San Josef Bay Backpacking Trip

May 7, 2025May 1, 2025 / Maria / 4 Comments

If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, you might be aware that I first attempted to visit San Josef Bay in 2020. I backpacked both the Cape Scott Trail and the North Coast Trail in June 2020, but thanks to a series of misadventures at the start of my trip, I had to cut San Josef Bay from the itinerary. A few years ago I saw San Josef Bay ranked on a list of the “most beautiful beaches in the world” and it’s been haunting me ever since that I still haven’t been there!

So this was a bit of a redemption trip for me. Over the Easter long weekend in April, I decided it was finally time to tackle San Josef Bay. It’s located on the far eastern coast of Vancouver Island and it is a journey to get there. I left Vancouver on Thursday after work with my husband, Seth, and our anxious Australian Shepherd, Sadie. We had a reservation on the 6:30pm ferry, which was absolutely necessary because the ferry sailings were already completely sold for the whole day by the time we arrived at the ferry terminal. Unfortunately, our sailing was delayed by almost 2 hours, meaning we didn’t get to Nanaimo until almost 10pm.

I’m a hyper-planner when it comes to trips, but this was one of the rare times where I didn’t have a booking for the night. I’ve been trying to embrace the unknown a little bit more and take advantage of FCFS and rec sites. We’d been hoping to drive to Campbell River before finding a place to sleep, but given the late hour, we drove ~30 minutes to Little Qualicum Provincial Park in search of a site instead. We were able to secure the second last campsite and quickly put up the tent to catch some sleep before continuing the journey in the morning.

We were up early to finish the 1 hour drive to Campbell River, followed by 2.5 hours to Port Hardy. Our friend Victoria was also joining us with her friends from Victoria, so she walked on the first ferry on Friday morning and they picked her up on their way north. They were a little bit behind us, so we stopped for a nice lunch at Cafe Guido in Port Hardy. It was an excellent choice because they also have a bookstore and artisan craft shop in the same space! So we picked up some souvenirs before finally meeting our friends and their Australian Shepherd, Daisy, to continue the journey.

We already had 4 hours of driving behind us, but we still had the most challenging part of the trip ahead – the Forest Service Road to San Josef Bay. Considering that Port Hardy is on the east coast of Vancouver Island and San Josef Bay is on the west coast, it’s pretty impressive that there’s a 65km gravel road extending the entire width of the island. Despite it being a gravel road, it’s not in terrible condition – you can do the entire drive in any vehicle, you don’t need 4WD or high clearance. That said, the road isn’t in great condition either! If you want to avoid the drive altogether, there is a shuttle that runs from Port Hardy.

The last time I did this road, Brandon was driving way too fast and got a flat tire 30 minutes in. This wouldn’t be the end of the world, but his mechanic had put the wrong lug nuts on his tires, so it left us entirely unable to change the tire. This devolved into a 24 hour expedition involving hitchhiking, sleeping on the FSR, and paying a mechanic to break all the lug nuts off. I really wanted to avoid any flat tires this time around, so we drove pretty slow. The first 30km of the road are in reasonable condition, but the last 35km have a continuous stream of potholes that make gaining any kind of speed risky. I’d say we averaged ~30km/h along the road, so it took us around 2.5 hours to get to the trailhead parking lot – with no flat tires!

From the parking lot, it’s a 3km hike along a well-maintained trail to San Josef Bay. Me and Seth backpacked, but Victoria and her friends had a very special “Swagon Wagon”, which they used to transport some more luxurious camping equipment! The first 1km of the trail is a shared route into the park, after which there is a branch. If you go right, you can hike 23km to the Cape Scott Lighthouse, or 60km to the end of the North Coast Trail. This is the trip I did in 2020. But if you turn left, it’s another 2km along a leisurely trail to San Josef Bay, one of the most beautiful beaches in the world!

The trail itself is gorgeous. We had a pretty late start, around 6:30pm, but it only took us an hour (even with the wagon) to hike through the forest to the beach. Along the trail, I was reminded why the north coast of Vancouver Island is such a special place. Like most of BC, it’s second growth forest, but you can still see lots of old growth trees scattered throughout. Somehow, these trees have withstood the test of time and it’s truly humbling to stand beneath their gigantic trunks, so I really enjoyed the walk to the beach. Although my shoulders were hurting – I also took advantage of the short distance to pack a few of my own luxury items!

The beach was surprisingly busy for mid-April, but not overly crowded. San Josef Bay consists of two beaches that are only connected at low tide (although there is a forest trail connecting them). The first beach is very large, so there were a steady amount of hikers camped along the back of the beach, but everyone was spread out and it didn’t feel too crowded. I can only imagine how much busier it must be in the summertime. When I visited in June, the parking lot was much busier than in April.

We set up on the main beach because we couldn’t get the wagon to the second beach. Most people were camping on the first beach and after visiting the second beach, I will say that there is much more limited camping space on that one. There’s more log jams at the back of the beach and the water comes closer to the forest at high tide, leaving limited space for tents. High tide is quite a way back from the forest on the first beach, so you can feel pretty safe camping there.

We were pretty late getting set up, so we enjoyed the sunset over the mountains while putting up our tents, and spent the rest of the evening enjoying a fire on the beach. We were able to collect firewood around the beach (never cut down live wood), but dead wood is in limited supply and I imagine it gets much harder to find later in the season. It rained earlier in the afternoon, so I definitely had my work cut out for me getting the fire started!

You never really get to sleep in when you go camping with a dog (they get up with the sun), but Sadie was more reserved than usual and let me sleep until our normal weekday wake-up time at least. It rained overnight, so my first order of business upon waking was to get a tarp set up. I put up one tarp and then Miranda put a second, so we had a nice tarp city ready for when the rain really started!

If you’ve ever been to the north coast of Vancouver Island, you know the weather is super unreliable! The fog loves to hang around the coast and it’s normal for the weather to oscillate between sun, grey, and rain multiple times a day, sometimes within the hour! I didn’t get a lot of rain when I hiked the North Coast Trail, but I didn’t get a lot of sun either. While visiting San Jo Bay in April, we got a little bit of everything all at once. It didn’t rain for any extended periods of time, but there was a pretty reliable cycle switching from rain to sun and back again, all day long.

It was dry during breakfast and we got ready to go for a beach walk, but then it started pouring, so we decided to wait it out. Low tide was at noon and the rain let up again around 11:30am, so we quickly got ready to go beachcombing. A lot of day hikers showed up around this time, presumably to explore the tidal areas. There’s a frontcountry rec site close to the parking lot, which I think is popular for campers that want to visit San Jo Bay, but don’t want to backpack.

Exploring the beach during low tide is really the highlight of visiting, so definitely plan your trip around it! When the tide drops, you can walk along the sand to the second beach. The low tide exposes a number of sea stacks and caves along the shoreline and you can walk on several of the islands, looking at sea creatures in the tidepools along the edges. We saw lots of sea anemones, sea stars, and crabs along the tide pools, as well as many other marine organisms that only Seth was able to properly identify. We had a great time exploring and ended up walking the beach for several hours!

Our companions took the wagon to the second beach, where firewood is much more plentiful, and me and Seth went in search of the freshwater source. The main consideration in camping on the first beach is that there’s no fresh water. My Gaia noted a water source on both ends of the second beach, but we opted for the source on the far west side. You do have to hike up into the woods for a few hundred metres and the trail is very muddy, but it’s a reasonably nice source – it’s just a little discoloured from the tannins, which I’m used to from Newfoundland. It was running pretty high because of the rain, so it might not be as nice in the dry season (if such a thing exists in this area).

Overall, it was a pretty low key trip and we mostly relaxed for the rest of the afternoon as the rain continued on and off. The downside of going camping in April is that it was pretty damp and chilly. I spent some time in the tent to warm up, and then later in the afternoon, Seth and I walked down to the opposite end of first beach to the estuary. I’m not sure if you can drink this water when the tide is going out, but based on my experience at other estuaries on the NCT, it’s probably very brackish. Though you could likely drink it if you walked much further upstream.

We had a lot of firewood for night 2, which was good because it rained a lot more. We got the campfire going and kept it pretty big for warmth. It sprinkled on us several times, but it was always short lived, so we never got properly wet. We caught a glimpse of the starts on our first night, but it was completely clouded in on our second night.

The rest of our crew took off pretty early on Sunday morning because they had to drive all the way home. Seth and I had an extra day, so we took our time packing down our tent and were rewarded with a beautiful blue sky view of the beach on the way out. It didn’t last long and was soon raining on us as we trundled through the forest, but the sun made a reappearance near the end of the trail, turning the trees the most beautiful shade of green as the sun peeked through the canopy!

So I finally redeemed myself from my first trip and made it to San Josef Bay! I do think it is worth the hype and would be keen to see what’s it’s like in more reliable weather. But I’m thrilled I can finally check it off my bucket list. Tune in next week to learn what Seth and I did with our last day in the backcountry, because the adventure didn’t end with San Jo Bay!

Okanagan Lake Provincial Park

August 26, 2020August 19, 2020 / Maria / 1 Comment

Now that I’ve finally finished my 6-part mini-series about the North Coast Trail, I’m thrilled to write about something else! I feel like it was a bit of a slow start to summer this year. I didn’t get to go on my annual May Long weekend camping trip as BC Parks didn’t open until June, and it took forever for the weather to finally get nice, but I ended up having a pretty epic July and August. Despite all the restrictions from Covid, I was still able to get out hiking several times and did something I’ve been meaning to do since I moved to BC 6 years ago.

I finally went to the Rockies! It’s not my first time in the Rockies, but Seth and I have been intending to make a road trip to the Rockies for years. Since we had to cancel our plans to go home to Newfoundland, we decided it was the perfect time to finally do our own little BC road trip. We took a week off work, spending 3 nights in the Okanagan and 4 nights in Banff. Emily joined us and of course we took Sadie, so it made for an interesting packing experience. We’d been planning to get roof rails and a rack for the car, but of course, they were all sold out at our local store because everyone is road tripping this year, so we just had to get creative with the packing. We managed to fit all our camping gear for 3 people and a dog for a week in the car, though there was limited space in the backseat, so Emily and Sadie had to get pretty cozy.

We took off right after work on Friday evening and drove straight to Okanagan Lake Provincial Park, where we’d be camping for 3 nights. We powered through the drive, stopping only once for gas and dinner, arriving with enough daylight to set up the tents. However, we couldn’t believe how hot it was when we stepped out of the car. We knew it was going to be hot – the temperatures in Penticton over the weekend were in the high 30’s! But we weren’t prepared for just how hot it would be overnight as well. We had a short campfire, but even that was too hot and we were all tired from the journey, so we decided to make it an early night.

The first night of the trip was by far the worst. Sadie had been camping with me twice before and both times had gone well, but the first night in the Okanagan was rough on everyone. We decided to sleep with the fly off because it’s like a sauna in the tent with it on, but that proved to be too challenging for Sadie. She’s a bit of a high strung dog most of the time, but usually settles down in the tent, but being able to see out of the tent was just too much stimulation and she barked at anything that passed our campsite throughout the night.

The campsites at Okanagan Lake North Campground are absolutely gorgeous. They’re massive sites with large green spaces between each site. It makes for a spacious and pretty site, but doesn’t provide much privacy, so Sadie was able to see into all our neighbouring campsites. She drove us nuts with the barking, and I’m sure the neighbours didn’t love it either. It probably didn’t help that she’d spent the last 4 hours in a car without a proper walk and she did a lot better on subsequent nights because she was tired from the day. I’m sure the heat didn’t help either. I slept the entire night in shorts and t-shirt ON TOP of my sleeping bag. I seriously didn’t put a blanket over me the entire night, which is something I’ve never experienced sleeping in a tent.

The trip improved from there though. The main plan for the okanagan was to relax. We hadn’t planned any hikes (it was too hot) and the main goal was to just take it easy by the lake. On Saturday we drove into Penticton to hang out at the beach for the day. I was a little disappointed because it is a huge lake and beachfront, but the dog beach is really tiny. We hung around there for a few hours and Sadie finally went swimming for the first time. I think she liked it and it was a good way to cool down, but she won’t usually go swimming unless you are swimming too. I was surprised by how warm the water was though. Me and Seth visited Okanagan Lake once before during labour day weekend and I remembered the water being really cold, but it was heavenly on the super hot days we visited.

Eventually we moved on from the dog beach and decided to go for a little walk through the town. We got ice cream and iced tea, checking out one of the local bookstores. Then we found a patio at Slackwater Brewing and decided to hang out for a bit with some beers. It was nice, but the heat eventually drove us onwards and we returned to the campsite to go swimming in the lake again. We found a little beach near our campsite and went for another soak in the water before supper. It was a chill evening – we had a BBQ and relaxed by the campfire. We left the fly on this time, which was hot, but a lot better for Sadie and we all got a better night’s sleep.

The next morning Emily made pancakes for breakfast and we decided to stay around the campground for the morning. We discovered a dog beach further up on the lake which was a lot nicer and decided to hang out there for a few hours. That was probably my favourite part of our stay in the Okanagan. We lounged around on the beach and had a great time chilling in our floaties in the water.

The afternoon was devoted to wineries. Of course, the Okanagan is famous for its wineries and you can’t go there without stopping by a few. Covid did make this a little more challenging. Normally you can just stop in where ever you want and sample some wines, but most of the wineries now have a reservation system even for tastings. I’d made reservations at 3 vineyards that were dog friendly and Emily agreed to be our DD since she doesn’t really like wine. Our first stop was Tightrope Winery, which had beautiful views of the lake and even let Sadie into the tasting room. Our second stop was Lakebreeze, which ended up being my favourite. They have an outdoor patio restaurant and I had pre-ordered meals for us. The venue was gorgeous, the food was delicious, and in my opinion they had the best wine as well. I regret not buying any wine from there. I’d already spent a lot on lunch, so we only sampled the wines, but they ended up being my favourite of the day. The last stop was Bench 1775. I think Bench had the best view of all three, a 180 degree view down to the lake, but it wasn’t my favourite atmosphere. I think they had overbooked themselves and there was a lot of waiting.

The best part of the day was the evening. Emily had sent a snapchat to our cousin, Olivia, who lives in Edmonton earlier in the day. Liv’s fiance’s family lives in Kelowna and we couldn’t believe it when she responded to say she was also in the Okanagan! It’s been a year since we last saw her and didn’t expect to see her for a while, so we were thrilled that she was able to drive over to our campsite in the evening with her dog Avery. Sadie’s not great with other dogs because we weren’t able to socialize her properly in the pandemic, but after the initial shock she got on pretty well with Avery. We took them for a swim in the lake and then settled in for another campfire. It was only for a few hours, but it was so nice to see family.

Monday was our final day in the Okanagan and time to pack up the campsite. The showerhouse was open so we were all able to shower before leaving (foreshadowing) and took off around 10am to head towards Banff. It was a long drive and Sadie would definitely be needing breaks, so we knew it would take most of the day. It felt like it took forever to get out of Kelowna though. Traffic was really busy and we pushed through heading North. Because of Covid, we were cooking most of our meals, aside from the one at the winery. We had falafel in the cooler for lunch and decided to stop at a rest stop whenever we got hungry. We ended up stopping at this nice provincial park on Mara Lake. I’d never heard of it before, but it had picnic tables and lake views, so it made for a nice break.

After that we drove through Revelstoke National Park and Glacier National Park. Those were both firsts for me. We didn’t stop in Revelstoke, but we did make a stop in Glacier to take Sadie on a short walk. Glacier seems like a really cool park and I would definitely love to explore more. We only did a short 1km walk in the park, but the scenery was so quintessentially Canadian. I don’t know what it is about National Parks, but they just have this really wholesome feel to them. I love how the signage is the same in all parks and something about the rangers and the park programs just triggers memories of family camping in Terra Nova and Gros Morne National Parks growing up. We hiked along through the trees along this raging river with the glacier capped mountains towering around us. I just felt like I was in the middle of a tourism ad.

The drive continued through Roger Pass and the rest of the park, which had jaw dropping views, before finally heading into the Rocky Mountains. We drove through Field, passing Lake Louise before finally arriving in Banff. It was around 7pm when we arrived and we were dismayed to see a long line of cars waiting to get into the park. We were also dismayed to remembered that we were now in Alberta and had lost an hour, meaning it was actually 8pm. It’s definitely lighter later in Banff, but it was a bit of a rush to set the tents up and get dinner on the go that evening. The campsite was also a bit of a disappointment after the gorgeous sites in the Okanagan. It was a tiny site and there was so much garbage and litter around, we had to clean before we could really settle in.

But we ended up having an AWESOME time in Banff, so more about that in my next post! I’m optimistic this series will be limited to just two posts, but I guess we’ll see!

New Zealand Highlights: Part 1

May 24, 2020 / Maria / 5 Comments

It’s been many months since we travelled to New Zealand, but I’ve finally gotten around to compiling some of our videos into a little trip montage. Turns out over 5 weeks you can take a lot of videos, so I’ll be posting the videos as I complete them. Part 1 includes our arrival in Auckland and our time on Great Barrier Island.