Tofino is always one of my favourite places to go to get away. No matter what time of year you go, there’s always something interesting to do… or you can just relax in nature and escape the hectic pace of everyday life. This trip I went in search of gray whales, with Jamie’s Whaling Station, onboard the Chinook Princess.
The cruise was a little under three hours long, and on the way out we saw some bald eagles in the sky and perched on top trees as well as a crane in the harbour. As we continued, we saw a sea otter (which is an endangered species), floating on it’s back, seeming to take little interest in our boat as we passed by.
After about 45 minutes of cruising through the relatively sheltered waters of the inner passage, north of Tofino, we came upon a gray whale that appeared to be feeding. It would surface for a few breaths, just breaking the surface with it’s back, offering a quick glimpse of it’s dorsal crenulations (raised bumps, also referred to as ‘knuckles’, which it has in place of a dorsal fin), then dive for a few minutes to scoop up sediment to strain for food from the ocean floor, which was about 45 feet below us, before repeating the cycle. While I had been hoping to get a better view of a gray whale (perhaps breaching), I was still happy to have seen this one while it was feeding.
Back at the beach that evening I was treated to a beautiful sunset.
Even though it is only mid-March and the temperature and water are quite cold, there were plenty of people out the next day, surfing and enjoying the waves.
While the rainbow in the harbour that I had seen earlier on this trip was nice, the beach had something even better in store. As I went out to enjoy another sunset, a light rain started to fall from a partly cloudy sky. I turned back towards the Pacific Sands Resort, and saw a bright, beautiful rainbow over it. I’m looking forward to my next visit to Tofino.
Wild Drake Photography 