TEMPESTS IN TOFINO

Sunset Magazine
October 3, 1999

Pray for wind and rain to hit Vancouver Island about this time of year. It's the beginning of storm season in Tofino, the small fishing town literally at the end of the road on the island's west side, and we want to be there for the show.

In preparation for the storm, we pick up scones and muffins at the local bakery and board a comfortable covered boat from Jamie's Whaling Station for a long ride through Clayoquot Sound to Hot Springs Cove. A mile-long boardwalk leads from the dock through a mossy rain forest. Eventually we come to a series of 170 thermal springs that collect in pools before meeting frigid ocean waters.

Before the winds quicken and the rains start, we hit the trails at Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, just south of Tofino, which has miles of driftwood-covered beaches and loop trails through a rain forest.

The storm approaches. Storm Central for us is the Wickaninnish Inn, a gorgeous hotel set on a point at the end of Chesterman Beach and designed, according to general manager Charles McDiarrmid, "with the intention of winter storm-watching."

Rooms directly face the paths of storms sweeping in from the Pacific, and the inn's Pointe Restaurant is so exposed that waves splash up against its picture windows and surge under its cantilevered floor.

The fireplace is lit when the first blasts of wind rattle the windows. Let it blow; we've got everything we need to weather the storm.