Sunday, November 16, 2008

Day 5 - Tofino - Hiking and recharging

We were worried about the weather on Day 5, because rain was in the forecast. But we awoke to no rain that morning! Here's the view from the windows of our room.

The B&B owner told us that there are usually bears back here, but we didn't see any during our stay.

I am so excited to eat breakfast in my pajamas!


We went back to Chesterman Beach, where we got drenched the night before. It was so incredibly beautiful!


A sand dollar with some "fuzz" still left on it.


The sun peeking through the clouds.


The beach is very long, and there were only about 10 other people enjoying the morning.


We walked out to an island that's only accessible during low tide.



A lone paddle surfer.


After our walk on the beach, we went and hiked in the Pacific Rim National Park. There are a bunch of easy hikes that each had their own personalities. During the summer, the crowds are enormous, but we pretty much had each hike to ourselves.

This hike was through a lovely forest that ended going down lots of stairs next to a waterfall to a beach.


One of my favorite hikes was through this bog - it reminded me of the scene in Lord of the Rings in the Dead Marshes, but happily there were no dead bodies! The walkway is just sitting on top of the moss, so it was nice and springy.


Even slugs are beautiful in Tofino!


We took some more hikes to several beaches, each with its own personality. This was the first time I understood the appeal of beachcombing, because each beach had so much beach "debris" to look at!


Rob thought this would be a good before/after shot of some driftwood.


So happy that my ears are protected by my Chevron Scarf.


The last hikes we did were through some rainforests, which had walkways that took you through the canopies of of the trees. None of the photos did justice to the incredible landscape and scale of the trees.


This bridge is made from a fallen log.


Rob can barely fit under this tree!


The entire day was just what I had hoped for - great but easy hiking, beautiful scenery and a chance to be with nature. It was definitely worth the trip just to make it here!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Beautiful.

Ilix said...

Fantastic. I love Tofino!

Anonymous said...

How magical! Sam looked at the photos and especially loved the slug picture and the "letters in the sand".

Jennifer said...

I'm so glad you are posting again!
Love all the photos. I had no idea sand dollars had fuzz on them!
I used to live in the Pacific Northwest...makes me miss it.
I'm a Purl addict too...your signature has appeared on many of my invoices :)