Beach time! Halfmoon Beach and Cox Beach

Not only are these sea stars colourful and amazing, they are also the size of dinner plates! Saw these in the tidal pools on Cox Beach

So Port Alberni is great and everything, but we really decided to stay here because it offered us a great stepping stone to visit Ucluelet and Tofino, while also being close enough to Nanaimo to make it easy to get to the airport tomorrow. 

We were a little slow to get started today (maaaaybe because someone decided it was a good idea to watch Edge of Tomorrow with the kids?), but we got on the road mid-morning to head toward the coast. After a fun twisty and turny drive with fantastic views (and a little construction delay) we made it.

The beautiful, isolated beach at Halfmoon Bay

I wasn’t quite sure where we should go in the area - I knew we wanted to explore the coast, but that was pretty much our only goal (there are tons of companies offering all sorts of outdoor adventure, but since we just had our epic kayak trip, and we’re about to go on a one week guided camping adventure, we thought we would just keep it pretty low key today).

The girls enjoying the clear, refreshing water of Halfmoon Bay

I got a tip from a friend about Halfmoon Bay beach and it was everything that was promised - a nice little hike through the rainforest, followed by steep stairs down to a nearly-isolated beach.  We actually had the beach entirely to ourselves much of the time and the kids had a blast splashing in the water and exploring the sea creatures in the tidal pools.  

Lots of stairs, but worth it!

Brad also had a blast, that is, until his phone took an ill-fated dip into the salt water. So I don’t have photos of the first tidal pools. But that’s okay - we made up for those ones later on.

The boardwalk was peppered with these half moon images

All told, we walked about 5km down to the beach and back, including a pretty steep climb up the stairs (although nice even wooden stairs felt pretty luxurious after all the climbing we did at Bedwell!). It was 100% worth it for this magical sand beach. 

We then headed into Ucluelet to check it out and to grab some food - had a quick (very late!) lunch, and then headed off to Tofino.

Say anemone three times fast

Brad and I were feeling a little dopey, so we picked up some coffee in Tofino then drove around a bit. I think it’s safe to say that towns just really aren’t our thing, so we didn’t really walk around. We headed back along the coast toward Cox Beach, which is popular with surfers and known for large waves.  The waves were pretty modest today, but we had the luck of arriving close to low tide, and the kids wasted no time starting to explore the tidal pools.

I don't know what this creature is and Google isn't helping. It looked neat though.

And WOW. That is all I can say. The pools close to the beach boasted some really epic barnacle/mussel/shell coatings, and loads of anemones, but when we made the precarious climb over some rocks, we found piles of absolutely gorgeous and colourful sea stars. 

They were the size of dinner plates!  All of us were like little kids pointing out these giant stars with their bright purples and oranges. I have no chill when it comes to awesome sea creatures.

Brad made friends with a hermit  crab 🦀

It was such a great visit to the beach and the sun even peaked out for a few minutes to give us an impression of what sunset at this beach might be like.

I won't mention how many takes were required for this one.

We then headed to Surfside Grill for (surprise!) even more seafood. The food was quite tasty, and we loved the outdoor setting, with a bit of a view of the ocean. It was a bit pricey though.  

Proof I actually consumed a vegetable this week.

Though we had been told that Tofino sunsets were epic, it was pretty clouded over at this point, and we had to make the long drive back to Port Alberni in the dark, so we didn’t want to delay any more.

All in all, we had an amazing day - my garmin logged over 15 000 steps, which surprised me considering we just had a short hike, but I guess all the walking around the beaches really added up.  

This week on Vancouver Island has been amazing - we’ve experienced the coast, seen incredible wildlife, climbed up into the clouds, wandered the rainforests among the giant trees and explored the beaches. While it would be awesome to have a few more days to explore this beautiful place, we are looking forward to the next phase of our trip. 

To Calgary and beyond!