I'm going to try something different here. I don't know how it will go, and I don't promise to make this a regular feature, but since I'm sharing my Canadian photos on a few social networks already, I wanted to do it a little differently on Steemit and turn this into something approaching a travel blog (though to use the B-word will all but guarantee failure, given my history with such endeavours, so lets call it a travel LOG instead. Much better.
Instead of sharing the photos one at a time I'll put a few together into a single post per location (West Coast Vancouver Island, for example) and link them together with a bit of descriptive prose.
Hopefully the #OriginalContent will add extra value to my Steemit posts, and if this goes well I'll share it out from here to Facebook and my website, and thus begin to promote Steemit and my presence on it. Fair?
So with disclaimer duly recorded and italics all used up with a conspicuous lack of promises, let us begin the first of many (a few, one?) episode(s) in my photo-heavy travel LOG.
EXPLORING the WEST COAST of VANCOUVER ISLAND
Speaking of logs...
Mountain, rainforest, waterfall, rock and beach, these make up Vancouver Island, tucked into Canada's Pacific coast, one of the westernmost parts of British Columbia (but not of Canada - the Yukon has that distinction).
Today we explore the western coast of this western island, where the ocean meets the sand.
Unlike at the rocky easternmost point of Canada - Cape Spear, Newfoundland - you can walk into the ocean here at Long Beach without a high probability of death. This makes it a traditional beginning to a coast-to-coast journey, even though it has no catchy geographic distinction (and it's best to start on the west coast so that when you die attempting to get your feet wet at Cape Spear, at least you will have enjoyed Canada first - but I digress).
After the obligatory Pacific stroll we drive up the coast to the pretty little town of Tofino.
PUBLIC SERVICE INTERRUPTION: I should tell you right now that this travel log won't take you into all the cool little towns across the country. I won't have pictures of food, or of locals (unless they get in the way when I take a nature photo), and precious few cityscapes (I skipped most cities). It wasn't that kind of trip, and I'm not that kind of photographer. By focusing on landscape images and nature I sacrificed seeing a lot of cool "local" things, and when I stopped for breakfast it was my chance to put the camera away and figure out my next destination. Now that I've dashed your expectations, here's a rainbow:
Tofino is pretty.
One of my favourite spots we found on the coast was just outside Ucluelet (which even the locals call Ukee) a town south of Tofino. In Ukee is a hiking trail, a short loop. Popular with locals and tourists alike, it follows the coast around a point and passes the Amphitrite Lighthouse. This trail is called -say it with me - the Lighthouse Loop.
And I'll let the pictures do the talking.
In the photography world we would say that the Lighthouse Loop has a high PPPM rate (pretty photos per mile). Okay, I made that up. But you see what I mean. And I'm grateful to my buddy (who knows who he is, I hope) for choosing awesome locations to visit! This is one of the few areas on my journey that I didn't scout heavily beforehand, expecting to enjoy time with friends before the long trip east, but the photo opportunities were there anyway.
Now, "what about the National Parks!?" you demand? What about Pacific Rim? As I described in earlier posts, one key goal of this trip was to visit a Canadian National Park in every province and (accessible) territory. The goal was not to visit every park (save that for another decade!), though of course I wanted to see as many as possible. But I knew I would spend time in the Rockies and ended up visiting five of B.C.'s NP's, so when the weather at Pacific Rim was poor, I was content to explore for an afternoon and then move on. The poor weather worked to my advantage on the Rainforest Trail:
The beaches in the Park didn't work out so well for me on the cloudy exploration day - mark locations on the map for next time!
From Ucluelet I drove back across the Island on the Pacific Rim Highway towards Port Alberni...but that's a story for another day.