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Pacific Rim National Park Reserve Review

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Pacific Rim National Park Reserve

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Phone: 800/435-5622; 604/435-5622 in Greater Vancouver; 250/387-1642 international
www.pc.gc.ca/pacificrim

Category: Parks
Location: Pacific Rim National Park Reserve

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Fodor's Review:

105 km (63 mi) west of Port Alberni, 9 km (5 mi) south of Tofino.

This national park has some of Canada's most stunning coastal and rain-forest scenery, abundant wildlife, and a unique marine environment. It comprises three separate units—Long Beach, the Broken Group Islands, and the West Coast Trail—for a combined area of 123,431 acres, and stretches 130 km (81 mi) along Vancouver Island's west coast. The Pacific Rim Visitor Centre (Tofino-Ucluelet junction on Hwy. 4. 250/726-4212. www.pc.gc.ca/pacificrim) is open daily mid-March through August, from 9 AM to 7 PM, and until mid-October, 9 AM to 5 PM. Park-use fees apply in all sections of the park: the general adult fee for entry to the park is C$6.90 in 2008. Park users must display a permit, available from the visitor center and valid for 24 hours, in their vehicle.

The Long Beach unit gets its name from a 16-km (10-mi) strip of hard-packed sand strewn with driftwood, shells, and the occasional Japanese glass fishing float. Long Beach is the most accessible part of the park and can get busy in summer. People come in the off-season to watch winter storms and to see migrating whales in early spring.

You can camp on a bluff above Long Beach at Green Point Campground (Off Hwy. 4 just north of Tofino-Ucluelet junction. 877/737-3783. www.pccamping.ca) between mid-March and mid-October. Walk-in sites are issued on a first-come, first-served basis and fill quickly. Drive-in sites (with no RV hookups) can be reserved by phone or through the Web site. A theater at the campground runs films and interpretive programs about park ecology and history.

A first stop for many Pacific Rim National Park visitors, the Wickaninnish Interpretive Centre (Hwy. 4. 250/726-7721) is on the ocean's edge about 16 km (10 mi) north of Ucluelet. It's a great place to learn about the wilderness; theater programs and exhibits provide information about the park's marine ecology and rain-forest environment. New exhibits are planned for 2010. It's open daily mid-March to mid-October 10 to 6. The fabulous, high-end Wickaninnish Restaurant is next door. The 100-plus islands of the Broken Group Islands archipelago can be reached only by boat. The islands and their clear waters are alive with sea lions, seals, and whales, and the inner waters are good for kayaking. Guided kayak and charter-boat tours are available from Ucluelet, Bamfield, and Port Alberni.

The third element of the park, the West Coast Trail, runs along the coast from Bamfield to Port Renfrew. It's an extremely rugged 75-km (47-mi) trail for experienced hikers; it can be traveled only on foot, takes an average of six days to complete, and is open from May 1 to September 30. A quota system helps the park manage the number of hikers on the trail, and reservations are recommended between mid-June and mid-September, though some spaces are available on a first-come, first-served basis at each end of the trail during this time. A number of fees apply: C$24.75 for a reservation, C$128.75 for a hiker's permit, and C$30 for two ferry crossings.

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