CHECKING OUT UCLUELET.
Day 261 – Rain and fog again this morning, we’re glad we changed our Bear Watch trip to tomorrow. It was a humid 54 degrees last night. After lunch when the rain had stopped, we went out to explore Ucluelet, the other popular town in this area.
Ucluelet was a little different than Tofino. Both towns have beaches popular with surfers and both are popular tourist destinations, but Ucluelet didn’t seem quite as busy as Tofino and it seemed to be more spread out. There were still lodges, inns, motels, campgrounds, and restaurants, but they weren’t so bunched up together. There were also plenty of places for booking tours of various kinds. There’s a wonderful biking/walking paved trail that runs along the highway from Tofino through the National Parklands and into Uclelet. They have plans to extend it all the way into Ucluelet like it is in Tofino. But for now, there is less foot traffic and cyclists that you have to be careful of when driving.
We drove around town and familiarized ourselves with the area, drove down several residential streets hoping to get to a beach with views, and drove through Ucluelet Campground to check it out and compare it to ours (it was just okay). Our campground is fairly full and it’s also fairly noisy; we do like our campsite in the woods, though.
Almost all parking spaces were taken everywhere – along the streets and in the parking lots – and we’re thinking, just wait until July and August. We stopped at a parking lot that had a space and visited Amphritite Lighthouse. The Wild Pacific Trail runs along the coastline of the town of Ucluelet and we walked some of it. Very pretty and nice views. This trail is very popular with hikers.
Back at the RV we were very excited about tomorrow’s Bear Watching trip. The high today was 63 degrees. We went to bed early because we have to be at Jamie’s Whaling Station tomorrow morning before 6:30 a.m. The girls love it when we go to bed early – it means more cuddling.