Wondrous Wanders: Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

Today we feature the 5th post in our guest blog travel series.  This series highlights the favorite travel destinations that inspired wonder in each guest blogger as they wandered there.  Today's post is from Sandy Ward on her wondrous wanderings on Vancouver Island.  Sandy is the Marketing Director at Future of Flight Aviation Center and Boeing Tour in Mukilteo, Washington, just north of Seattle.  She has been a travel, tourism and hospitality professional for over 30 years.

I’ve been traveling for years for work and play, but I’ve never been a high adventure, “end of the road” kinda gal. Not till I discovered two British Columbia, Canada, destinations that redefine the word getaway. You cannot drive to either one, cell service is iffy, wildlife far outnumbers humans and the night sky is so littered with stars it looks like someone threw glitter onto black velvet. Let the adventure begin!

Eagle Nook Wilderness Resort is in Barkley Sound on Vancouver Island’s west coast. And because I’m not a roughing-it kinda gal, I was delighted to stay at this four-star resort with 23 beautifully appointed rooms and two cabins, all with water views. No phones or TVs in the rooms. Gourmet food. A fully-stocked bar. A spa.  Getting there is half the fun.  Float plane, water taxi or private boat are the only options.

On our first day within the first five minutes of Eagle Nook’s nature boat cruise, we spotted two black bears picking through the rocks at the edge of the bay. We were about a hundred yards away, far enough not to bother the bears plucking clams but close enough that my low-powered telephoto got a full-frame shot.

This was only the beginning of a day of wildlife sightings and full-frame photos. Decked out in bright orange survival suits (for warmth, I was assured, on the deck of our open air boat), we saw California sea lions lounging on rocky islands, harbor seals popping up and down in the water like jack-in-the-box. Whales, too -- humpbacks, then grays and a pod of orcas intent on showing us how high they could spy hop. I lost count of bald eagle sightings within the first half hour, and I will never forget Regal Eagle Princess. Our guide Charlie had trained her to sweep within 20 feet of the boat to snatch the bass he tossed in the air. Another full frame picture without the aid of a telephoto.

On a kayaking expedition our guide led us to a shallow channel where he pointed out oysters the size of a shoe, sea slugs that looked incapable of moving, cartoon-character bat starfish and orange sea stars that looked like they fell into a vat of Halloween dye.

I was so awed I wanted more and the resort laid out options that included fishing expeditions, heli-sightseeing, guided kayaking in the pristine Broken Group Islands and solo hiking on trails the Eagle Nook owners have cut through their 70-acres.

My other favorite BC escape took me a little further out of my comfort zone (must be a bucket list sorta thing) to an uninhabited island a half hour by boat from the northeast edge of Vancouver Island. God’sPocket Resort, they had me at the name.

Six days of kayaking -- would I be able to keep up? In the whale migration zone – what if the leviathans mistook my kayak for something edible? And, like, what else was there to do?

On day one our guide cautioned: "Mother Nature has veto power, so we can't promise whale sightings."  But on day three Mother Nature smiled on us, presenting a pod of orcas that passed within 100 yards of our kayaks. They were close enough to hear and smell (!) but far enough that I didn’t feel threatened.

Kayaking the next day, we came nose-to-nose with a seal sleeping on the rocks. From there we made our way to a gorgeous cove and our guides laid out a lunch that rivaled any hotel buffet I’ve ever seen. And as far as keeping up, we paddled in double kayaks, so when our boat lagged behind, I just blamed my partner.

And we didn’t paddle all day, every day. We hiked through old growth forests where our guides entertained with native lore and nature facts. During cocktail hour, seals popped up and down in the cove as if they wanted a glass of Chardonnay, too. One day I played hooky, totally permissible at God’s Pocket, and wandered solo along a rocky beach.

God’s Pocket’s rustic cabins won’t pass for five-star, but here, it feels right. The food, however, was many-starred. We dined family style on meals built around local fresh seafood and veggies and spent the evenings making new friends, playing board games and watching bioluminescence fill the bay as if God himself had emptied a pocket full of sequins.

Does Sandy's post inspire you to travel to British Columbia, or remind you of a trip you've taken there?  What about this destinations fascinates you?