July
13th -17th 2017
Pronounced “You-Clue-let” which means “people of the
safe harbor” in the indigenous Nuu-chah-‘nulth language. I personally, found it
to be a tongue-twister, I don’t know why.
Located on the western side of Vancouver Island, the
Ucluelet First Nation People have a strong presence among the 1600 residents
here.
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| We had a fabulous view, but had to scrape by untrimmed trees to get up here. |
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| Right above our campsite a pair of Bald Eagles cared for their fledgling. |
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| With Ucluelet Harbor below, we had a great view at our campsite. |
Pacific Rim National Park and its rugged coast was the
main draw for us. The road to get there
was not to be taken lightly.
The 110 miles ( 182 km ) took us about 3 hours
due to the amount of tight twists and turns, steep grades; at one point we encountered
a section of this scenic road which was a whooping 18% grade. That, for those of you who might not be
familiar with road grades, is incredibly steep!
Making it even more hair-raising was the warning that the road was going
to be so narrow only one vehicle could make it around the next blind corner! Yikes!
We found our campground despite the directions given
and as we drove up the hill to park an employee held the bushes back so they
wouldn’t scratch the rig.( They still did ). After setting up, we admired our fabulous view of the
harbor below. Behind the rig was an
eagle’s nest where Mom and Dad eagle fed their fledgling many times a day. I spent more time looking up at our national
bird than I did the quaint harbor below.
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| We joined a tour group for an early morning kayak trip in Ucluelet Harbor hoping to see black bears foraging for food. There were no bear sightings, but it was a pleasant paddle. |
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| The waters where smooth as glass for our early morning paddle. |
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| Norm manages to lift a crab onto his paddle for closer inspection |
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| The tour guide showed us a snail that was HUGE! ( I forget the name ) |
One day we went kayaking with a local
tour company in the harbor. It was a
beautiful day, and this early morning tour commonly sees bears on the shore at
low tide, but we were not lucky enough to see any. Not only did we not see any bears, we didn’t
see any wildlife at all! Such a disappointment in that aspect. It was, however, a lovely day to be out on
the water. Plus I wanted to see if my
thumb injury hurt ( it didn’t too much ) or Norm’s shoulder would give him a
problem ( it didn’t ). So it was worth the time and the money.
Another day we drove to the small town of Tofino to
the north where outdoor adventures abound.
Small islands, beautiful bays and beautiful beaches bring serious
hikers, fisherman and surfers from all over.
We drove around and toured what we heard were great
boutiques, but really didn’t find any shops worth a second glance. During our cooking class in Victoria at
London Chef, fellow student “foodies” were raving about the Tofino restaurant The Wolf in the Fog. The menu there was very limited, and the cost
so outrageous we had a cocktail and appetizer and headed back.
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| The section of this well known coastal trail around Ucluelet had a lot of people enjoying it. |
Our last day we hiked part of the Wild Pacific Trail
that ran along the local coastline. It reminded us so much of New England’s
coast of Maine.
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| The coastal views from the Wild Pacific Trail were magnificent! |
Late in the afternoon we took our neighbor’s strong
suggestion of having a cocktail at Blackrock Oceanside Resort. We were lucky enough to get the last table on
the deck overlooking an unbelievably beautiful cove.
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| Our RV neighbor insisted we go for dinner and/or drinks at the Blackrock Oceanside Resort. Norm and I managed to get the best water-side table so we could "drink" in the views and warm sun on an otherwise chilly day. |
