Vancouver Island, tip-to-tip

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Maze of Passageways

Sand between Stacks

More Stack Shots

On our return journey, we had a look at the seaside backcountry campsites. Many were quite nice, and situated right at the edge of the forest, looking out over the broad bay. I'd definitely consider staying here at some point - in better weather.

courtesy AHyndman

Crustacean Cemetary

Sea Debris

Exploring the campsites

Banana Slug

Interactive trackmap with photo points - San Josef Bay hike, Cape Scott Prov. Park - click map to view

Interactive trackmap with photo points - San Josef Bay hike, Cape Scott Prov. Park - click to view

San Josef Bay - Hike Data

Start Time: 12:37p.m.

End Time: 3:33p.m.

Duration: 2h56m

Distance: 7.72 km (4.8 mi)

Average Speed: 2.6 km/hr (1.6 mph)

Start Elevation: 44ft (13m) *

Max Elevation: 98ft (30m) *

Min Elevation: 22ft (7m) *

End Elevation: 65ft (20m) *

* : +/- 75 feet

Total Elevation Gain: 152ft (46m) *

Total Elevation Loss: 138ft (42m) *

* : +/- 75 feet

Elevation Graph

After returning to the car, we decided to have a look at the nearby campgrounds (one in the park itself, and the other on an adjoining "historical park").

Both campgrounds turned out to be rather unappealing. The official Cape Scott campground had some rather dingy looking facilities and a huge chunk of blowdown blocking access to the tentsites, and the other campground, called the "San Josef Heritage Park", had - at least to us on this grey, rainy day - the affectation of the movie "Deliverance". Lots of rundown vehicles and buildings, and no specific campsites - just a lot of grassy lawn. To be fair, on a nice day, this may have seemed more quaint and inviting. Today, though, we weren't inspired.

courtesy AHyndman

San Josef Heritage Park

So, after some discussion, we simply decided to hightail it out of the area - driving all the way back to Port Hardy, just over an hour away. We located a decent campground next to the Quatse River and set up camp - still in the rain, of course. Fortunately, Arn had a nice big tarp that we set up over our picnic table.

Before night fully fell, we did a quick hiking loop on the "Quatse River Trail". We had heard that bears and eagles gathered along the lower Quatse to fish for spawning salmon. In the gathering gloom, we in fact did see both eagles and a bear, although Jenn shouted it (the bear, I mean) away before I could get any pictures.