VICTORIA AND VANCOUVER ISLAND - British Columbia: Including the Alaska Highway - page 233

Sproat Lake
A short drive west from Port Alberni, Highway 4 skirts the north shore of Sproat Lake.
The campground at Sproat Lake Provincial Park (May-mid-Oct., $21) is very popular, so
you'll need to reserve a site through Discover Camping (519/826-6850 or 800/689-9025,
www.discovercamping.ca ) . Provided they're not out squelching a fire, you can also see the
world's largest water bombers—Martin Mars Flying Tankers—tied up here. Originally de-
signed as troop carriers for World War II, only four were ever built and only two remain,
both here at Sproat Lake. Used to fight wildfires, these massive flying beasts—36 meters
(118 feet) long and with a wingspan of more than 60 meters (200 feet)—skim across the
lake, each filling its tank with 26,000 liters (7,200 gallons) of water.
UCLUELET
A small town of 1,650 on the northern edge of Barkley Sound, Ucluelet (pronounced yoo-
CLOO-let) has a wonderfully scenic location between the ocean and a protected bay. You
can enjoy all of the same pursuits as in Tofino—beachcombing, whale watching, sea kayak-
ing, and fishing—but in a more low-key manner.
The Nuu-chah-nulth people lived around the bay where Ucluelet now sits for centuries
before the arrival of Europeans (in their language, the town's name means “People with a
Safe Landing Place”). During the last century, Ucluelet has also been a fur sealers' trading
post and a logging and sawmill center, but fishing remains the steady mainstay, as eviden-
ced by the town's resident fishing fleet and several fish-processing plants.
Recreation
Drive through town to reach He-tin-kis Park, where a short trail leads through a littoral
rainforest to a small stretch of rocky beach. The park and beach are part of the Wild Pacific
Trail, an ambitious project that will eventually wander along the coastline all the way to
Pacific Rim National Park. You can take the trail or continue southward by vehicle to reach
the end of the road. The lighthouse here is not the world's most photogenic, but it gets the
job done—keeping ships from running ashore along this stretch of particularly treacherous
coastline.