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North of Nanaimo

Exploring Vancouver Island from Sidney to Campbell River, Parksville to Port Alberni, and more

We took a 4 day trip to Vancouver Island in B.C. this past weekend and I’m jotting down things I want to remember and share some of the experiences to help others plan these fun getaways!

Late August is magnificent in the Pacific Northwest, and, as it turns out, a super touristy time in Vancouver Island! Everything is booked out (including all campgrounds), and the transportation is painful! Piece of advice #1 — plan your ferry! Ferries to Vancouver Island can make or break your trip schedule… We were coming up from Seattle and decided to take the Tsawwassen-Duke Point (Nanaimo) ferry to Vancouver Island. We left Seattle a few minutes shy of 5:30AM and it was a breeze driving up north and crossing the border. We missed the 7:45AM ferry by a few minutes and the next one was at 10:15AM. Instead of waiting, we hopped on a 9AM ferry to Swartz Bay instead. Seemed like a good idea at the time but we ended up driving for 2 hours from Swartz Bay to Nanaimo vs. waiting for the ferry for 2 hours and saving on drive time. Turned out fine! Sidney makes up for it being such a beautiful little sea-town! I highly recommend stopping by ‘Sidney by the Sea’, as they call it. You will fall in love with this very charming seaside paradise.

The fruit and vegetables are incredibly delicious, affordable, and fresh. I was most impressed by the multicolored bell peppers, which were as beautiful as they were delicious!

After we stocked up on fresh fruit and vegetables, we got back on the road and drove north to Nanaimo. We’ve been here before so we drove right through it, however, one thing we haven’t done that I will save for our next time is taking a 20-minute ferry trip from Nanaimo harbor to Gabriola Island.

I want to note something my husband kept being very surprised by, he loved the roads going north. One might think that north of Vancouver Island is very remote and not very well developed… couldn't be further from the truth! We saw endless streams of trucks and SUVs hauling massive boats, trailers, and RVs of all sizes, dominating the highways. Great roads, easy signs!

After you get to Parksville, you will see this is where the fun starts! From what it looked like to me, Parksville marks the beginning of all sorts of touristy fun, gorgeous shorelines, and endless endless resorts.

After we drove through several towns, we finally reached the Miracle Beach Campground. We checked in at the campground and went on to explore. The Miracle Beach is beautiful and not too crowded, with warm and calm water and a rocky beach. The campground was super clean! There was a free hot shower and some slides on a playground for kiddos.

Next morning we drove up the street, stopping at the Saratoga Beach and exploring the stretch between the Pacific Playgrounds and Salmon Point Resort. Magnificent place!

After spending two nights exploring the beaches between Courtenay and the town of Campbell River, we headed to Port Alberni, which was supposed to mark the second half of our trip from east to west side of the island. Our original plan was to go from Miracle beach in the north, to Port Alberni in the center of the island, and to Tofino and Ucluelet on the west side. It turned out this would require a couple more days so we are saving the west stretch of the shoreline for another trip. Note that you can’t drive all the way around the island on the north side so my tip #3 would be to take 3–4 days on the east side and then another 3–4 days on the west side, there is more to see than you can imagine! Our conclusion was that at least a week would make a comfortable trip, covering major points of interest.

“Cathedral Grove is a rare and endangered remnant of an ancient Douglas fir ecosystem on Vancouver Island in British Columbia (BC), Canada. The biggest trees in the Grove are about 800 years old and measure 75 m (250 ft) in height and 9 m (29 ft) in circumference. They are the survivors of a forest fire that ravaged the area some 350 years ago and the even more devastating invasion by Europeans who colonized Vancouver Island from 1849.”

It is a humbling experience to stand next to Douglas firs that turned 300 years old when Christopher Columbus set foot in North America.

Next stop we made was in Port Alberni, the sign for which says ‘Canada’s Ultimate Fishing Town’. So many boats! This town is small but it’s packing several bodies of water in close proximity.

Campground on Stamp river, at the Stamp River Provincial Park, was our first stop. Sites 1 & 2 are beautiful and are located right on the river. These riverside spots are warm and clean. Tons of kids and adults were splashing around in the river with a massive fish ladder only a few hundred feet away at the Stamp Falls. From late August to December, some 40 million Sockeye, Coho and Chinook salmon fight their way up the falls and fish ladders on their way to spawning beds.

That campground was all booked for first come campers and so we went on to the next one at the Sproat Lake Provincial Park. Got pretty lucky getting 1 of the 2 available first come first serve sites (out of 8 total), at roughly 4PM. Sproat Lake campground is much bigger than the Stamp River site. The site cost $25 CA and the rangers were super laid back and helpful.

The lake is gorgeous with crystal clear water and crowd-less beaches. Sproat lake Provincial Park is home to one of the finest panels of prehistoric petroglyphs in British Columbia. Little is known about this petroglyph, named K’ak’awin, but it isn’t hard to imagine this rock carving as depicting some mystical ancient monsters of the lake.

Sprout lake is also home to the last of the water bombers, which are the world’s largest piston-powered, propeller-driven aircraft, was retired from firefighting service in B.C. in 2013. Retired now the Mars Bombers used to be a big part of fighting forest fires on Vancouver Island. The gigantic Martin Mars water bombers used Sproat Lake for their runway and to scoop up water to take to forest fire areas. Martin Mars water bombers can take in up to 27 tons of water off the lake surface and are the largest water bombers in the world.

On Sunday morning, after spending several hours splashing in the lake, we headed back home.

We got to the ferry terminal in Nanaimo Duke Point at 12:4o, right before the 12:45 sailing. We knew, however, that we won’t make that sailing, because there’s a sign about 30–40 min out from the terminal, displaying ferry capacity. So at noon we knew that the 12:45 sailing was 100% full. I guess this helps calm the nerves and speeding cars on the way to jam-packed Vancouver Island ferries! Great job, Canada! Seriously, we were in a rush, and then, we weren’t… We ended up waiting for the 3:15PM sailing, which wasn’t bad, considering there was a combination of ice cream, sun, and crisp ocean air.

Last piece of advice — eat local food. Everything from produce to meat, and dairy is so delicious! Don’t go to big markets, go to small random ones and you will not regret it! Here are some things I made during our trip, all with local ingredients. Sooo good.

I hope you enjoy your own trip through Vancouver Island! Our next one will be to explore the stretch from Tofino and Ucluelet and the majestic shoreline of the Pacific Rim Reserve. It’s gorgeous out there. They don’t call it the Beautiful British Columbia for nothing..!

Onward!

Renata

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