DAY 35 - Tofino Beaches & Pacific Rim Rainforests!
Last night we just parked on a side street in Tofino and slept in the truck. Considering we are driving so much in our last 5 days, we figured we wouldn't want to have to set up and take down the tent ever night. Plus there are such limited campgrounds in the area, we knew our chances were slim.
Today the goal was to explore the Western side of the Island, Tofino and Pacific Rim! When we woke up there were construction workers across the road working, so we thought it was best to get out of there quickly. We headed into downtown Tofino with the hopes of stocking up on some much needed groceries before we start the day. We stopped at the seemingly only grocery store, Co-op Market Place. We had to be careful not to stock up too much though because we will be crossing into the states in about 3 days. We packed up the cooler, cleaned up the back of the truck a bit and were ready to start our adventurous day.
Our first big stop was at Tonquin Beach, the local beach at the end of downtown. We parked and headed for the path down that was lined with thick trees and had that rainforest feel already. At the end of the path was a beautiful boardwalk structure with many stairs down to the sandy heaven. The beach was in a little cove between huge rocks and caves throughout. You could easily tell this is a very popular local hangout because it's pretty secluded and so beautiful. We walked along the beach, feeling the Pacific ocean for the very first time!!! It was freezing, but so refreshing. There were also insane houses on the top of the cliffs with their own private stairs down the beach, what a life that would be!
As we were then heading out of downtown Tofino we couldn't help but take in an incredible smell of roasted garlic and fresh baked bread. To our right we noticed a little cafe called "Common Loaf Bake Shop" and we had to stop for breakfast. We walked in and the first view was their many shelves of fresh baked loaves of bread and baked goods. We could also hear the perfect steaming of milk on the espresso machine and we knew this was our kind of cafe. We each ordered a classic breakfast with eggs/bacon/sausage and toast, an Americano and a cappuccino. As soon as we received our drinks you knew they were going to be perfect, and not long after that our breakfast arrived. Everything was incredible. Perfectly cooked eggs, market bacon and sausage, and thick, fluffy homemade grain bread. All fresh, homemade and local. If it had of lasted our trip home I would've bought as many loaves of bread as possible for everyone!!
Once done breakfast we took off and said our goodbyes to downtown Tofino. The next stop on our list was Chesterman Beach - where we were hoping to shower. When we arrived we quickly realized their "public showers" was just an outside shower on the building to wash off sand, so not really what we needed. We walked down towards the beach and could immediately see the large, crashing waves. We knew from the parking lot and a million wetsuits that this was going to be a good surfing beach. We went and sat down on the soft, warm sand for a while to watch the surfers and enjoy our very first passion fruit lol When we were at the grocery store Zack had picked one up and was asking how you would even eat something like that? A girl next to us then started raving about how delicious they were and how you just crack it open and spoon up the inside! So of course we had to get one and try it out haha Above you can see a picture of the insides, which was pretty gooey with weird potato bug looking seeds. I was very disgusted, and there was no was I was trying it. That is, until Zack tried it and told me how delicious it actually was. So we sat their eating passionfruit and watching surfers catch the waves.
After that we decided to walk along the very long beach towards the rocky coast with tropical trees. As we walked with our feet in the very cold water we made sure to look at all the shells and found a couple good sand dollars along the way. And many, many dead crabs. Poor guys! When we made it to the end, we realized that there was an entirely different beach area on the other side and a little tide pool area in between! Which of course we got to exploring right away. Unfortunately we didn't see any starfish like we wanted to, but we saw sooooo many crabs (alive this time), little fishies, and a couple sea anemones 😊
We made our way back after a couple hours and were ready to hit the next one! The awesome thing about Pacific Rim is that it's on the west side of the island, so basically the entire coastal stretch is beach haha
We switched things up a bit though for our next stop and tackled one of the beautiful trails in Pacific Rim National Reserve. It was called Schooner Cove Trail, about 2km through a lush rainforest down to Schooner Cove Beach. We walked along a windy board walk full of steep stairs, through the ancient rainforest. The sun disappeared from the dense trees, and the forest floor was scattered with ferns, vines and overgrown mosses. The trees were as tall and some even larger than those of Cathedral Grove that we visted the other day. Zack and I were in heaven! It honestly felt like you were walking through a tropical jungle, and a dart frog or some cute and deadly animal was going to pop out at any second lol
As the trail tailored off, we walked out into another stunning beach with rich dark blue water and waves crashing in. We stayed there for a little bit and watched the thick wall of fog roll in along the mountains in the background. We definitely regretted not packing some food to enjoy a beach picnic down here on one of the driftwood logs.
After enjoying Schooner Cove so much we decided to tackle another hike, Rainforest trail just up the road. This one was made of of two loop trails on either side of the highway and was a similar boardwalk trail. This one was also very beautiful with similar type of scenery, but more shrubbery and less mossy - so we didn't enjoy it quite s much as Schooners Cove.
When we were done the two loops we had reached about 20,000 steps and were ready for some dinner. We made homemade sub sandwiches on the tailgate and caught the attention of many passerbyers 😂 The couple parked beside us was from Timmins, Ontario and we ended up chatting with them for a while while making our dinner. They were recently retired and had been on the road since the beginning of June! While climbing back into the truck to finally eat dinner (about 30 minutes later), a super old sleeper van just beside us rolled down their window and asked if they could possible get a jump as their van just died. While we helped them out, we ended up then having a great chat with them and another couple who were both from Ottawa! Such a small world. The couple in the sleeper van had just moved out here, bought the van and are now living in their van in basically an illegal, underground hippie campground bahaha sums up Tofino very well!!
Once we finally ate our dinner, we were ready to hit some much needed HOT showers. The last time we showered was in The Yukon, about 3 or so days ago. And let me tell you, our hair was greasy and armpits stinky by this point. Since we weren't actually camping anywhere and there weren't any public showers downtown, our best bet was to sneak into one of the campgrounds in Pacific Rim and bum a shower! We decided to go to Green Point Campground which had just redone their shower facilities 2 years ago, so we knew they'd be primo. As we drove down the campground streets lined with "NO PARKING" signs we tried to figure out the best way to do this. We parked just up the road in front of an empty campsite and Zack showering first while I sat in the truck. Then Zack hopped in and I went to shower! Seeing as how they were nice, hot showers and I seriously needed it, I warned Zack I was going to take advantage and stay in there. Which he had no problem with, just sat in the car on his phone.
When I came out of the shower, Zack was parked in the empty campsite and signaling me to hurry up and GET IN THE CAR!! Turns out about less than 5 minutes ago a Parks Canada truck pulled up behind Zack and asked him what he was doing as he couldn't park along the road. Very smoothly, Zack explained that we are camping on the very otherside of the campground and his fiance who was currently showered insisted he drive over to the showers for her. Thankfully the parks guy didn't ask any further questions, just told Zack he needed to drive a couple laps until I was done. Phew, big relief watching him walk back to his truck after a close call. Then, just as Zack was rolling up the window he hears, "Hey wait!" shit, what now. The parks officer comes back up - Zack panicking that he realized we weren't actually camping here - and he says, "You know what, just back into this campsite while you're waiting for her and that way it's much easier for you" so Zack thanked him nervously and he was on his way!! So considering the encounter he just had, and the many signs saying showers were for campers only - Zack was feeling pretttty badass and ready to get the effff out of there!!!
We took off down the highway heading out of Pacific Rim National Reserve. Seeing as how this area is supposed to get 35-50mm of rain each day for the next 5 days, we decided we would gogo Victoria earlier tomorrow where the weather is supposed to be nicer! As we drove looking for a pulloff to sleep, Zack made it clear we needed to have service. As we started driving back through the windy mountains, the cell service dropped quick. After about an hour and a half of driving we hit Port Alberni where the cell service returned and we spotted a Walmart to spend the night. What seemed like a stupid idea earlier, turned out to be an absolutely great decision now!
Tomorrow we are heading to Victoria, BC to spend the day before we take the ferry back to Vancouver!
As we were then heading out of downtown Tofino we couldn't help but take in an incredible smell of roasted garlic and fresh baked bread. To our right we noticed a little cafe called "Common Loaf Bake Shop" and we had to stop for breakfast. We walked in and the first view was their many shelves of fresh baked loaves of bread and baked goods. We could also hear the perfect steaming of milk on the espresso machine and we knew this was our kind of cafe. We each ordered a classic breakfast with eggs/bacon/sausage and toast, an Americano and a cappuccino. As soon as we received our drinks you knew they were going to be perfect, and not long after that our breakfast arrived. Everything was incredible. Perfectly cooked eggs, market bacon and sausage, and thick, fluffy homemade grain bread. All fresh, homemade and local. If it had of lasted our trip home I would've bought as many loaves of bread as possible for everyone!!
Once done breakfast we took off and said our goodbyes to downtown Tofino. The next stop on our list was Chesterman Beach - where we were hoping to shower. When we arrived we quickly realized their "public showers" was just an outside shower on the building to wash off sand, so not really what we needed. We walked down towards the beach and could immediately see the large, crashing waves. We knew from the parking lot and a million wetsuits that this was going to be a good surfing beach. We went and sat down on the soft, warm sand for a while to watch the surfers and enjoy our very first passion fruit lol When we were at the grocery store Zack had picked one up and was asking how you would even eat something like that? A girl next to us then started raving about how delicious they were and how you just crack it open and spoon up the inside! So of course we had to get one and try it out haha Above you can see a picture of the insides, which was pretty gooey with weird potato bug looking seeds. I was very disgusted, and there was no was I was trying it. That is, until Zack tried it and told me how delicious it actually was. So we sat their eating passionfruit and watching surfers catch the waves.
After that we decided to walk along the very long beach towards the rocky coast with tropical trees. As we walked with our feet in the very cold water we made sure to look at all the shells and found a couple good sand dollars along the way. And many, many dead crabs. Poor guys! When we made it to the end, we realized that there was an entirely different beach area on the other side and a little tide pool area in between! Which of course we got to exploring right away. Unfortunately we didn't see any starfish like we wanted to, but we saw sooooo many crabs (alive this time), little fishies, and a couple sea anemones 😊
We made our way back after a couple hours and were ready to hit the next one! The awesome thing about Pacific Rim is that it's on the west side of the island, so basically the entire coastal stretch is beach haha
We switched things up a bit though for our next stop and tackled one of the beautiful trails in Pacific Rim National Reserve. It was called Schooner Cove Trail, about 2km through a lush rainforest down to Schooner Cove Beach. We walked along a windy board walk full of steep stairs, through the ancient rainforest. The sun disappeared from the dense trees, and the forest floor was scattered with ferns, vines and overgrown mosses. The trees were as tall and some even larger than those of Cathedral Grove that we visted the other day. Zack and I were in heaven! It honestly felt like you were walking through a tropical jungle, and a dart frog or some cute and deadly animal was going to pop out at any second lol
As the trail tailored off, we walked out into another stunning beach with rich dark blue water and waves crashing in. We stayed there for a little bit and watched the thick wall of fog roll in along the mountains in the background. We definitely regretted not packing some food to enjoy a beach picnic down here on one of the driftwood logs.
After enjoying Schooner Cove so much we decided to tackle another hike, Rainforest trail just up the road. This one was made of of two loop trails on either side of the highway and was a similar boardwalk trail. This one was also very beautiful with similar type of scenery, but more shrubbery and less mossy - so we didn't enjoy it quite s much as Schooners Cove.
When we were done the two loops we had reached about 20,000 steps and were ready for some dinner. We made homemade sub sandwiches on the tailgate and caught the attention of many passerbyers 😂 The couple parked beside us was from Timmins, Ontario and we ended up chatting with them for a while while making our dinner. They were recently retired and had been on the road since the beginning of June! While climbing back into the truck to finally eat dinner (about 30 minutes later), a super old sleeper van just beside us rolled down their window and asked if they could possible get a jump as their van just died. While we helped them out, we ended up then having a great chat with them and another couple who were both from Ottawa! Such a small world. The couple in the sleeper van had just moved out here, bought the van and are now living in their van in basically an illegal, underground hippie campground bahaha sums up Tofino very well!!
Once we finally ate our dinner, we were ready to hit some much needed HOT showers. The last time we showered was in The Yukon, about 3 or so days ago. And let me tell you, our hair was greasy and armpits stinky by this point. Since we weren't actually camping anywhere and there weren't any public showers downtown, our best bet was to sneak into one of the campgrounds in Pacific Rim and bum a shower! We decided to go to Green Point Campground which had just redone their shower facilities 2 years ago, so we knew they'd be primo. As we drove down the campground streets lined with "NO PARKING" signs we tried to figure out the best way to do this. We parked just up the road in front of an empty campsite and Zack showering first while I sat in the truck. Then Zack hopped in and I went to shower! Seeing as how they were nice, hot showers and I seriously needed it, I warned Zack I was going to take advantage and stay in there. Which he had no problem with, just sat in the car on his phone.
When I came out of the shower, Zack was parked in the empty campsite and signaling me to hurry up and GET IN THE CAR!! Turns out about less than 5 minutes ago a Parks Canada truck pulled up behind Zack and asked him what he was doing as he couldn't park along the road. Very smoothly, Zack explained that we are camping on the very otherside of the campground and his fiance who was currently showered insisted he drive over to the showers for her. Thankfully the parks guy didn't ask any further questions, just told Zack he needed to drive a couple laps until I was done. Phew, big relief watching him walk back to his truck after a close call. Then, just as Zack was rolling up the window he hears, "Hey wait!" shit, what now. The parks officer comes back up - Zack panicking that he realized we weren't actually camping here - and he says, "You know what, just back into this campsite while you're waiting for her and that way it's much easier for you" so Zack thanked him nervously and he was on his way!! So considering the encounter he just had, and the many signs saying showers were for campers only - Zack was feeling pretttty badass and ready to get the effff out of there!!!
We took off down the highway heading out of Pacific Rim National Reserve. Seeing as how this area is supposed to get 35-50mm of rain each day for the next 5 days, we decided we would gogo Victoria earlier tomorrow where the weather is supposed to be nicer! As we drove looking for a pulloff to sleep, Zack made it clear we needed to have service. As we started driving back through the windy mountains, the cell service dropped quick. After about an hour and a half of driving we hit Port Alberni where the cell service returned and we spotted a Walmart to spend the night. What seemed like a stupid idea earlier, turned out to be an absolutely great decision now!
Tomorrow we are heading to Victoria, BC to spend the day before we take the ferry back to Vancouver!
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