Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Kyuquot.
This is also an overnight trip, with meals and accommodations included in the
price of $385 s, $535 d ($195 for children).
The remote village
Tahsis
is accessible by road from Gold River (70 kilometers/43.5
miles one-way), from where another logging road continues north to Zeballos. Gold was
discovered in the region in the late 1700s, but it was more than a century later, in 1924,
that mining began on the Zeballos River. The mining took place inland, but the township
grew on the ocean, where supplies were dropped off and the ore shipped out. Mining con-
tinued until 1948, but a road linking Zeballos to the outside world wasn't completed until
1970. Today Zeballos is a quiet backwater, a base for commercial and recreational fishing
boats, and home to a couple of small lodges. Contact the local
information center
(250/
761-4070,
www.zeballos.com
) for information.
Highway 19, covering the 235 kilometers (146 miles) between Campbell River and Port
Hardy, is a good, fast road with plenty of straight stretches and not much traffic. Passing
through kilometer after kilometer of relatively untouched wilderness, with only logged
hillsides to remind you of the ugliness humanity can produce with such ease, it's almost
as though you've entered another world, or at least another island. Stop at all of the fre-
quent rest areas for the best views of deep blue mountains, white peaks, sparkling rivers
and lakes, and cascading waterfalls.
After taking a convoluted inland route for 130 kilometers (81 miles), Highway 19 re-
turnstothecoastlineat
Port McNeill,
theregionalheadquartersforthreeloggingcompan-
ies and home of “the world's largest burl,” on the main highway 2 kilometers (1.2 miles)
north of town at the entrance to a logging company office—you can't miss it. The center
of town comprises a shopping plaza and industrial waterfront development. Port McNeill
is also the jumping-off point for ferry trips to Alert Bay and Malcolm Island.
Most visitors come to Telegraph Cove to go whale-watching on Johnstone Strait, but the
village is well worth the eight-kilometer (five-mile) detour from the highway just east of
Port McNeill. Built around a deep sheltered harbor, it's one of the last existing “board-
walk” communities on the island. Many of the buildings stand on stilts and pilings over
the water, linked by a boardwalk.
