Tofino and Ucluelet

All throughout our trip so far and even before we began our travels people have been raving about the awesomeness of Tofino and the West Coast of Vancouver Island. Finally, we arrived to take a look for ourselves.

Tofino coastline and surrounding islands

Watching the planes land

The area has become quite touristy in recent years. Many come for the rugged west coast scenery, the pristine beaches and the world class surfing. A burgeoning restaurant culture has also developed in the area.

Our first day in Tofino we decided to go on a self-lead tasting tour, something we had enjoyed doing back home in Guelph on weekends.

First stop was the famed Sobo restaurant. Once a popular food truck and now a local favourite restaurant, Sobo was pretty busy when we arrived for lunch and with good reason. Their food was delicious! Bill had a thick and creamy salmon chowder soup and I had a gourmet pizza.

We spent the rest of the afternoon touring around town and exploring a local beach. We made sure to secure our accommodations early in the afternoon as most places were booking up quickly. We ended up camping out at the Wya Point Surf Shop just out of town and stayed for three nights.

Exploring a small beach behind Sobo

Taking in the sights

Where there's a brewery, there's a Bill. We drove out to Tofino Brewing Co to sample their wares. The brewery was also pretty busy but had a nice ambiance and friendly staff.

For dinner we continued our tasting tour and visited Tacofino, a food truck style taco joint at a strip mall just outside of town. We split a fish taco and then headed over to Swell Judiciary to share a noodle box and for dessert, some amazing home made gelato at Chocolate Tofino.

Tacifino

So good, it's gone before the picture was taken

Noodle box from Swell Juice Bar  

Homemade ice cream to top off the meal

The next day we decided to leave the car at the campsite and walk to the nearest beach, a bit farther then we thought but we didn't mind. Once at Wickaninnish Beach it was a gorgeous 10 km walk to the north end of Long Beach. We spent the afternoon swimming, lounging, sunning and walking all the way down the gorgeous white sand beaches.

Wickaninnish Beach

The long walk to Long Beach

Relaxing in the sand

Exhausted, but happy we caught a ride back to our car and drove into Ucluelet for dinner. Before we decided on a restaurant we stopped in at the lighthouse to play on the rocks. We realized later that everyone in town has a channel with a live feed of the lighthouse. Later at dinner we watched other tourists on the TV walk around the lighthouse as the patrons before us no doubt watched us.

Exploring the rocks around the lighthouse

Ucluelet lighthouse

What a show off

The Canadian Princess is a permanently moored historic ship now restaurant. We went aboard for dinner. I had the fish and chips and Bill had a burger and a beer.

The Canadian Princess restaurant for dinner

Our third day we spent walking the Wild Pacific Trail in Ucluelet. The newly commissioned pathway will one day connect the town of Ucluelet to the Pacific Rim National Park. So far 4 km are completed, following the rugged coastline allowing for spectacular views of waves crashing over rocks.

Wild Pacific Trail

Snail on the trail! We helped him cross safely 

After our hike we stopped for ice cream and bought the ridiculous five scoop "Mt. Ozzard" monstrosity. I still can't believe we ate that much ice cream.

At the time it seemed like a good idea to order this much ice cream

We relaxed on the beach for a few hours before making a low key dinner back a the campsite.