DAY 1

Our expedition begins with your mid-morning pickup at Long Beach Airport in Tofino where your Guide will be awaiting your arrival. We’ll depart to Ucluelet a short drive away and embark across Barkley Sound to Outer Shores Lodge, you’ll be greeted by our lodge staff who will settle you into your accommodations and give you a tour of the lodge and its amenities. After lunch, we’ll enjoy a walking tour of West Bamfield, including local beaches and the historic boardwalk.

Back at the lodge this afternoon you’ll have time relax in the ocean-front big room with stone fireplace, explore the surrounding gardens and forest, or enjoy a soak in the outdoor hot tub or indoor steam bath.

DAY 2

After breakfast today we’ll enjoy a guided interpretive walk along Brady’s Beach, locally famous for its white-sands, sea stacks, and tidepools filled with colourful marine life. You’ll enjoy learning about the fascinating lives of intertidal marine invertebrates, and why the intertidal zone is home to such an amazing diversity of marine life.

Our boat-based excursion this afternoon will take us to explore the remarkable shoreline between Bamfield and Cape Beale, at the edge of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, all within the traditional territory of the Huu-ay-aht First Nation. As we cruise closely along this shore we’ll be on the lookout for bald eagles, black bears feeding along the shore, as well as seals, sea lions, whales, and even the sea otters that are currently returning to this region.

DAY 3

This morning’s activity will be a boat-based wildlife viewing excursion along nearby shorelines, during which we’ll have good chances of encountering and observing black bears foraging in the intertidal zone. Depending on the time of year, we also expect to see a diversity coastal birds, including kingfishers, mergansers, harlequin ducks, bufflehead, goldeneye, oyster catchers, cormorants, grebes, loons, turnstones, and, of course, bald eagles.

After lunch today we’re off to explore the surrounding coastal temperate rainforests with a casual interpretive walk through the Bamfield/Huu-ay-aht Community Forest. We’ll see the towering cedar, spruce, and hemlock trees that form this globally rare forest ecosystem and learn about the incredible ecological relationships that make these forests among the most productive on the planet, including the fascinating relationships between salmon, bears, rivers, and trees.

DAY 4

Our expedition crescendos today with an inspiring and insightful guided tour of the ancient Huu-ay-aht Nation village and fortress site of Kiix?in, located just a short distance from the Outer Shores Lodge. Our Huu-ay-aht guide and cultural interpreter will lead us on a cultural journey through the history of this remarkable site, situated on a beautiful beach fronted by sea stacks, and surrounded by old-growth coastal temperate rainforest. We’ll learn about the life ways of the people who lived here and how they constructed and used the adjacent fortress to protect themselves when needed.

After returning to the lodge this afternoon, enjoy the mesmerizing panoramic views from the bluff while watching for eagles, otters, sea lions, whales, and other coastal wildlife.

DAY 5

This morning after breakfast we’ll formally bring our expedition to a close as we say our farewells and depart Bamfield and the Outer Shores Lodge having explored and connected with this remarkable part of the world, feeling rested, insightful, and inspired.