The surfing and storm-watching capital of Canada — Pacific Rim National Park, grey whale migration at 50m, old-growth temperate rainforest, and the most dramatic storm season on the west coast
Tofino is a small coastal town at the western tip of the Esowista Peninsula on Vancouver Island's Pacific Coast — the gateway to Pacific Rim National Park Reserve (the 51km Long Beach, the Broken Group Islands archipelago, and the West Coast Trail, Canada's most demanding multi-day coastal hike). The town itself (population 1,900) is built on a series of connected islands on the northern edge of Clayoquot Sound (UNESCO Biosphere Reserve), accessible by a single road (Highway 4, 3.5 hours from Nanaimo on the Island Highway) or float plane from Vancouver or Victoria. Tofino's identity is define…
The Clayoquot Sound and Tofino area is the traditional territory of the Tla-o-qui-aht (Clayoquot), Ahousaht, and Hesquiaht peoples — First Nations of the Nuu-chah-nulth Confederacy (formerly called the Nootka people by the European maritime explorers, a name now considered inaccurate and non-preferred). Captain James Cook anchored at Nootka Sound (100km north of Tofino) in 1778, the first European contact with the Pacific northwest coast north of California. The Spanish colonial presence in Clayoquot Sound (Bodega y Quadra's 1779 expedition and later Spanish fortifications at Nootka) precipit…