Tofino

We have arrived at the Parks Canada Greenpoint campground on July 11th which is a very popular campground that is fully booked for the summer. The park has excellent interpretive programs and the beach is just a short trail away. The campground is in a dense rainforest, many of the sites do not have much sunlight streaming in. Despite that, our stay was very enjoyable and we also took time to explore the other attractions around the Tofino area.

The Parks Canada red chairs at Greenpoint Beach

On the rocky bluff at Greenpoint

The day for the hot springs visit turned out to be wonderful. We had calm waters heading into Hot Springs Cove. The place is 1.5hrs away by boat and we stopped along the way to see seals, eagles and a humpback whale. (We saw a gray whale the day before from the Kwisitis Visitor Centre.) As usual, when you try to take pictures of whales it is all about luck – luck that you see a whale, luck that some part of the whale is above the water, luck that your camera is ready and in focused. Below is the best whale picture I took on the trip – at least there is the dorsal fin and not all water 🙂

Humpback whale

We also saw a few seals that started to jump into the water as soon as they noticed us. Our guide said they look like sausages on the rock and that made us chuckle.

Sausages on the rock

You know someone is really enjoying the ride

Eagle soaring above Hot Springs Cove

Jellyfish

Lighthouse

Speeding to our destination

When we arrived at Macquinna Marine Park, we walked 2kms along a boardwalk to the hot springs.

The boardwalk is nothing we have ever seen as some of the boards have carvings – there were names of people, places and whatever people wanted to express..

The hot springs was very busy. We had a hard time finding a spot to sit while gingerly stepping on slippery jagged rocks. The crowd finally cleared out and we found a nice little area to relax.

Soakers basking in the Sun

Ocean-view from Hot Springs Cove

The next morning was spent getting ready for our backpacking trip – you know, re-checking our list twice to make sure we have everything we need since we will be in the remote wilderness and if we forget something, we have to make do without it.

In the afternoon, we headed to Tofino to pick up seafood. The oysters where $17/doz and crabs were $16.50/lb. Good thing we shucked the oysters on the picnic table as it was quite messy. Everyone had a very satisfying dinner, it was such a treat.

Resident Chef

We left Greenpoint at 7:30am on our way to Port Mcneill which is about a 5 hr drive away. Minutes after we got onto Hwy 4, we saw a black bear cross the highway – it didn’t seem to be in a rush to get across as they usually do. We are staying at Cluxewe Resort and it’s a very nice place. A full service spot is $25!!!!! Stay tuned for the next post about our Cape Scott adventure.