Explore the wilds of North Vancouver Island
The sea stacks of San Josef Bay, North Vancouver Island
I have lived on Vancouver Island on and off for 31 years during which I visited Port Hardy once for work and Port McNeil once for a hockey game. My memories consisted of long drives and a lot of trees! It was only one year ago that I made my first exploratory “travel” trip to truly discover the wonders of North Vancouver Island.
The North Island in roughly one third of Vancouver Island. To put that into perspective, Vancouver Island is:
the size of Taiwan
twice the size of Connecticut
a bit bigger than Belgium.
The easy and economical way to get to the north of Vancouver Island is by car. You can drive Highway 19 all the way from Victoria in the south to Port Hardy in the North. If coming from the Vancouver area, you can get the ferry to Nanaimo and drive north OR hop a flight to Comox and drive north OR enjoy a float plane adventure directly to Port Hardy.
I have friends who have grown up or lived “up” in the North Island and have heard their stories of the rugged beauty, wildlife, and remoteness. Last year my husband and I hooked up our trailer to do some proper North Island exploration. I’ll save the suspense and let you know that last year’s trip had us enamoured and we booked an oceanfront camping site for the following year. I think it will become an annual pilgrimage to the wild!
North Vancouver Island Reflections
We are in the North Island in August and I know that it is sunny in most places “down island.” But the oceanfront campsite is contentedly wrapped in fog so thick that I can barely see what is beyond the end of the beach. The fog horn is bleating its warning as vessels navigate the narrow channel between Port McNeill and Malcolm Island.
The rain softly bounces on the roof of the trailer. Reminiscent of childhood experiences on our family sailboat. There is a calming feeling from the sound of raindrops - so delightful that it makes me think I might just renovate my next home with a metal roof to capture both the sound and the feelings - pitter patter, pitter patter.
When the sun shines, there are a few brave (young) campers who go swimming in the ocean. We eat our dinner on the beach and sip our wine as the sun drops to the west and, remarkably, a whale plays in the distant waters like evening entertainment.
That’s the thing I’ve discovered about North Vancouver Island, you can’t come here with expectations or assumptions that nature will follow expected rules. Instead - you must accept the unpredictability of its extreme wildness. The rough-edged campground of Cluxewe Resort just outside of Port McNeill is situated on the most beautiful spit of land. Cabins and campsites dot the beach along one side of a spit and overlook a wildlife-rich estuary on the other. The only predictable thing is that the landscape constantly changes with the tide.
The fog adds an eerie and calm quality to this North Island scene. People fishing for pink salmon scatter along the shoreline - quietly and rhythmically cast their lines.
One of the special things about this location is that the beach is on the journey of the Pink Salmon on their annual trek up the many rivers of Vancouver Island to spawn. Last year our visit was perfectly timed for the Pinks. A strip of moving, writhing, finning, jumping, mass of salmon persists 20 feet off the shore for our entire camping trip. 40 or so fly fishers (men and women), my husband and I included, stood thigh-deep in the ocean casting lines into this soup of fish. Great fisher people (not me) caught salmon with almost every cast and our days were filled with the catch and release of these beautiful, shimmering fish that were consistently about 6 lbs.
For someone who loves to fly fish, beach fishing for Pinks on the North Island is a satisfying experience. Fast forward 12 months, the beach is again full of fly fisher people but this year they sit on logs and wistfully share stories of how amazing fishing was last year…and question, where are the fish now? Ah, yes, we remember, best in alternating years!
Fish, like weather, are unpredictable in the wilds of the North Island.
With no fish, we are pleasantly occupied with novels, cards, hiking and kayaks.
Drifting along the shore in a kayak on the flat calm ocean is soul-filling. On one of our many excursions, we reach the end of the spit where hundreds of birds, of various species, sit and swim, dive and swoop. It takes your breath away when 500 gulls lift off in unison amidst a cacophony of song. I chuckled at the thought that I was simply poop target practice as the birds circled my kayak overhead.
We paddled softly into the estuary. The tide was beginning to recede so we paddled against the water flow keeping us moving at a snail's pace. It was a good thing, too, as our journey included seeing eagles, geese, and a frolicking family of otters. Beneath our kayaks was a couple of feet of water that darkened periodically with schools of fry swimming like a choreographed group.
True North Island Travel Bliss
Explore the North Vancouver Island
Fishing isn’t the only lure of the north. There are no crowds and you have access to “almost” untouched areas of nature to explore. While I am far from an expert, here are the spots I have enjoyed discovering based on research and local recommendations.
Use the map below to get a bird’s eye view. The marker is our home base at Cluxewe Resort.
Telegraph Cove
Telegraph Cove, North Vancouver Island
Let’s start with an exception to the “no crowd” rule.
Our visit to Telegraph Cove began with following our GPS coordinates along a winding drive surrounded by hills of trees. We did not see another car on the drive but as we turned the corner into the community we were assaulted with a tour bus parking lot and people everywhere! I exaggerate - there is a lovely assortment of visitors in Telegraph Cove it was just a shock from the isolation of the drive that it seemed crowded. This is a well-marketed destination and is a unique and charming harbour village with a long history.
Kudos to the historical society as the buildings (dating back to the early 1900s) have been well preserved through what I imagine as relentlessly harsh winter weather. Beginning as the northern end of the federal telegraph cable, its history also includes fishing and lumber. Adorable wooden houses sit on stilts around the cove and the wooden boardwalks are full of travellers. Tourism has afforded this community a facelift and interpretive signs lead visitors to homes (now a gift store, cafe, museum, and whale-watching office). There is a fancy hotel, boat charters, whale-watching tours, and kayak excursions. It’s a bustling place tucked deep in the trees on the North East coast of Vancouver Island. The internet says there are only 20 full-time inhabitants but there seem to be plenty of seasonal employees as ecotourism is what the place is all about.
Check out the links at the end for popular whale-watching tours.
Tri-Port: Port Alice, Port McNeill, Port Hardy
I am deeply impressed by families with young kids who introduce their children to hockey in the North Island. The one “Rep” hockey team requires kids from all three communities to make a full team. Frequent practices and weekend games mean being on the road ALL the time. The 3 port towns are about 40 minutes apart…so that, in itself, is a commitment to get to practice. But the other teams in the Island division are between a 3-hour and 7-hour drive away. EVERY WEEKEND. Hats off to those families. I would likely have put my kids in another sport if I lived up here!
Here are my highlights:
Port Alice
Every home and apartment is either ocean view or oceanfront. In stark contrast to oceanfront homes in places like North Vancouver or Deep Cove near Victoria, the homes are modest, old, and incredibly affordable (if very isolated!).
Port Alice is very tiny with about 700 people and is a 40-minute drive to the closest small town of Port McNeill and 3 1/2 hours to Campbell River.
Port McNeill
More shops and restaurants here than in Port Alice - find anything you need here.
Catch the Island Aurora, an eco-conscious ferry between Port McNeill, Alert Bay, and Sointula. The ferry runs on 20% battery and 80% diesel.
Visit the Devil’s Bath Brewing Co. - great pizza and beer!
Need a coffee? Mugz 2.0 Coffee House was highly recommended and did not disappoint!
Port Hardy
The largest town in the North Island
Looking at doing a BIG circle route of BC? You can catch a ferry from Port Hardy up the Inside Passage to Prince Rupert
Hike, fish, kayak, dive, and see wildlife. Port Hardy is another great hub for adventure on North Vancouver Island
Marble River
Marble River, North Vancouver Island
We check out the two recreation camping spots along Marble River. They are rough yet very inviting. With signs that “Bears and cougars are everywhere,” it’s a place to be vigilant about garbage, dogs and children. We park along with 4 vehicles - a sunny yellow campervan driven by a friendly, older solo woman traveller from the Yukon, several off-road trucks, and a Tesla from California carrying an adventurous family along the logging road just fine.
The hike into Bear Falls is different and very interesting. In 1906 there was a monumental windstorm that transformed vast parcels of forest into blow-down areas. The hiking trail weaves in, over, and around enormous trees that fell like matchsticks over a hundred years ago. A 3km hike leads you to a platform on one side of the river with a low rocky outcrop that creates a rushing waterfall. On the far side is a man-made fish ladder. It is where I picture a momma bear standing solidly in the river catching salmon who jump naively and persistently towards their spawning area. In fact, the platform was built as a viewing area to watch bears fish in the fall. With the leaves turning gold and the sun warming the rocks - it’s right out of national geographic! We saw no bears on this trip in, and to be honest, I might have been a tad anxious hiking the 3 km back to the car on the narrow trail if a bear got angry at being observed during her buffet!
We bring two backpacks to the river. One is full of camera equipment and the other is fishing gear. Bear Falls is a brilliant place to spend some time doing whatever you love to do in nature be it taking pictures, fishing, reading, meditating, or chatting with other hikers. You can continue for another 1.7 km to Emerald Pools. Our fellow hiker from the Yukon reported that the trail wasn’t as maintained but doable if you are ok with climbing over some trees. She said that it was lovely - but not a must-see if you didn’t have the time.
Alert Bay
Alert Bay, Vancouver Island North
We had a privileged visit to Alert Bay as our friend lived in the community and we enjoyed a local’s tour. It is a special place that offers so much cultural history. It’s a community with personal history, too. My maternal grandmother worked at a restaurant here in 1940. As a single woman in the 1940s who grew up in Chilliwack, it must have been an adventure for her to make it here! At the time it was a Canadian Navy port. One day, a young sailor came in for a coffee and wanted to buy a cribbage board but he didn’t have enough money. For some reason (maybe because he was charming??), she agreed to deliver the cribbage board to him in Victoria and get the money a week or so later. The trip to Victoria was a huge undertaking including hours of difficult travel. Love blossomed quickly after that and they were married in the winter of that year! ❤️ My mom still has the cribbage board. More of that story here.
A visit to the U'mista Cultural Centre is a must. It is a beautiful and moving collection that is helping to ensure that the cultural heritage of the Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw survives. We immersed ourselves in the origin stories of the Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw villages and reflected on the incredible collection of masks and regalia that were originally confiscated when the Government of Canada made potlatches illegal in the 1920s.
San Josef Bay
San Josef Bay, North Vancouver Island
At the end of 64km of rough and muddy logging roads, San Josef Bay and the Cape Scott Provincial Park mark the entrance to the many trails that take the adventurer to the very tip of the North Island. This road is not made for delicate cars or drivers!
Our destination was San Josef Bay which is an easy 2.7 km walk from the parking lot. The path takes you through a beautiful, lush old-growth forest to the sandy beach of San Josef Bay. On our way to the beach, we met hikers laden with packs setting out on multi-day hikes and wilderness camping. Cape Scott and the Island’s northernmost lighthouse is a 22.4km hike.
San Josef Bay was named number 36 of the TOP beaches around the world in 2023!! It is unspoiled, uncrowded, and wildly gorgeous. The highlight of many photographers is the sea stacks. At low tide, they are amazing to walk through.
Other places of interest yet to be explored:
As you can see - there is a long list of incredible adventures awaiting travellers in the north of Vancouver Island. Here are more places I have yet to visit. Comment below with your recommendations and I will be sure to check them out when we return!
Cape Scott - hike in camping at the very tip of the Island!
Sointula - Finnish settlers founded this town in 1901 as a utopian collective society. Sointula means “place of harmony”.
Winter Harbour - accessed by boat, floatplane or gravel logging road
The Devil’s Bath Cenote - Canada’s largest flooded sinkhole
Raft Cove Provincial Park - wilderness camping on the beach!
Ronning’s Garden - we passed this on the way to San Josef Bay…next time we’ll stop to check out the 5 acres of gardens restored from a 1920 homestead.
North Vancouver Island Accommodation and Camping
North Vancouver Island Things To Do
Hiking - I use the All Trails app to search for great hikes wherever I am.
Fishing - ocean, river, lake; so many options!
Kayaking - ask a local where their favourite spot to put in. Kayaks and tours are available in any coastal town!
Wildlife Adventures - whale-watching and bear-watching adventures are available.
Want to visit through a book? Check out my book recommendations based in Canada. One is set in North Vancouver Island.
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