Tide watching in Parksville

Beach walks, forest jogs and fish and chips among island road trip highlights

Depending on the time of year, the tide can go out a kilometre in Craig Bay.

Try as we might, we never quite figure out the tides of Craig Bay.

My wife and I are staying at Tigh-Na-Mara Resort in Parksville on the east coast of Vancouver Island, just 40 minutes north of the BC Ferries terminals in Nanaimo, and we're perplexed by the comings and goings of the waters of the Strait of Georgia.

We vaguely understand there are four tides a day -- two high and two low.

But they are moving targets based on how strong the moon's gravitational pull is any given day, week, month and season.

Generally, what that means while we're there over the full moon in June is the tides are dramatic.

A sunset swim in Craig Bay at high tide.

At high tide, around 8 in the morning and 10 at night, the salt water surges to shore covering most of the beach.

At low tide, approximately 3:30 in the wee hours of the morning and 3 pm, the water pulls back about a kilometer exposing a vast swath of beach and tidal pools.

When the tide is in, we set up camp at the water's edge to lounge, read and sunbathe and swim in the warm sea.

When the tide is out, we stroll the kilometer out to the Pacific, stopping at tidal pools to check out the trapped sand dollars, crabs, mussels, clams and oysters.

Daytime high tide in Craig Bay.

Being on holiday, we decide not to fret about tide times and simply let the water's level guide our activities.

Vacay mode also frees us to stay up late, or turn in early, and either get up with the sun or have a long lie in.

Regardless, we start our days by jogging in nearby 347-hectare Rathtrevor Provincial Park where a combination of beachfront trails and paths through old-growth Douglas fir forest is on offer.

A forest run along the ocean in Rathtrevor Provincial Park.

It's exercise and tranquillity melded as we ran in the dappled sunlight and the only sounds were the lapping ocean, birdsong and of our feet bounding along soft sand and spongy forest floor.

Twelve kilometres north of Parksville in Qualicum Beach we find another spectacular woodland for hiking -- the Heritage Forest, an ecological reserve of old-growth western red cedar, hemlock and Sitka spruce.

We reward ourselves afterward with lunch of fish tacos, halibut and chips and Blonde Ale from local Arrowsmith Brewery at Shore, a casual, open-air restaurant right on the beach.

Back at Tigh-Na-Mara, another night we walked to the Black Goose Inn, a Scottish-themed pub at Beach Acres Resort for salmon Wellington and a lamb burger on the grassy patio with ocean view.

The duo of ferry and driving to get to Parksville is a joy rather than a chore.

The two-hour crossing of the Strait of Georgia on the Queen of Alberni is scenic, especially when you hang out on the outdoor top deck, and the drive from the ferry terminal to Parksville on Island Highway 19A is framed by ocean on one side and temperate forest on the other.