Our time in the wild, mossy forests of Western Vancouver Island is coming to an end. It’s time for us to make the journey northward toward a place called Campbell River. There are some really cool things in store when we get there, but before we jump into any of that, I wanted to share some miscellaneous exploits from our time between destinations. I often feel like it’s these “in-between” experiences where you really get to know a place, and Vancouver Island was no exception. The reason I feel like I “know” this place at all is because of the ground we covered in this article.
Duncan
Making the journey from Port Renfrew back towards civilization, Duncan is one of the first substantial towns through which you’ll pass. By the time we got here, we’d been on the road for hours, so we stopped here for some lunch and exploring. The first thing that jumped out at me here was all of the elaborate totem poles. There seemed to be one of them sitting on every street corner.
As you probably know, these lands were not originally inhabited by white folks like me 👨🏻 — the original inhabitants of the land that is now Duncan are the Quw’utsun’ (Cowichan) people. There’s a lot of tragic history to unpack with the colonization of British Columbia and the Americas at large, BUT I think Duncan is a rare bright spot in the dreary picture that is modern coexistence between the post- and pre-colonial inhabitants of the Americas. The city of Duncan sits directly adjacent to First Nations lands under Cowichan control, and the way the legislative and administrative boundaries that govern this area have been drawn has forced a high level of cooperation between these two communities. The Duncan City Council must work closely with the Cowichan tribal leadership to address basic items like infrastructure, services, and social programs. And, from what I can tell, this working relationship has been going well!
Duncan is now known as the “City of Totems”, owing to a public art project ongoing since 1985 that has amassed one of the largest collections of totem poles in the world. It was initiated to attract tourists, and given that I’m writing about it right now… it seems like their plan worked! But setting aside any commercial motivation here, the project is an extremely cool showcase of First Nations culture. Each of these totem poles was designed and carved by First Nations artists, and is based on folklore, oral histories, and symbolism from the tribe of each respective artist. Many of these totem poles depict traditional stories, the symbolism of which is explained on the commemorative plaques around the city. Here are some photos from around Duncan… mostly of totem poles.
You can see more about the history and location of these totem poles through Duncan’s official website here.
Totem poles aside, this is a legitimately cute little town. I’m not sure I’d be writing about it if not for all the totem poles—they lured me in—but I enjoyed my walk around this town, and I enjoyed the lunch I got at Duncan Garage Café & Bakery even more! This little enclave hosts restaurants, a coffee shop, community organizations, and a cozy little bookstore. And the menu was a blend of foods that somehow managed to be (a) relatively quick and easy to grab to-go, (b) affordable, (c) extremely healthy, and (d) accessible even if you’re not a quinoa connoisseur. I can count on one hand the number of times I have found that all in the same establishment. If I lived near this place, I’d come here every day.
Campbell River & Elk Falls
The final leg of our trip was spent in a city called Campbell River, which was MUCH farther north than we had ventured thus far in our time on Vancouver Island. This will be the base camp for our last few articles, but none of those adventures will actually take place IN Campbell River. This city is a launch pad for all kinds of outdoor activities, including hiking, kayaking, fishing, whale watching, sailing, mountain biking, skiing, snowboarding, and more. Campbell River really is one of the best-located cities for access to nature that I have ever seen. And that is how we’ll be using it.
One thing that I did not expect about Vancouver Island is how many snow-capped mountains it has. And keep in mind, we were here in June. The entire drive up to Campbell River we followed a never-ending ridge of snowcapped mountains that runs up the spine of the island. It was much more formidable than I had expected. It’s easy to see how there could be skiing out here that rivals what can be found in mainland Canada in places like Whistler. However, there are some distinct differences between Whistler and Vancouver Island.
The level of wealth that we observed in the Whistler area was enough that I have shelved coming back here to stay until I am rich. (It’s gonna happen guys—I believe!) But Vancouver Island was much more accessible from an economic perspective. There are still noticeable threads of wealth that run through this place, but the majority of the economic tapestry here feels decidedly middle-class and often blue-collar. And, since I’m already talking about the wealth gap, I’m going to go ahead and get slightly p0l1TiCaL for a moment. Things felt much less divisive here than in the U.S. I think I am semi-qualified to say this because my time here coincided with a major event in Canadian politics.
Apparently, in response to the Uvalde school shooting in the U.S., in which 19 children and 2 adults were killed, Canada did what America has repeatedly failed to do, and actually passed a major piece of gun control legislation. I guess they realized that all our thoughts and prayers don’t seem to be helping things. You can read the press release on exactly what this entailed from the Canadian government here. If the U.S. did anything like this… it would be a big fucking deal. It’d be hard to escape knowing all about it. We had actually been at the provincial capital building in Victoria just a few days prior when this was fresh(er) news, and the only protesters we saw there were some people holding signs that said kids in school shouldn’t be forced to wear masks. And there were like 3 of them. I only found this out in Campbell River because our Airbnb was hooked up to Canadian cable television, so I found myself watching the local news. There was clearly some version of a social backlash playing out but compared to what would be happening in the U.S., it was pretty tame. In the gallery below you’ll see a picture featuring the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau—and again, it feels pretty tame compared to what would be happening in the U.S. There would be death threats.
But then again, Justin Trudeau is probably slightly harder to hate than a lot of U.S. politicians. Here’s a clip of him explaining a party trick he used to play on people where he intentionally falls down the stairs and somehow doesn’t get hurt. Pure gold.
Anyway, I enjoyed my time in Campbell River! It was actually a very nice town. Everything we saw here was great. Every person we interacted with was super nice. And every night when I flipped on the local news, the top story was that the Edmonton Oilers were potentially going to the Stanley Cup finals. They ended up losing to the Colorado Avalanche in the semi-finals, but I was still inspired. I have been watching a lot of hockey since I got back from this trip. I love Canada.
Here’s a gallery of photos from around Campbell River. Please notice the adjoining storefronts for “Grizzley Bear Expeditions” and “Island Funeral Services.” That made us laugh.
One easy-to-parcel-off excursion that we did out of Campbell River was to a nearby waterfall and gorge known as Elk Falls. Elk are actually a major part of the wildlife on Vancouver Island. We only saw a couple of them grazing by the roadside during our trip up to Campbell River, so I have no pictures of them for you, regrettably. But it was a very cool addition to the list of the wildlife we saw on this trip.
Elk Falls is the namesake of the Elk Falls Provincial Park, which also includes an expansive protected forest, camping, hiking, and some of the best year-round salmon fishing in the area. Locally, it’s known to be a great place to visit, but in the broader context of British Columbia at large, I don’t think it’s even in the top 20 most popular places to visit. However, it turned out to be extremely cool—and that just goes to show how high the bar is set in British Columbia. It’s amazing out here.
There were zero expectations going into this hike; we were just doing it for fun. It was late in the day when we visited. The parking lot was completely empty, the light was softly fading, and the forest was spooky quiet. The hike to Elk Falls was relatively short, but to be honest, I was a little uncomfortable with the stillness. Here are some pictures from that walk. The forest wasn’t quite on the same level as Avatar Grove, but it definitely had the same lush green, mossy, fern-dominated aesthetic.
As we walked through the eerie stillness of the forest, toward Elk Falls, the ambient sound of rushing water began to come into focus. As the ground began to slope downhill, these sounds grew louder and louder. Finally, we came to the edge of a cliff. On the other side of the abyss, we there was another cliff directly across from us, over the side of which flowed a torrent of white water. When it reach the edge of the cliff, it vanished over the side.
We drew closer to the edge to see where exactly this water was going. We discovered an extremely deep, narrow canyon, enclosed by parallel sheer rock faces, spotted with moss. The thunderous waterfall at the top of this canyon turned this giant crevice into something of a wind tunnel, with the misty spray rocketing outward in every direction for hundreds of meters.
Across this canyon hung a 60-meter (almost 200-foot!) suspension bridge. They love suspension bridges out here! This was our 3rd of the trip. Unlike the famed Capilano suspension bridge we crossed back in Vancouver, you could see right through the bottom of this one. It was… a very long way down. If you’re scared of heights, this might not be a good idea for you.
From there, the water from this river flows to the Campbell River Estuary and then on to Discovery Pass. There is an easy loop trail you can do here that takes about 30 minutes, and will take you through a few small pockets of old-growth forest (like we saw at Cathedral and Avatar Grove), but we opted to head back to the car without doing the full loop. It was getting dark and the forest was getting a little creepy. We’re city folk. 🤷🏻♂️
From here, we’re going to jump forward in time past our final few articles in this series on British Columbia, to our ultimate departure from Vancouver Island. *Picks up the TV remote and hits “fast forward”*
Nanaimo + Ferries
Finally, our final goodbye from Vancouver Island came in the city of Nanaimo. If you’ve got some familiarity with the world of baked goods, you may recognize this name from the chocolate-y treats known as “Nanaimo Bars.” Yes, this is THAT Nanaimo: the point of origin for the famous Canadian dessert. I did some googling and found out that there is actually an official “Nanaimo Bar Trail” you can undertake, depending on how much sugar you can handle within a short window of time.
Naturally, during the short time that we were in Nanaimo, this is the one thing we prioritized. Naniamo’s Nanaimo Bars did not disappoint. How many more times can I squeeze the word “Nanaimo” into this article?
Nanaimo. (That’s #8)
My time in Nanaimo (#9) was brief, but like Victoria, Campbell River, and Duncan, I found it to be quite a wholesome place. There were other smaller towns on Vancouver Island that we passed through as well, and even though not every street corner was as idyllic as the natural world surrounding them, there were strong common threads that ran through every city and town we saw. This place definitely has a “feel.” But by the time we were in Nanaimo (#10), we were on our way out. This was the port city for the final ferry ride of the trip. So after sitting in our car with the windows cracked and our keys on the dashboard (observing BC’s anti-idling laws) for about an hour, finally we boarded a BC Ferry for the final time.
I think the ferry connecting Nanaimo with Vancouver was the largest boat I had been on yet. And I was acutely aware that this was the last good look at this place I was going to get for a long time. Maybe ever. When leaving a place like this, it’s always trippy to consider that, realistically, I might never come back. I will definitely make an effort to come back to British Columbia, but I spent the entire ride above deck, drinking in the scenery anyway. Just in case this was the last time. It’s just so gorgeous out here. And seeing it all via ferry is one of the coolest things I have done in my travels. I need to make an effort to incorporate more ferries into my trips. It’s a very cool way to travel.
So that right there—those pictures from the Nanaimo/Vancouver ferry—are the last time I got to see this beautiful place. BUT, remember that we skipped ahead to show you this. We have two more articles left in this series, and they are some of the coolest.
First, we’re going to catch a ferry from Campbell River over to Quadra and Cortes Islands to get a feel for the Discovery Islands.
Then, we’re going to go whale watching out in the Discovery Islands and push even farther north. Spoiler: we saw about 20 orcas that day. It was dope.
Those are the final articles in the queue for this series! I don’t usually do this jumping forward-and-backward-in-time-thing, but I kind of like it. Remembering the melancholy of leaving Vancouver Island makes me all the more appreciative of the articles that are to come. Here’s a track of the day from another artist I discovered long ago on the Roam soundtrack (re: Whistler). This album is excellent. I recommend it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Peter was born & raised in Columbus, Ohio, and started this blog when he moved from Boston to Hanoi (Vietnam) in 2014. After years based in Nashville working on his band, The Great Palumbo, he now resides in London, UK.
