Alway reserve a ferry ride back!
September 15th we packed up our little car and drove to Tsawwassen port (about 30mins from our place) to take the Ferry across to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. What a ferry! These things are HUGE! They have 2 floors of car parking and 2 floors of indoor lounging, a restaurant, a snack bar and a souvenir store.
We took the 2 hour ferry to Nanaimo where we camped for the night. Saturday morning, we threw everything back in the car, drove over to Tim's for a quick double-double and breakfast and then headed out towards Green Point Campground in the Pacific Rim National Park. About 30 mins into our drive, we stopped at Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial Park for a little walk through the forest. The trees in this forest are about 800 years old - we took lots of pics don't worry. After our little mini-hike, back on the road!
About 30 mins later we were driving through Port Alberni (located about in the middle of the Island). As we drove through here we couldn't help but notice all the people that were either sitting in chairs or standing by the highway - watching and waiting. There were SO many people that we decided - what the heck, we'll stop too! So we stopped at the local Wal-Mark pulled out our camping chairs and joined the crowd. What did we see? Ah...well, you'll have to look at the pictures to find out.
Finally about 2.5 hours later we arrived at Green Point Campground in the Pacific Rim National Park (just South of Tofino). We set up camp and hung out at Long beach. Unforunately the weather wasn't looking too promising so we didn't do much except walk on the beach, eat and sleep.
Sunday morning - RAIN! Yes! Nothing like packing up a wet tent in the rain. Did we mention that we forgot the ground sheet for under the tent? Fun times. We then drove back across the Pacific Rim Highway back to Nanaimo. We arrived at the Port around 3pm to a long long long LONG line up of cars. We were told that we wouldn't get on a ferry until 7pm!!!!!!!! We freaked out and called BC Ferries ASAP and we were able to reserve a spot on another ferry at 8:15pm for $17.50 - at least we didn't have to stay in line for 4 hours! So instead, we visited Nanaimo...2 hours later we were bored. We drove around as much as we could stand it and then ended up going to the port to wait in line for our ferry at 8:15pm! But at least we knew we were going to get on and there was a terminal at this port (the other one had nothing, not even washrooms!). In the end, we got home around 11pm and learned a valuable lesson - Alway reserve a ferry ride back from Vancouver Island!
Map of our trip:
See our pictures in our PHOTO ALBUM
September 15th we packed up our little car and drove to Tsawwassen port (about 30mins from our place) to take the Ferry across to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. What a ferry! These things are HUGE! They have 2 floors of car parking and 2 floors of indoor lounging, a restaurant, a snack bar and a souvenir store.

We took the 2 hour ferry to Nanaimo where we camped for the night. Saturday morning, we threw everything back in the car, drove over to Tim's for a quick double-double and breakfast and then headed out towards Green Point Campground in the Pacific Rim National Park. About 30 mins into our drive, we stopped at Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial Park for a little walk through the forest. The trees in this forest are about 800 years old - we took lots of pics don't worry. After our little mini-hike, back on the road!
About 30 mins later we were driving through Port Alberni (located about in the middle of the Island). As we drove through here we couldn't help but notice all the people that were either sitting in chairs or standing by the highway - watching and waiting. There were SO many people that we decided - what the heck, we'll stop too! So we stopped at the local Wal-Mark pulled out our camping chairs and joined the crowd. What did we see? Ah...well, you'll have to look at the pictures to find out.
Finally about 2.5 hours later we arrived at Green Point Campground in the Pacific Rim National Park (just South of Tofino). We set up camp and hung out at Long beach. Unforunately the weather wasn't looking too promising so we didn't do much except walk on the beach, eat and sleep.
Sunday morning - RAIN! Yes! Nothing like packing up a wet tent in the rain. Did we mention that we forgot the ground sheet for under the tent? Fun times. We then drove back across the Pacific Rim Highway back to Nanaimo. We arrived at the Port around 3pm to a long long long LONG line up of cars. We were told that we wouldn't get on a ferry until 7pm!!!!!!!! We freaked out and called BC Ferries ASAP and we were able to reserve a spot on another ferry at 8:15pm for $17.50 - at least we didn't have to stay in line for 4 hours! So instead, we visited Nanaimo...2 hours later we were bored. We drove around as much as we could stand it and then ended up going to the port to wait in line for our ferry at 8:15pm! But at least we knew we were going to get on and there was a terminal at this port (the other one had nothing, not even washrooms!). In the end, we got home around 11pm and learned a valuable lesson - Alway reserve a ferry ride back from Vancouver Island!
Map of our trip:

See our pictures in our PHOTO ALBUM