Ucluelet and Tofino, Vancouver Island, Canada

 After spending 3 days in Strathcona Park, we drove to the west side of Vancouver Island to the small towns of Ucluelet and Tofino.  The drive over was interesting because we went through the town of Port Alberni which is located much closer to the east side of the island, but due to a big fjord, is actually a seaport on the west side.

We hiked along Wild Pacific Trail in Ucluelet where we had beautiful views and saw and enterprising blue heron fishing from floating driftwood.  There was also a rare bog along the trail where we could see carniverous sundew plants.

We drove up to Tofino for a day and visited the Pacific Rim National Park visitor center where we heard a very good ranger talk about the predators in the area (50+ blackbears, 2 wolves and 4-5 cougars live between Ucluelet and Tofino.  If you have time, I highly recommend this visitor center.

While we did not see any of the predators, we did see people surfing (must have been very cold), eagles, and seals.

The town of Tofino is a cross between resort area with very active seaplane service, many fishing boats, and ferry services to other communities on the island that do not have roads to them.