Vancouver Island, B.C., Canada 8-day RV Trip

Day 3, May 27, 2025

Pacific Rim National Park

Goldstream Falls

We departed the RV park in the morning, and plan to make several stops along the route and arrive Tofino before dark. Goldstream Falls is our first stop. It is part of Goldstream Provincial Park, which was established in 1858 to protect a range of habitats, including old-grown western red cedars, dry arbutus and shore pine-clad slopes, and salt marsh. Three species of salmon spawn here. Cultural wise, traditionally First Nations fished the winter chum salmon runs in the Goldstream River for food and ceremonial use. The park’s name recalls the brief gold rush on “Gold Creek”.

The trail we took is Upper Goldstream Falls Trail (2.90km, Easy, out-and-back), which is located at the south of the provincial park. The trailhead is near the park entrance. It is overall flat and follows the Goldstream River, which is more like a creek. It was an easy, pleasant hike in the rainforest. At the end of the trail, we climbed down some steep stairs to reach the waterfall.

If you have some extra time, you can also try the Goldstream Falls and Arbutus Loop trail (4.3km, Moderate, Loop).

Malahat Summit Viewpoint

Split Rock Lookout/Malahat Summit

Only 20 minutes north from the Goldstrea Provincial Park entrance is the Malahat Summit Viewpoint. This viewpoint and the Split Rock Lookout below (also shown as Malahat Summit on Google Map) are two viewpoints on the shoulder of the Trans-Canada Hwy/BC-1. So takes no efforts and both offer very astonishingly beautiful views of the lakes and mountains. They are only 3 minutes apart but offer different scenarios, so worth to stop at both spots. The Malahat Summit viewpoint has a totem pole in the corner of the parking area, and you will be able to see a small area of the Saanich Inlet surrounded by the mountains. The foreground is tall pine trees on a hill that is covered by yellow Scotch Broom bushes. The Split Rock Lookout offers a much wider view of the bay, harbors, and the Islands far.

A few minutes north of this viewpoint has a drive way leading to Malahat Skywalk. It is a spiral wooden ramp leading up to a 10-story viewing deck. We didn’t try it due to time constraints. There are some very positive reviews of this place on internet, and you need to leave 60-90 minutes for this tour.

The pull-off parking lot spaces are limited, so plan ahead if possible.

Cameron Lake

The lake has an area of 477 hectares and is between Mount Arrowsmith to the south and Mount Wesley to the north. We only stopped at the southern tip of the lake - Cameron Lake day-use area - for a brief half hour, then drove north-bound on the Alberni Hwy along the west shoreline. It reminded us of the Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park.

If you have more time to spend here, there are multiple trails to explore including the most popular Cameron Lake Trail (3.5km, easy, out & back) https://www.alltrails.com/trail/canada/alberta/cameron-lake-trail

Sproat Lake

This is the second large lake along the route of BC-4 West, after Cameron Lake. Further west is Kennedy Lake, which we didn’t stop until several days later on our return trip. This fresh water lake in the Alberni Valley is 15 minutes west of Port Alberni. It has been a popular vocation spot for swimming, fishing, waterskiing and windsurfing. The lake has three provincial parks on its shores: Sproat Lake Provincial Park, Taylor Arm Provincial Park, and Fossli Provincial Park.

The trailhead of the Sproat Lake Provincial Park Trail (2.3km, easy, out & back) is right off the Hwy 4. We only strolled a short loop section of the trail. At the eastern end of the Sproat Lake Provincial Park Trail is home to one of the finest panels of prehistoric petroglyphs in B.C., named K’ak’awin. It may depict some mystical ancient monsters of the lake.

Wild Pacific Trail: Lighthouse Loop

Wild Pacific Trail is located in Ucluelet, B.C. and is a trail skirting the rugged cliffs and shoreline of the west coast of Vancouver Island. It offers spectacular shoreline panoramas through ancient cedar and spruce-framed viewing platforms constructed along the coast line of Pacific Ocean.

The 8-km trail can be walked in two main sections:

  • Lighthouse Loop (2.6 km, easy, loop)

  • Big Beach to Rocky Bluffs (5 km, easy, out & back)

As the last stop of our day before heading to Tofino, we completed the Lighthouse Loop before dark. It took much longer than the estimated 45-60 minutes hike as there were so many amazing views to see and to shoot photos at the stops. We ended up hiked the second section of the trail two days later. If you can only hike one of these two, probably Lighthouse Loop ranks slightly higher but both sections are very worth to hike if you have time.

Official website: https://www.wildpacifictrail.com/home.html

The trail was created out one man’s dream - “Oyster Jim” Martin - who is a shellfish farmer in Ucluelet wishing to preserve the wild beauty of Ucluelets coastline. His proposal started in 1988 was a mission impossible at that time as the route crosses land owned by a host of federal, provincial, municipal and private parties. It took a decade for his relentless persistence to work, and in 1999 the first section of coast trail opened.