We had all day to make the journey home from Ucluelet. We took a brief stroll over the rocks in front of the bay and then loaded up!
The sun was out, and wind from the ocean flowed into the bay. The small trail in front of the restaurant was easy to follow, and only a few feet to the rock!
We had breakfast at the restaurant and then checked out around 10am.
We have this deal with Skye that she can have one of those famous Pup Cups from Starbucks every few weeks. She LOVES her Starbucks! But there isn’t a Starbucks in Ukee. There is however one coffee shop that we had yet to hit and it was on the way out!
Big Wave Cafe is a small cafe next to Howlers that only has a couple seats out front. It is essentially a coffee machine, till, and barista. It is a small, order your coffee and be on your way sort of Cafe. Well, Mr. S. and I got our coffees and we asked about a puppaccino/pup cup…the poor Barista looked at us like we were nuts. She was extremely sweet once we explained it was whipped cream in an espresso cup. The Barista quickly whipped up Skye a little cup and we were on our way – and Skye was a very happy pup!
Now, we tried all the coffee shops in Ukee. Our favorites were Big Wave and Barkley. We were a little disappointed in ourselves for not trying Big Wave earlier in the trip. But if we had, we probably wouldn’t have tried all the others!
And we were off!
We hit the highway and about 30 minutes into our drive home we stopped at Taylor River Rest Area. The plan was a quick washroom break and back on the road. The reality was much more than expected. I think we can understand why Taylor River is one of the must see places on the Island.
At the entrance to the rest area, you are greeted with some local history!
A little background on the sustainable, low impact tourism practices of the Tla-o-qui-aht (pronounced: klaw-oh-kwee-aht) people’s in the tribal parks.
The main entry provides you with resources to access more information about the local area and its rich indigenous history. With having the wifi hot spot at the rest area there are no excuses for not reading up a bit!
The history provided at the rest area references the Kennedy lake area which is about 10 minutes away from Taylor River. We did not have the time to spare to visit Kennedy Lake or we would have detoured again! On our next visit we will make a special stop to capture the history of Kennedy lake in the area.
While our plan was bathrooms and go, plans change! Several picnic benches welcome you for a place to sit and break bread with other travellers. The bathrooms are clean and well maintained, positioned off to the side a bit so you don’t need to eat by the outhouse.
We ventured up behind the restrooms a bit and found this beautiful little lookout point. And little Miss Skye, of course, found a trail! We explored a little of the trail. Took in the scenery looking out over the river – how green and clear the water is! No filter needed to see the amazing colors in this water at all.
In the hot summer months this little lookout is reported to be quite popular for swimming. See that little rope off the side? That’s for swinging down into the water. Careful though, while deeper than it appears it is still less than 5 feet deep. We visited in April so the water was way too cold for swimming (it is glacier even in summer!)
After our stop at Taylor River or some unexpected fresh air we were off again on our journey home.
Vancouver Island has some amazingly pretty scenery along their highways. Each time we drove the highway we saw something we didn’t see before. They are also some of the windiest. So our adventure continued about an hour down the road when we needed to stop and let our little princess out for a stretch. Skye does not like the turns in the roads. So we pulled over at another rest stop, this time at Little Qualicum Falls.
While we stopped again not sure what to expect, we were hoping for a little walk in the woods and were not disappointed!
Little Qualicum Falls was a breezy quick 20 minute walk down to the falls and loop back up. Just enough to stretch our legs out for the rest of the drive.
The trail has many stair cases throughout making the walk very easy to navigate. Skye lead the way as she usually does in the woods. The only time we really see her seem to love the lead position!
We wandered down to the upper falls and wrapped around to the lower falls before returning to the parking lot. Being a loop trail it was nice to not have to pay attention which way we started, we ended up at the same place anyways! There are lots of viewpoints through the trail and the old growth makes an amazing natural frame for the river.
It’s definitely a different world on the island from the mainland. After our little pit stop at the falls we were on the road again! 45 minutes to the ferry and homeward bound for these travellers.
The next time you’re on an island take a random pit stop along the way. What kind of adventures await you in the most unexpected places?
ASR Adventures 