We took a two night getaway to this gorgeous area which is about a five hour drive from Victoria. It's on the West side of Vancouver Island and known for it's surfing, beaches and wildlife. The 4 1/2 hour drive here was beautiful passing through lots of farmland and then crossing from the east to the west through gorgeous mountains.
Ucluelet
We checked into our cute little bedroom suite in the base of a house in this cute town, pronounced you-clue-let, which is about a 35 minute drive from Tofino. During the summer this area is really popular so lodging can be a little tricky if you're planning last minute, like we were, but we lucked out and it was perfect for our needs. This entire area is just one surfing beach after another and we saw lots of boards, cute surf shops and people coming in from playing hard. We grabbed dinner at the Ucluelet Brewery and had a early night in.
A Birding Tour
We had booked a birding boat tour with The Whale Center in Tofino for the next morning so that's where we headed after waking up. They do them periodically through the summer so we were so happy to have caught one! We donned our bright red survival suits and walked to the boat to meet our captain. There were only three of us on the boat due to some last minute cancellations and the weather was perfect.
Astonishing Wildlife
For 2 1/2 hours we saw birds of all kinds - Cormorants, Common mures, Gulls, Rhinoceros Auklets, Pigeon Guillemots, Eagles, Oystercatchers - and our very first Tufted Puffin! Our guide had been navigating these waters for 40 years and he could spot something from far away and then get us closer. It was pretty special to be with someone that really had such extensive knowledge and love for wildlife (he would periodically haul out his enormous camera to snap a few pics himself).
We even had a few sea lions decide to swim around our boat for a bit which was fun.
One area had several mama sea otters with their babies! The lighting wasn't great for capturing them and a result, their faces are in shadow, but here's some shots to show just how adorable it was to see them all watching us and how they carried their young.
Then as we navigated the gorgeous water, we noticed massive bird activity in one area. Our guide explained it was a baitball. Wikipedia says: "A bait ball, or baitball, occurs when small fish swarm in a tightly packed spherical formation about a common centre. It is a last-ditch defensive measure adopted by small schooling fish when they are threatened by predators". He moved the boat closer and it was incredible to watch!! Sometimes the gulls had multiple fish in their beaks and fought over them. All the birds were catching fish like crazy!
Another absolutely amazing thing we saw was a huge group of resting sea otters (which are called a raft and this one was probably all male since we didn't see any young). I have no idea how our captain recognized it from such a distance as it just looked like another group of sea plants/stuff floating along, but he identified and got us a little closer.
"Otters love to rest in groups. Researchers have seen concentrations of over 1,000 otters floating together. To keep from drifting away from each other, sea otters will wrap themselves up in seaweed, forming something that resembles a raft."
Holy cow isn't this cool!
*These pictures are with my long lens and cropped afterward to see the detail better. Many of them had their eyes closed snoozing.
Our bird tour ended up including some of the coolest marine life we'd ever seen up close!
The town & beaches
We grabbed a coffee with an incredible location and just sat there enjoying the really beautiful views. Then we headed to check out a couple of spots along Long Beach where we saw surfers carrying their boards through the trees, sat and enjoyed ourselves and the activity going on around us. I enjoyed watching the fast moving fog roll in and out.
The Wild Pacific Trail
Then we hiked this gorgeous trail which was super close to our place, for some pretty evening scenery around a lighthouse.
Incredible Park
The next day we started heading home, but stopped to climb around the rocks at the
?a?ukmin Tribal Park (we have no idea how to pronounce it and Google was no help either haha). The water color was astonishing and there were quite a few people getting in to cool off.
