Meares Island Sea Kayaking Adventure

We’ve been wanting to go sea kayaking for a while, so it seemed like the natural thing to do when we finally made it to the ocean on our road trip. We decided to just take our iPhones along on our Meares Island Sea Kayaking Adventure because we wanted to enjoy the day without spending every single second freaking out about drowning my big camera! (So every photo today is from my phone. You can see it hooked up to the kayak to take video in the above picture.)

We looked up rentals in the Tofino area of Vancouver Island, and it didn’t take long to figure out we were going to need to go on a tour. Between the harbor traffic, currents, and tides/rip tides, we knew we were in way over our heads.

So we decided to go with the Tofino Sea Kayaking company. They have several different tours available, but we wanted to do the Meares Island Tour for a couple of reasons. First of all, it sounded good to break up all the paddling with some hiking through the rainforest, and we love variety. And secondly, I’m only now just regaining the ability to use my arms (from a previous car accident) for physical activities like this, so I didn’t want to push it with a whole day at sea.

You have the choice of going in a double or single kayak. We decided to go with the double so that I wouldn’t have to paddle as much, and could just concentrate on taking pictures and paddling at leisure, (not to shabby right!).

The morning started off socked in with clouds and fog, but we were lucky, and it soon lifted to reveal a gorgeous harbor with calm waters. After our experience I would definitely recommend a morning tour for the nice placid waters. When we got back in the afternoon, there were some tours that had to be cancelled due to high waves.

It’s also really nice to have layers because the temperatures are all over the map. Once you get to the island, you’re going to want every inch of skin covered because the mosquitos will find you within seconds.

Once you reach the island, there’s a cedar trail that takes off through the rainforest, and the day becomes even more magical.

The guide(s) take you along the trail giving you the history of the island, as well as the trees and plants surrounding you. One of our guides was Native American and knew a lot of the Native American history of the island, (he also helps rebuild the trail every year, and was all around fantastic).

Taking a tour is always a gamble because it’s really the tour guides that make or break your day. But our guides were both great, and we heard great reviews of everyone in the company.

Be sure to take a little time to look down while walking in the rainforest because the plant life is incredible…

… and definitely look up to because the size and magnitude of the trees will take your breath away!

The hike ends back on the beach where you left the kayaks…

… and from there you paddle back to Tofino. If you’re ever traveling in the area, I wouldn’t miss the opportunity to do some sea kayaking and island hiking!