Day 20: Rathtrevor Provincial Park

Sea Lion Caves

Port Renfrew is already over and we have to leave our nice and large tent behind. The next 3 nights is back to our ultralight (and ultra small) tent.

On the way to the next stop, the Rathtrevor Provincial Park, we decided to do the Sea Lion Cave hike. This is a pretty wild trail (even compared to the hike yesterday), not too well maintained but there is the chance to see Sea Lions.

There is no real trail head, but there is some larger gravel areas next to the round and a gate that leads to a gravel road. We parked on the gravel patch and made our way around the gate and followed the gravel road.

After a bit more than 1 km we came on a short stretch of the Juan de Fuca Trail (Part of the same trail we hiked yesterday), and there was a split and another small trail led to the Sea Lion Caves. First we missed the split was it’s not obvious and there is no sign or anything. But thanks to Alltrails and a description from the User we realized that the Trail starts between two Juan de Fuca Trail signs.

The trail was sometimes better visible, sometimes worse. But it was pretty good signed with small pink (and sometimes orange) bands. We questioned the whole trail who did this marking…

At first the trail was through an open forest, then we hit the highest point and from then on it was all downward to the sea.

The trail became quickly narrow and steep. We had to be careful to not slip, because a fall could have hurt (or worse)… So we made our way down. We had some short stretches that were overgrown and we had to fight through or underneath some serious bushes.

After we managed the rope, the trail became flatter and flatter and we were nearly at sea level.

From here on, the trail followed the coast. First we thought that is a good thing, but we soon had to realize that there was still climbing involved and the trail was now overgrown like never before… Every meter forward was a fight.

But all along the coast we couldn’t see any Sea Lion… So I guess we were unlucky. We followed the trail for a bit longer, but soon came to the conclusion that we are near the end and it just got harder and harder to fight through the bushes.

So it was time to hike back and then up again. Which went easier then we initially thought.

Drive to Parksville

Parksville is the next city, right next to the Rathtrevor Park. So this was the next stop after the hike for us. It was a bit over a 2 hour drive. Plan was to quickly do laundry there and stock up on groceries and beer :)

We found a nice coin laundry and it took us around an hour to have some clean clothes.

During the laundry was washing, we used the time and quickly went to the liquor store across the street. For us it’s always a bit special to have to go to a dedicated store just to get some beer…

Rathtrevor Park

Then it was time for the campground, on the last campgrounds we always had a parking spot directly on our site. This time it’s a walk-in site, which means that we use the public parking close by and then walk onto the site. We just now realized how convenient it was to have the car right next to us, to quickly grab or store something (no food outside of the car because of bears).

Tonight we cooked some Tim Hortons Soup (Lentils again) and had some of our beers. Then we did a short walk around the park which is really beautiful and full of rabbits :)

Then it was time for the blog, unfortunately without Wifi, so not sure when I’m able to upload it.

Pictures

Activities

Hike: Sea Lion Cave