We knew if we wanted to see anything in our last US stop of Port Angeles we needed to get there early in the day as we had booked the early AM ferry to Victoria the following morning. We arrived around noon and after securing a first come first served campsite at the Heart O The Hills Campground a ten minute drive up the mountain from town. We returned to town and did some walking around the harbour and stocking up on groceries before heading to the campground and setting out on the bike to climb to the top of Hurricane Ridge.
The road was fog covered most of the way, but just as we got to the end the clouds parted and we were treated to a fantastic view of the Olympia Glacier. We walked around the peak for about an hour where deer wandered around seemingly without any fear of humans.
Return to Canada! We boarded the Black Ball Ferry for an 8:15 departure from Port Angeles. It was the first time either of us had entered Canada by boat which was pretty cool. The crossing of the Straight of Juan de Fuca took about 2 hours and we were in Victoria before noon.
We parked the RV and motorcycle down by the ocean next to Beacon Hill Park and took our bicycles around town for a couple hours to explore. The gardens in Beacon Hill Park were very pretty. We also stopped at City Hall where they were having a Mexican Festival and enjoyed some genuine Mexican food. We swung through China Town and past the provincial legislature. We left late afternoon to head to our campground at Goldstream Provincial Park about 20km out of town.
The next day we took the motorcycle back into Victoria to see the sights a bit more. We went inside the legislature, and went to the insect museum which was a small but excellent museum with very knowledgeable and entertaining staff and lots of creepy bugs to hold!
We opted to pick up some take-out Chinese food in China Town and eat it back at the campground for dinner.
The next morning we hiked with Misty to see the waterfall at Goldstream before heading out on the long drive to Pacific Rim National Park. The drive was gorgeous although we did get held up by construction along the way. We stopped in Uculet for Gareth to take part in a videoconference before arriving at the Green Point Campground, which we had been lucky enough to secure a spot at.
We went into Tofino about 20km north of the campground the following morning. We decided to book a whale watching trip for 2pm, so after lunch we donned survival suits and headed down to the dock and boarded a small boat. It wasn’t quite what we hoped – the water was quite rough and we didn’t see a lot of whales.
The staff at the company seemed to want to please us so offered to book us on another tour the next day at no charge – bear watching. We agreed and booked it for 8am the next day. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out in Tofino and doing our laundry at the laundromat.
The next morning we had an early departure to make it to our bear watching trip. It was much more enjoyable than the whale watching – calm waters and excellent opportunities to see black bears looking for food on the beach. When we returned to town we grabbed some groceries and walked some of the local trails before heading back to the campground.
Scientists sponsored by the farmed salmon industry say the evidence is ‘inconclusive’ and so the practice continues.
On our last day at Pacific Rim we packed up the RV and headed a few KM down the road to the Wickaninnish Beach where we walked on the beach. Sandy decided she wanted to do some boogie boarding before we left so we found a shop that rented wetsuits, much needed in the icy cold water. It was lots of fun and Gareth & Misty enjoyed sitting on the beach watching her. When we finally left around 6pm we didn’t arrive at our next stop, Englishman River Falls Provincial Park near Nanaimo until it was getting dark.
