Whales!

Each spring, some 22,000 gray whales migrate north from Mexico and pass by Vancouver Island on their way. This past week there was a festival for the migration, but I only learned of it on Saturday. So yesterday Brad and I drove up to Ucluelet & Tofino (4 hr away) to watch the whales as they swam by. It was also a great excuse to see the west coast on such a nice and sunny day.

The coast was a whole lot rockier than I expected, so the whales had to stay pretty far out to sea. But, we did see them blowing up water as they swam a few km out. Twice, I managed to capture the blowing with my camera. Here are the pictures (the whales are between the 2 humps in the rock). The second one is better, as I caught it as the water is being shot up rather than as it is just falling down. If you look at the full size image, you can see a stream of water in the center going up, with the rest of it being spray.


Sorry, it may be hard to see the pictures because Google compresses the images even more before they post them on Blogger.

We hiked along the Wild Pacific Trail, which gives some great views of the coast and the rainforest. I've added lots of photos to my winkflash album for the trip. As always, email me if you need details. Here are some highlights: