Passing Time in the Pacific Northwest and Beautiful British Columbia

In the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia history feels close at hand. The wild west frontier has been crossed to be sure, but to the traveler passing by, it feels like it occurred only recently. The European settlements are new and modern, especially in the hubs of Victoria and Vancouver. The indigenous cultures are highly visible, as totem poles, long houses and the indigenous people themselves are an integral part of the north west coast society.

Trees in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve

British, Spanish and Russian explorers both sailed along North America's Pacific coastline. In 1775 two Spanish ships came ashore in the region that is now known as the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State (Point Grenville and the Quinault River to be exact). The Spanish built the first European settlement in the region in Neah Bay in 1792, but this settlement was abandoned after 5 months. It was too hard to find good paella in these parts.

Captains Cook and Vancouver (well known to our Australian readers no doubt), also played a part in the European exploration of this region. Captain James Cook landed ashore on Vancouver Island in 1778, claiming the land for Britain, as was his want. Captain George Vancouver, who earlier in his career worked as part of Cook's exploration team, separately explored the region in search of the fabled northwest passage. He never found the passage, but no doubt Vancouver learned a lot about patience and similar virtues, as his team spent about four years on this task. Vancouver is responsible for much of the charting and modern day naming of the coastal areas along the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia.

Depending on who you talk to or what history books you read, Russians were all over the Pacific coast of North America from the early 1700s. Most notable of the Russian sponsored explorers is Vitus Bering, who was actually a Dane. Bering is credited with the first European “discovery” of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands.

Pioneers moved to the Pacific Northwest in the late 1800s to farm, fish and log the timber. Port Townsend became the first permanent settlement on the Olympic Peninsula in 1851. British Columbia was separately originally settled by the Hudson Bay Company by the establishment of various trading outposts. Victoria, the provincial capital of British Columbia, wasn't established until 1843.

Provincial Parliament in Victoria, BC

In total we and the Prius spent about 3 weeks exploring this area by boat and land. Here are some highlights of our journey.

Forks, Washington

This small timber town is set amongst the dark and gloomy rainforest scenery that is typical to the Olympic Peninsula. Located in the far north west corner of continental USA, it is foggy, damp and isolated. Hence we weren't overly surprised to find shops named “Shot In The Dark” (for an espresso shop), “Moonlight Motel,” “Twilight Motel”and so on. Only when we saw the “Dazzled by Twilight” costume store and “Twilight Tours”, did it dawn on us that perhaps this town has something to do with the Twilight series of novels. A quick search on our Droid phone confirmed that this assumption was correct. Stephanie Meyers, author of the Twilight trilogy, set her novels in Forks, Washington and hence evermore it will be the home of Bella and Edward the Vampire. According to Wikipedia, tourism in Forks has jumped 600% since the publication of the series.

Port Angeles, Washington

Port Angeles is one of several ferry hubs for Washington state and is the largest town on the Olympic Peninsula with a population of approximately 19,500. We decided to take a ferry from here to Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia, Canada, a one hour ride away. Whilst in Port Angeles Ellisha picked up an awesome purple Marmot jacket (look out for appearances in upcoming blog photos). Port Angeles is a nice little town, shipping imagery and naval themes abound. Its a little hokey, but we only really realized this upon our arrival in Victoria.

Victoria, Canada

Civility, cleanliness, diversity, political correctness. These are some of the themes brought to mind upon our arrival in the city of Victoria in Vancouver Island from the remotes of Washington State. It is a beautiful harbour city, dotted with pleasant bookstores, English themed bars, coffee shops, and has a penchant for high teas and float planes. It displays a sincere sensitivity of its indigenous culture, whilst celebrating its modern day diverse nature. I would say it's a kind of British Utopia, and in fact the is a tea shop in town called “Teaopia”, which of course is fabulous. At Teaopia we both had green matcha teas infused with a herbal remedy for protection against sore throats. We also indulged in a little high tea at the Empress Hotel on the harbour. We were treated to three tiered cake plates, Royal Doulton china especially designed for the Empress Hotel, smoked salmon sandwiches, shortbreads, green tea cheesecake, strawberries dipped in chocolate and a long list of other edible delights. Highly recommended.

High Tea at the Empress Hotel, Victoria

In Victoria when you go to a Thai restaurant, you get Thai food, not some salty variation of a Chinese dish. It's been a while since we've seen this type of respectful treatment of Asian cuisine. After a fabulous Thai meal downtown, we went to watch a Canucks game on the big screen at the “Sticky Wicket,” a cricket-themed pub. I'd be very surprised if many people who frequented this establishment had ever watched a cricket game, but like all Canadians, Victorians seemed to take it in their stride and focused on the ice hockey. Support for this game sadly was quickly subdued as the Canucks got a bit of a thrashing and went down 4 to 1 in the end.

Now, dear reader, you may be wondering – Why was this city given the name “Victoria?” I will now put your curiosity to rest. The city was named thus in honour of that glorious queen of the great British Empire, Queen Victoria. The clever Canucks who chose this name no doubt were mindful of their proximity to the United States of America and their desire to seek Britain's assistance should those Americans get a little recalcitrant - as they have an inclination to do from time to time - and try to invade Western Canada. To our modern ears this idea may seem a little ridiculous, but one need look no further than the infamous “Pig War” crisis that occurred in 1859 to realize that it has not always been as peaceful in these parts as it is today. This crisis was triggered by the shooting of a pig by an American farmer. Now I'm not too sure why the shooting of the pig was so egregious, but it was shot during a period of tension between America and Canada regarding the watery border between Vancouver Island and Washington State and the ownership of the San Juan Islands located with in this stretch of water. After the pig got shot tensions escalated, and at the height of the dispute 500 U.S. Army soldiers and 3 British warships were nose to nose off the southern shoreline of the islands, not 10 miles from Victoria. Fortunately cool heads prevailed and the nations agreed to joint military occupation of the San Juan Island until the boundary could be decided. Some twelve years later Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany (grandfather to Kaiser Wilhelm II who started WWI) as arbitrator, awarded the islands to the USA. The San Juan Islands have since been dedicated as a US National Historical Park that a handful of sailors visit in the summer.

To continue our education in civility, we spent a day at the Butchart Gardens which are on the outskirts of Victoria. Twenty hectares of manicure gardens, partitioned into a traditional Japanese garden, an Italian garden, a rose garden, a sunken garden and a perenials garden surround a stately Victorian residence that is still occupied by the Butchart family, the centerpiece of which – naturally – is the tea house.

Duncan, Vancouver Island aka “I love to have a beer”

We would have loved to have a beer in Duncan, truly, we would have LOVED to, but everything was shut. Nonetheless, it's still a great town. In fact it's an awesome town, and not just because of the name. You may not know this - and I'll forgive you if you don't - but Duncan is actually otherwise known as the City of Totems. We did a photographic journey of the 41 totems that are displayed across Duncan. Please be on the look-out for our upcoming photo essay blog - “Titillating Totems of Dandy Duncan”.

 

Ucluelet, West Coast of Vancouver Island

We went to Ucluelet in search of peacefulness and rest. Yes, dear reader, we were a little tired at this stage. Blogging may look like all fun and games to you, but rest assured, it takes it out of you after a while. Ucluelet is located on the remote wild wild western coast of Vancouver Island. It is isolated, but you can still get a stretched espresso if you need, whilst not being harassed by hordes of fans or the paparazzi. We booked ourselves into a nice little cabin and went on retreat for a week.

Retreat activities are not to be disclosed, we can't share all of our lives with you, but we will disclose that Ucluelet is next door to the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve and is also a jump-off point for the famed West Coast Trail, a coastal hiking trail that traverses 75 kilometers of wild Pacific beach front. (For more on the Pacific Rim, see below)

One further tit-bit for you before I shut the lid on retreat activities. Located within Ucluelet is the Wild Pacific Trail. The showcase of this trail is the Amphitrite Lighthouse, along with the rugged coastline and salt sprayed rainforest. This lighthouse is so popular that a local television station is dedicated to it. At anytime of the day, any day of the week/month/year, you can tune into local channel 4 and watch the lighthouse and listen to smooth easy listening background music. Even at night you can monitor the lighthouse, but it's just a beam of light circling on the screen.

Pacific Rim National Park Reserve

Established in 1970, the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve was Canada's first national park on the west coast. This area is the traditional territory of the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation Peoples (Nuu-chah-nulth translates to “among the mountains”). The Pacific Rim National Park Reserve is still designated a national park reserve rather than fully fledged park, pending the resolution of treaty settlements with the Nuu-chah-nulth.

This park is split into three distinct areas – the Broken Islands, the West Coast Trail and Long Beach. The Broken Islands are scenic little splotches of islands that dot the park's coast. Most of the islands are rocky outcrops with a couple of pine trees, but apparently a couple of them are big enough to camp on if you're willing to kayak out there to do so. We were not willing.

The West Coast Trail, as mentioned above, is 75 kilometers long and a popular multi-day hike in summer. It was closed when we were there, so we gave the multi-day hike a miss too. Interestingly though, this trail was created specifically for shipwreck survivors. So many ships wrecked along the coast here that this trail was built to link the coastal survivor to the nearby towns. Nifty, 'ey?

We did however spend a pleasant day strolling Long Beach and its adjacent rainforest. This rainforest is very very wet and was similar to the forest in Olympic National Park, but the trees were smaller. Long Beach looks like it is an inviting beach and it is very popular with surfers, but the water is so cold (7 to 14 degrees Celsius) you can't go in without a thick wetsuit (five millimeter at least). Tides play a big part at Long Beach, and when the tide is out, an array of different sea creatures and little fishes can be viewed in the beach's rock pools.

Rock pools at Long Beach

Just north of Long Beach, at Friendly Cove, Nootka Sound, is the spot where Captain James Cook came ashore and raised the Union Jack in 1778.

Highway 4, Vancouver Island

Traveling from Ucluelet back to the eastern side of Vancouver Island, we traversed a most beautiful stretch of road and perhaps the most beautiful we have driven upon during this trip. Surrounded by the golden and rust fall foliage, the sunlight dappling through the trees, the road passes by water in many forms. A raging, flooding river traverses one side of the highway for a good portion. Waterfalls stream down the surrounding mountains, and onto the road in many spots. Deep blue lakes are flanked by mountains covered by the bright green pines. And the piece-de-resistance, a bald eagle swooped down next to the car to give as a wink as we drove by.

Schoen Lake Provincial Park, Vancouver Island

On our way to Port Hardy to board the BC Ferry to Prince Rupert, we camped a night at Schoen Lake Provincial Park. It's a lovely remote camp ground next to a lake created by a log jam. We appeared to be the only people there, except for a lone fishing pole that was rigged up in the lake. We speculated a mountain man living on his own in the wilds probably lived nearby and managed to sufficiently freak ourselves out that when a mouse ran over the outside of our tent later that night, we both jumped out of our skin perhaps slightly more than was necessary. This, together with the thought of the log jam breaching and the subsequent torrent washing away our escape route, led to a pretty early departure and a very on-time arrival at Port Hardy.

Port Hardy

Upon review of our trusty road atlas, it was discovered that we could reach Alaska by ferry from Port Hardy. Port Hardy is a small town located at the northern tip of Vancouver Island, an area that is affectionately known as “The North”. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the town was quite charming and we whittled away a couple of hours in a lovely bookcafe called the “Book Nook” and purchased some materials for our upcoming journey through the Inside Passage to Alaska. Stay tuned...

Odd historic site in Port Hardy and Alex posed as a rabbit