Exploring Vancouver Island - Nanaimo, Parksville, Coombs and Denman Island

 After having to cancel our US trip to Washington DC and New York over the winter storm, we decided to do something closer to home. Given that we live in North Vancouver and wanted to take a ferry from the Horseshoe Bay terminal, we decided to ferry ourselves to Nanaimo and explore some of the areas on Vancouver Island, including a quick visit to Denman Island where a colleague of mine also lives.

Victoria, the capital of British Columbia is on the Island and there is no dearth of activities to be found in the capital, but this time, we wanted to explore the northern part of the island, perhaps not as far as Tofina, but atleast Nanaimo, Parksville, Coombs and Port Alberni.

Our lovely Airbnb was located in Lantzville, right between Nanaimo and Parksville and was a splended location right next to the beach, so most of our trip was spent as a staycation. Still, we saw some amazing sights and ended up having a great long weekend.

The ferry to the island in itself is pretty fun. Unlike the ferry to Victoria, this one wasnt as large, but nor was it as crowded. The play area was quite fun and we ended up meeting some interesting people. One of them was a Professor who was moving from Oxford University, to University of British Columbia, so I had a chance to learn about doing a PhD in the UK (which is somewhere in my plans).

When we arrived in Nanaimo, we drove around downtown and realized it was fairly rough. That did indeed take us by surprise. It looked fairly industrial looking and polluted. We decided to quickly check out the Maffeo Sutton Park,  where we used the washrooms and did a quick stroll before we headed off to our next destination for lunch.

One thing we were impressed with was the playground in Sutton Park, which had some very unique swings. That's one thing they did right. After that, we decided to get out of the downtown area and head for some lunch somewhere, while also enjoy the views. 

We made our way to the Yellow Point Road further south, and discovered the Crow and Gate Pub, a well-known English pub that also served classic grub food. Given that it was lunch time, we gathered it won't be an issue to go with our daughter, but turns out that the establishment is strictly 19+. That was indeed a bummer for us, because the area where it was situated was beautiful and there was also excellent seating indoors and outdoors. Definitely left a bad taste in our mouth, but alas, we had to respect the wishes of this establishment.

Our search for lunch led us to another location, Coco Cafe, which despite the positive ratings, was quite average. Most of the clientele seemed to be elderly folk of the community, so I can understand why this cafe was popular. However, it was indeed nothing to rave about.

Following a somewhat disappointing start to the day, we drove to our Airbnb and checked in. We were wowed by the location and the place! The apartment we had rented out was right next to a beautiful beach, and the interiors were impeccable. We were treated by a selection of coffees and teas, as well as some sweet treats which our daughter adored. Given that all of us had gotten up at 6 am in the morning, we were all extremely tired and the comfortable warm bed(s) definitely were too enticing for us to want to head back out.

After settling in our weekend home, we all took a relaxing nap (which ended up being longer than we had anticipated), and we got up right before sunset to head out for some sight-seeing and dinner. Our first stop was Parksville Beach and it was gorgeous. 

Once it got dark, we headed out for dinner. Not a lot of places were open, and those that were seemed to require reservations. However, we lucked out with a place called  Extreme Eatery, a burger spot, but the food was indeed quite flavorful and delicious.

That was end of the day. The next morning was an early start where we headed off to Cathedral Grove. On the way, there were a few sights we saw, from Qualicum Beach and Cameron Lake, which was breathtaking.

In forty minutes, we were at Cathedral Grove. A bucketlist item, this old-growth forest is located in what is known as Macmillan Provincial park and preserved a small lush old-growth forest unique to Vancouver Island. The trees are 800-year-old giant Douglas Fir, Grand Firs, Western Hemlocks, and Western Red Cedar trees, reaching 80 meters high. One of the widest trees there had a 9-meter circumference!

Indigenous peoples find this forest to be sacred, and have a long history of stewarding this forest. These trees have provided the K’ómoks, Tseshaht, and Te’mexw, with raw materials to live their lives. It was shocking to hear that this powerful forest once covered the entire island, and now, only a small section of it remains. Still, the walks through this giants was powerful and breathtaking to say the least.

When Europeans settled on Vancouver Island, the land came to be owned by logging companies. Governor General Viscount Willingdon is credited with bestowing the name “Cathedral Grove” on the park in the 1920s, and even then, it was already a popular destination for tourists. For many years, the public petitioned the government unsuccessfully to preserve and protect the land for future generations. In 1944, a forester named H.R MacMillan donated 136 hectares and this site was formally dedicated as a Class A Provincial Park three years later.

This was definitely a highlight of our trip. On the way back, we stopped by Coombs briefly. It was a quirky looking town. Given that we had another ferry to Denman Island to catch, we didnt stay long but enjoyed what the town was.

Our ferry to Denman island was short and quick (10 minutes) and from there, we made our way to a friend's (farm) home. Though Denman island did not have much in terms of additional beauty, the farmhouse of our friends' was indeed wonderful. We spent the remainder of the day there, enjoying the animals, the walks in their farmhouse and their stories. 

After an early dinner, we headed back to the ferry back to Vancouver Island and back to our cozy apartment.

The next day was check out day. After some warm showers, we checked out, had a very heart breakfast at Tania's Restaurant (highly recommended) and then spent the remainder of the day at the beach, before we caught the ferry back to Vancouver.

No complaints on this trip. We were blessed with sunny and occasional overcast days, but it did not rain as per the weather predictions, and we spent most of our time outdoors and driving around the island.