Tofino

We made a quick trip to Tofino for the long weekend. It's been quite a few years since our last visit.

Cathedral Grove was a good chance to stretch our legs and see the big trees. We stopped on the way back as well to see the trails on the other side of the road.

We stayed at Wildpod, which are a bit like yurts but geodesic domes. It's a small place (6 domes) on the west edge of Tofino. The Rock pod we were in faces away from town with a great view of the ocean and islands. There was lots of wildlife around - kingfishers, great blue herons, cormorants, a sea lion, sea stars, ...

The forecast was for rain so we did most of our exploring and walking on the first day. Our first stop was Radar Hill but the only view was of the fog.

Next stop was Grice Bay. Unfortunately, there weren't any migratory birds on the mudflats but I was satisfied with turning over rocks to find the shore crabs.

A Pacific Wren greeted us on the Rain Forest Trail. There wasn't much light and it never sat still so it's not a great photo. It was small enough that it could play peekaboo through the gaps between the walkway boards.

The spider webs were easier subjects.

After lunch we walked the Ucluelet Lighthouse Loop (part of the Wild Pacific Trail).

There have been reports about the herring spawn, so it was interesting to find herring eggs on the beach.

The next day, raining as predicted, we went to the Uclulet aquarium. I remember the first time we visited they were in a small temporary building raising money for the current building. It's a nice small aquarium, although not ideal for photography.

We went to the Wickaninnish Hotel for supper one night and also stopped by the bar for a quiet place to hide out from the rain in the afternoon. (I recently read Long Beach Wild where I learned that this is actually the second incarnation of the Wickaninnish Hotel.)

We also tried the Long Beach Resort restaurant one night. It also has a great view of the beach. Despite the cold wind, I had to grab my camera and get some sunset photos from the beach in front of the restaurant.

It was raining again when we left the next day and there was even a little snow on the road in spots (it was only +3c). But we managed a quick walk on the beach and of course a few photos.

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