Pacific Rim National Park

On the last week of June, Mr. Cat and I took a little trip to the Pacific Rim National Park. It is located on the west coast of Vancouver Island and opens right into the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean. It is famous for a lot of things but particularly for its rugged coastline, beautiful and wild hiking trails, wild life, wide sandy beaches, surfing, gigantic waves crashing during the stormy winter months and perhaps most of all, for the West Coast Trail.



The West Coast Trail is about 75 km or about a week of grueling hike into the wilderness of Vancouver Island. It opens in May and is accessible until pretty much the entire September.



According to my handy dandy tour guide, Mr. Cat, this trail was created to rescue the totally unfortunate shipwrecked sailors. Really totally unfortunate because if they were lucky to survive the freezing waters of the Canadian Pacific, I'm sure they wouldn't think that after they find out that they have to do a 75km hike to get help, not to mention that they are also very likely to run into a cougar or a bear or worse, both. It's not like this is an easy 75 km hike, the terrain varies so you can be hiking a nice cleared trail and the next you're wading into glacial water or something. In fact, if you look at the trail's website, they tell you upfront that this is not a practice or training hike and that you have to be in tip top shape to be able to do it plus you have to be prepared to take some risks so you better have some sort of insurance if you have some dependents. It's for pros and the real outdoor adrenaline junkies and I'm neither so I've already accepted the fact that I'm never going to be able to do that. I'm completely okay with that.



Anyway, the Pacific Rim National Park is really truly beautiful. I've taken oodles of photos but there's only so much of that beautiful stuff that the camera lens can capture. Here are some of the photos I've taken during our day trips and little hikes.



Emerald green forest.



A post card perfect charming little village.


A little burst of romantic expression.



And... oppss... a little blooper!