Make sure you check out my blog to read Pt. 1 of my explorations on Vancouver Island!
Our trip on luscious Vancouver Island continued after a blissful few days in Tofino surfing our hearts out and hiking in Pacific Rim National Park. After refueling in town, the next stop on our agenda in the wild north was the incredible Telegraph Cove.
Telegraph Cove is known for being ridiculously idyllic, a hot spot for eco-tourism (whale watching, kayaking and diving) and is nestled in between the ocean and rainforest. It's also insanely charming to walk through, as you spend a lot of time on boardwalks over the water, peeping into historic sites and shops.
It's full of some incredible antiques from its history with the lumber and salmon industries, which were booming in the 1930's. Check out this rusty old truck that was just sitting on the boardwalk.
You don't need to spend too long in Telegraph Cove to realise just how perfect it looks. It was calm and quiet, but can get quite busy on a sunny summer's day, so get there early!
After a few hours exploring the small town, we hit the road to catch the next ferry over to Alert Bay, which is a village rich in indigenous culture on a tiny island off-shore, called Cormorant Island. A big focus of our trip up to northern Vancouver Island was to learn more about the indigenous peoples from the area, so this was a really interesting stop for us.
First, we had to get the ferry from Port McNeill, which took under an hour from what I can remember! It was cold and rainy, so we spent our time inside the ferry rather than out on the deck!
As soon as we docked, we walked towards the visitor's centre, only to find it closed. Thankfully we had found a map on the ferry so we could find some interesting places to explore.
Upon passing the visitor's centre, we saw a majestic bald eagle perched on an old wooden beam in the harbour! It was just sitting there, getting a nice light shower in the rain, staring back at us.
We walked along the harbour towards the 'Namgis Original Burial Grounds, full of totem poles in memory of those who had passed away. It was a very sacred site deserving of much respect, and truly beautiful.
The details on some of the totem poles was really incredible. It was awesome to really experience this living tradition here.
We had wanted to visit the U'mista Cultural Centre, but that was also closed (we clearly picked the wrong day), so we opted for a nice hike on an old tree trail, where we found huge amounts of wild blackberries growing. We munched and hiked for about an hour, until the last ferry was due to depart and we swiftly walked back into town.
It was a great little day trip to Alert Bay, and was really valuable to learn more about the 'Namgis peoples traditionally residing here as part of the tiny 1,300 people population of the whole island.
We headed back to the mainland and made it in time for a nice blue hour sundown.
Stay tuned for the next part of my adventures on Vancouver Island, coming soon!
I'm a 25 year old photographer from Australia, who has been exploring North America for the past three years. I'm in love with the outdoors and love sharing my passion with others through my photos.
Please upvote, follow and resteem! Stay tuned for many more of my explorations!
Eleanor :)