did encounter that we weren’t used to was sunshine.  As the road went inland away from the coast the sun came out and it was a beautiful day.

We got back to Campbell River just before noon and decided to have lunch.  We found a sandwich shop, had a quick lunch and were back on the road south.  We also needed gas and were looking for a Walmart or some big store where we could find a portable CD player since my car player had stopped working and we found both in the town of Courtenay.  We found a CD player like we wanted, but it was battery operated so we had to buy a box of batteries that were surprisingly inexpensive compared to the US.  Finally, with all that taken care and a full tank of gas, we were back on the road south.

We continue south to the town of Parksville where we turned west on Highway 4 that would take us to the west coast of the island.  Highway 4 is the only road that goes across the island so there was quite a bit of traffic, particularly around the town of Port Alberni.  It has been quite a while since we’ve been to this area and we were surprised at how much Port Alberni had grown and how much traffic was in the area.

After leaving the Port Alberni area, the traffic thinned considerably and we thought we were on our way, but we ran in to some very slow drivers who would not pull over in the turnouts.  There were signs warning drivers that if there were five or more cars behind them to pull over in the turn outs and let traffic clear, but not one of the slow vehicles pulled over.  At one point, an RV had over twenty cars behind them and just kept plodding along impervious to those of us behind them.  We tried to be patient, but the day was getting later and later and we were anxious to get to our destination.

The final frustration of the day was a construction zone where only one-way traffic was allowed and we had a lengthy wait for our turn.  Finally we were through it and drove the final stretch to the Pacific Rim Highway.

The Pacific Rim Highway is 41 miles long and runs between the town of Tofino at the north end and the town of Uclulet at the south end.  This is the only area easily accessible on the west coast of Vancouver Island and the area between the two towns is Pacific Rim National Park.  The coastline is pristine and beautiful and a dense rainforest.

We are staying just a few miles south of Tofino at the Long Beach Lodge Resort for the next three nights.  We arrived just before 5:00, checked-in and got a room with a beautiful ocean view on the second floor.  The lodge is built right on the beach at Cox Cove and it is a beautiful spot.  We couldn’t believe the great view as we stood on our balcony looking at the waves breaking in front of us.

A great view from our balcony.

We didn’t have much time to enjoy the view as we had 6:00 dinner reservations at the lodge restaurant so after getting cleaned up, we were off to dinner.  We were again lucky and got a table right in front of the windows where we had a great view of the ocean and the slowly setting sun, it had been a long day, but well worth it as we sat looking out at our beautiful surroundings.

Our dinner was delicious.  We started out by sharing a large green salad that was very good.  Val had locally caught halibut that she said was really, really good and I had a shrimp and salmon pasta dish that was equally good.  We were both full, but we decided to plunge on and have dessert which was really good too, but by the time we were finished, we were both stuffed.

We were lucky to get a table by a window so we could watch the sunset as we ate.

 

The sun was setting and I couldn't resist so while we waited for dessert to arrive, I went out on the restaurant deck and shot some pictures.

 

The sun had set just before we finished dessert and this was a prefect ending to a very tiring day.  We returned to our room to read for a while and then called it a night.  Tomorrow we plan on exploring the area and having an easy day.