Winging It West Archive

Cathedral Grove

On Friday morning we headed out to Pacific Rim National Park and Long Beach. The drive was from Parksville along Highway 4 to Port Alberni and then on to Long Beach. Before Port Alberni we stopped at Cathedral Grove. It is a stand of Douglas Fir that range in age from 300-800 years old.

Looking up, looking waaay up.

This tree had fallen and it managed to fall between two trees at the far end.

Here are the girls walking along the tree.

Some of the sunlight still finds it way to the floor of the forest.

Here is a picture of our rental car. It is a 2009 Toyota Camry Hybrid. We managed to squeeze everything into the trunk. The trunk is a liitle tighter due to the extra space taken up by the batteries for the car. The girls like the fact that it is a hybrid and considering gas is about $1.10/litre, I'm liking it as well. It took awhile to get use to starting it, just push the button. When we got to the ferry terminal I had some time to read the manual.

Long Beach Part 1

After Cathedral Grove it was on to Long Beach. The road out to Tofino/Ucluelet is a winding, narrow and hilly road. Some of the scenery along the way.

We stopped at the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve Visitor Centre and paid our fee. The day pass was $19.60 for the family and it was good until 4:00 PM the next day. 

Our first stop was the Wickaninnish Beach. This is part of Long Beach which is 16 km long. The weather was perfect.

There was alot of dead crabs on the beach.

There were quite a few surfers in the water trying to catch a wave.

The water was a little cold. The only ones in the ocean were the ones with wet suits. The girls enjoying the beach.

Angela with one of the crabs she found.

Gillian with jelly remains.

Angela and Claudia heading to wash off.

After a couple of hours on the beach we headed over to the Interpretive Centre.

Angela and Claudia found a tide pool with some sea anemone.

One more shot before heading inside.